As a math and Jewish studies teacher in a Jewish day school, Phil Chernofsky wanted a different and meaningful way for his students to relate to the Holocaust. The result?
It's the word Jew, printed in very small type, in 40 columns on 120 lines on every one of 625 sheets (1,250 pages). Six million times in all, one for each Jew who perished during the Shoah.
This is the idea behind “And Every Single One Was Someone," conceived by Chernovsky and recently released by our North American distribution partner, Gefen Publishing. The book was the subject of an article in The New York Times earlier this week.
Meant as a both a commemorative and a conversation starter, the book can bring to individual congregations and even homes the same thought-provokiing concept as the six million paper clip project of a few years ago: bringing into concrete form the scale of the destruction wreaked by the Nazis on the Jewish community.
According to Ilan Greenfield, Gefen's chief executive, the book had a mesmerizing effect on people when he showed it during the recent URJ Biennial. "People keep flipping through it, looking at the pages. Even though the pages don't change, there is something that makes them keep going."
One of Greenfield's goals is to have every congregation own a copy. "Each individual volume can be dedicated to someone specific." Greenfield said. "There is a blank line for dedication on the title page. It could dedicated to a survivor, like my mother-in-law."
You can read the full New York Times article here.
You can order the book from Gefen here.
Photo: Ilan and Karen Greenfield with the book at the URJ Biennial.
