“Being Jewish is pretty special. So many have tried getting rid of Jewish people, from the Egyptians to the Nazis. After thousands of years of people trying to kill us, we’re still here. When I was younger and learning about history, everybody sugar-coated things –– teachers and history books. I thought, ‘The Holocaust wasn’t that big of a deal.’ But I’m learning more about it now and I think, ‘That was really scary.’ It’s good for younger kids not to worry, but still, we need to teach them. Kids pick up on a lot. And when you tell them everything is perfect with rainbows and unicorns, it doesn’t help.

Antisemitism doesn’t scare me, it just makes me mad. People are the way they are and you can’t try to change them. I’m reading a book right now about the Holocaust. My mom got it for me from the library. People were just pulled to the side of the road and hurt because they were Jewish. And little children were taken to the death camps. Why would anyone do that? When you think about it, it wasn’t that long ago. That’s the part that scares me. I know someday something like that is going to happen again. Maybe not to the Jewish people, but to another group.”

📷| Colleen O’Connell Smyth