Today was a first for us and quite possibly the first time ever for anyone. After several months of planning, we decided to do something that we weren’t sure would be possible and that was to host a live Zoom tour in a movie theatre with Yad Vashem: World Holocaust Center, Jerusalem. Our two ambassadors, Hailey Callahan and Curtis Bates, sat in the Super Emax theatre at Emagine Theatres with an entire camera crew filming their experience on our end while our friends in Israel had their designated hosts walk them through the museum and the events of the Holocaust.

Not only did our two ambassadors have the honor of viewing the presentation, but there were also 32 students from two local high schools, Novi High School and Walled Lake Northern High School, who were able to sit in the theatre and experience the tour as well. Our film, Shoah Ambassadors, is about educating the youth on the horrors and atrocities of the Holocaust. We are so grateful to Shannon Hadley, ESL teacher at Novi High School who was able to reach these students during their summer break and make this happen.

The team at Yad Vashem, under the direction of Simmy Allen, their Communications Director, did a fabulous job giving our ambassadors and the high school students a tour through their center so we could see the wonderful work the center has done and continue to do to educate and bring awareness. Their three hosts, Yonatan Matthews who has a BA/MA in History and is a licensed tour guide at Yad Vashem. Michael Tal, Director, Artifacts Collection, Museums Division at Yad Vashem holds a Masters in Art History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Tal has been a curator at Yad Vashem for the past twenty years and for the past five years serves as the Director of the Artifacts Collections. He assisted in the curation of the Holocaust History Museum which opened in 2005 and other exhibitions and displays at Yad Vashem. And Sheryl Ochayon, Echoes and Reflections Project Director, International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, who wrapped everything up by emphasizing the importance of Holocaust education and awareness.

The students were able to interact with Yad Vashem and ask the guides questions during the presentation. When the tour was over, the students created an engaging Q & A with Curtis and Hailey to learn more about their experience. Hailey Callahan and Curtis Bates have been working on this project for the last 16 months now and we are so proud of their devotion, passion, and incredible work throughout this production.

At the end, Ruth Daniels, Managing Partner of the The Maple Theater, was in attendance and spoke to the students about her father who was a Holocaust survivor and stood as a personal testimony for the student to ask questions about his experience.

Teacher Shannon Hadley, “The kids I spoke to said that what you are doing is probably the best, (and one said the ONLY) way to reach their generation to get them to listen and be interested. They were really excited with everything."

We want to thank Fred Nahhet, Senior Vice President of Production at PBS for his opening statement in welcoming the students to the event. We also want to give a huge thank you to Simmy Allen for helping bring this vision to fruition. We also want to specially thank Paul Glantz, Founder/Chairman of Emagine Novi who allowed us to host the event at Emagine. We are so grateful for Emagine Senior Director Tom Ruhling and his team at Emagine Novi and we can’t begin to thank them enough for their dedication to helping us with this project and make this complicated arrangement work. Also on hand to support today's event was one of our executive producers, Frances Rose.

A portion of this event will be featured in our film Shoah Ambassadors.