I didn’t know how serious the situation was for the people living there, as I mostly just learned about the facts or the big picture, not the stories of specific people who had to go through that event.

This is beneficial because it helps you learn in a way that you cannot by reading articles.

I didn’t know about the personal individual hardships that certain Jewish teenagers went through… Teenagers! It blows my mind that they would have to go through these hardships.

Dr. Fripp was able to take someone’s story and retell it as if you were there in the moment with her.

Last night we had our graduation ceremony, and the kids were raving about the storytelling. This vehicle was more successful than anything I could ever have imagined.

[Moments of Witness, the interfaith commemoration,]  was beautiful. I felt seen, a sense of belonging and a common thread of humanity with the strength to look at the horrors we face as reminders to keep fighting the good fight

I like how they told the stories in a way that felt very personal. Before Dr. Fripp’s visit, the Holocaust felt like a terrible historical event that we were researching in class. I didn’t really understand it on a more personal level. After Dr. Fripp’s visit, I had a better understanding of how the people felt.

Honestly I felt like I was inside the story experiencing what the person was going through.

What you have created is such a precious gem. We are all so blessed to have this sacred space.

Good liturgy bends time. It has a way of taking the past and bringing it into the now, connecting us generationally. It takes you to your descendants and brings your ancestors to you. You really captured that.

Dr. Fripp and Ms. Neff-Helms created something truly moving, a ritual that fully conveys the true terror, yet proves in the end to be both empowering and ennobling. A remarkable evening.

The stories that she told gave me lots of insight on what it might have been like to experience the Holocaust first person, and the delivery was done in such a way that I could feel the emotions, unlike when I read articles.

Recently, we invited Dr. Fripp to our Grade 9 Humanities class in order to augment our unit on the Holocaust. Fripp worked closely with our teaching team prior to her visit in order to understand where we wanted to go, and she offered excellent suggestions on how to get there. She is an expert in Holocaust education, including the scope, sequence, and pacing of Holocaust curriculum.  Her tips to foreground personal stories, ahead of the perpetrators’ actions, gave us a new way to teach our unit. During Dr. Fripp’s visit, students were engaged, attentive, and even emotional when listening to three uniquely told stories.  Dr. Fripp provided background, thinking questions, and continued to relate her work to our unit’s driving question in a way that classroom teachers cannot always do. The value of storytelling was incalculable.  We will gladly invite her back in years to come.

I have been reflecting on the work that I have been doing with Jennifer over the last now several years – telling what has become my mother’s and my Holocaust Survival story including and her journey on the ill-fated MS St. Louis. As you know, my sister and grew up as first-generation Americans. We were born into a small German Jewish Congregation in Philadelphia; my father was one of the founders. In our Jewish world, many had numbers burned into their arms, the parents of our peers had experiences that were far worse than my mother and father. We were surrounded by people of extraordinary circumstance and were told the “story” very early in our lives. As G2’s, we lived in the shadow of the Holocaust, simply having to imagine the terror while unable to fix mom’s circumstance. My father rarely spoke of his experience.

The story that I tell has always been difficult for me. Jennifer Zunikoff is the person that unlocked the door and gave me a way to tell the story thus honoring my mother and educating others with a gentle yet defined process. The first time I told it with Jennifer’s expert instruction and support, I cried all the way through. It takes great skill to help work around the emotion created by my history. Jennifer works alongside, gently bringing out the story, helping me find my way through the difficulties created by my memories. Her process is organized and non-threatening. In fact, Jennifer makes space for anyone, everyone to be that person with a story to tell and she teaches those processes that make one’s story come alive. Her generosity of mind, spirit, and time is boundless….and quite remarkable. Jennifer is a warrior and to me, quite the hero.

I simply could not, in this testimony, give you a feeling for the depth of gratitude I have for your bringing Jennifer into my life and the lives of so many to enable us to be Storytellers Of the Holocaust. Thank you.