Andrew Olin, left, will travel to Europe this summer with his mom, Ali, and brother Matthew, to gather material for his mitzva project — teaching about the Holocaust.
Photo by Elaine Durbach
June 19, 2008
This summer, 12-year-old Andrew Olin plans to take a huge step in furthering what has been a longtime personal interest in the Holocaust.
On a trip to Europe the Scotch Plains sixth-grader will gather knowledge at the sites of the Nazi persecution and extermination of the Jews. He will use what he learns to create a mitzva project, teaching other youngsters about the Holocaust and about tolerance.
“The kids at school think that World War 11 was so long ago and that it’s all in the past. I want to make sure that it’s not forgotten,” Andrew said. “I know the war had something to with the Depression and poverty, and that Hitler put the blame on the Jews, but I want to understand why he was so mad at the Jews and why he wanted to put his plan [to exterminate them] into action.
“I want to help make sure that it can never happen again,” he said.
Andrew, a student at Terrill Middle School, will celebrate becoming bar mitzva next February at Congregation Beth Israel, the Conservative congregation in Scotch Plains.
“When we discussed mitzva projects, I wasn’t interested in doing things like bake sales or being a mitzva clown,” he said, but the idea of increasing awareness of the Holocaust really clicked for him.
Dana Brenner, director of youth and teen services at the JCC of Central New Jersey in Scotch Plains, where Andrew serves on the teen advisory committee, suggested that he make a PowerPoint presentation that could be shown at a leadership event in the fall and at schools or other venues, and that’s what he set out to do.
He says his interest stems from his great-grandfather. He died when Andrew was only four and they never met, but his story of surviving the Shoa became part of the family lore. Chatting in the home he shares with his parents, Ali and Richard, and little brother Matthew, Andrew related how his mother’s Polish grandfather, as a teenager, escaped from a concentration camp. Grabbing odd chances, he gradually made a hole in a fence near a train track. Eventually, he managed to climb through as a train pulled up on the other side. He clung to the underside of the train and hung on till he reached freedom.
Personal research
Knowing his great-grandfather’s story prompted Andrew to do lots of research, exploring books and Web sites. He gathered a great deal of information, but wanted to experience the subject in a more personal way. And then an unexpected opportunity opened up.
His mother, who is an occupational therapist, sings in her spare time with the Celebration Singers, a Cranford-based choir. To mark its 100th anniversary, the ensemble decided to go to Europe to perform at various venues there. Ali decided to take her sons with her and find opportunities to visit sites connected with the Holocaust.
The choir has scheduled concerts in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Holland.
The members represent a variety of religious backgrounds, but the 60 people going on the tour welcomed her suggestion that they attend Friday night Shabbat services at a restored synagogue in Prague and visit some of the other Jewish sights.
The rabbi in the Czech capital readily responded to Andrew’s request to meet with survivors and arranged for him to interview a couple who belong to his congregation. Andrew plans to tape the interview and feature clips in his mitzva presentation, together with photographs and souvenirs from the city’s old Jewish quarter.
In Munich, they will visit the site of the ill-fated 1972 Olympic Games, commemorating the murder of the Israeli team. They will also visit the Dachau concentration camp outside Munich and a Jewish museum.
The Olins will add a day to the trip, staying on in Amsterdam so Andrew can follow his passion — to see where Anne Frank lived in hiding and wrote her famous diary.
Knowing the cost of the tour was steep for his parents, Andrew tried to raise some financing on his own. He sent a letter out to various organizations, explaining how the trip meshed with his mitzva project and inquiring about grants.
Many people responded with enthusiasm to his eloquence; one came back with an offer of help: Queensborough Community College in Queens gave him a $380 “internship” grant. It came with a condition Andrew said he was happy to comply with — that he record his interview both on tape and in writing, so it can be added to the archive of the college’s Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center.
As demanding as it is, the mitzva project isn’t this boy’s only social action effort. Andrew and two of his friends are also raising money for a camp in Israel, run by the Jaffa Institute, that serves underprivileged children.
Given his idealism and Jewish focus, one might have thought he had plans to become a rabbi or an educator, but when it comes to his future, Andrew sounds like a typical boy. He wants to become an air force technician, repairing planes — or maybe become a forensics expert.
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