in The Classroom
Using photographs, video, audio, interviews, archival documents, testimony, contemporary headlines, and personal stories, Rachael brings her flagship project, We Share The Same Sky, into classrooms and communities worldwide. Her narrative podcast, memoir and traveling museum exhibition (all by the same name) are used to teach Holocaust history through a present-day lens that aids students in building empathy for those facing persecution and discrimination today. Rachael's goal is to bring a contemporary context to the history of World War II, cultivate a curiosity in students about their own family histories, and to break the norm of telling stories through culturally exclusive narratives. Through an art-based approach, Rachael encourages her students (who are as young as fourth grade through adult education) to think about how our personal and collectives pasts continue to guide the present.
We Share The Same Sky has been used in curriculums developed by and for Discovery Education, USC Shoah Foundation, Echoes & Reflections, Facing History & Ourselves, Jewish Women’s Archive and others. Rachael has worked and consulted with museums such as The Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Florida Holocaust Museum, the latter which partnered with her in developing the We Share The Same Sky museum exhibition. She collaborated with USC Shoah Foundation’s award-winning educational platforms IWitness and Echoes & Reflections to develop classroom-ready resources to accompany her podcast, which was the first-ever narrative podcast to be based on a Holocaust survivor’s testimony. Those resources are free and now being used in classrooms across the country.
For adult education, Rachael focuses on the personal journey she took following her grandmother’s footprints, the coexistence between trauma and resilience, and the importance of intergenerational storytelling. She does not shy away from the grief that lays within the pages of her grandmother's history and speaks about her own experience with the sudden death of her young husband. She is driven to tell stories through a restorative lens that empowers the individual's role within their collective community.
Aside for teaching, Rachael also leads storytelling workshops where she guides participants in exploring their own family history through a variety of medias while cultivating conversation about the emotional experience and morality questions that arise from inheriting memory and retelling family history. She is available for individual story coaching and editing as well.