Commack HS Students Interview Holocaust Survivors For Film

COMMACK, NY — Commack students have received lessons in combatting hatred and bullying this school year from the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center, heard firsthand from Holocaust survivor Meir Usherovitz and watched a play from Theatre Three about the descent into the Holocaust.

Six Commack High School students chose to fully immerse themselves in the topic.

Noah Caplan, Izzy Karten, Jordana Kofler, Hannah Krinsky, Michael Wagner and Sammy Weinstein have completed a year-long project in which they interviewed local Holocaust survivors for the film, "Names, Not Numbers."

The film, produced by the Suffolk Y JCC, premiered Sunday evening at Stage 74 in Commack.

The six Commack students and a dozen students from other districts who contributed to the film as well as Holocaust survivors Rachel Epstein, Manny Korman and Rosalie Simon — who are featured in the film — attended the showing.

So too did several Commack School District officials to support the students' endeavor, including Superintendent Jordan Cox, Assistant Superintendent Timothy Russo, board of education trustees Gus Hueber and Susan Hermer and district clerk Debbie Virga.

"Person to person is so different than learning through books," CHS junior Izzie Karten said in a news release.