Recommendations and Responses Here are responses from educators about Wings Of Witness workshops: Thank you for bringing the extraordinary Wings of Witness project to the Roslyn Schools this month. Your presentations to our fifth, sixth, seventh, and eight grade students were extremely well received. The manner in which you taught students about tolerance and ethics was truly incomparable. The hands-on construction of "feathers" added a depth of meaning to your presentation that I have never seen in my long career as a teacher and administrator.  Our teachers and parent volunteers all reported that the important message of tolerance which you delivered was understood in profound ways by so many of the children. It was a unique pleasure for all of us in the Roslyn Schools to have had this opportunity to work with you on such an important project. Based on my observations and my discussions with students after your visit, I am confident that many will responds by sending you their artistic and poetic responses.  I will certainly recommend this program to my colleagues in Nassau County as truly of the of the finest examples of an integrated art/social studies lesson. Thank you again for enriching the lives of our school community.   Charles Piemonte, Ph.D. Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Roslyn Public Schools Roslyn, New York One of the most meaningful educational experiences for my students that they have participated in, in my 30 years as an educator; emotionally expressive, while attending to the visual, tactile, auditory and kinesthetic modalities of learning, a program and project for everyone!  John Banister Principal Simpson Middle School Leesburg, Virginia On December 22,2001, UJA-Federation had the pleasure of hosting an event at which Jeffrey Schrier was the keynote speaker. Mr. Schrier presented on his art project "Wings of Witness" and worked on this project with the audience. The event was to recognize major donors to the UJA-Federation campaign among our staff members. Having participated in this event, I am pleased to write to you tell you of the profound impact Mr. Schrier's presentation and project had on the audience that day. Mr. Schrier spoke to the group of how he came to design his project and how his research led him to understand the challenge of conveying the enormity and horror of the Holocaust. He explained how this project, utilizing six million soda can tabs and thousands of participants from around the world is an attempt to convey this through art. In learning of the project and viewing Mr. Schrier's videotape, we were left with a valuable lesson about the horrors of the Holocaust. In touching these soda can tabs, each representing one victim of the Holocaust and trying to imagine just what six million soda can tabs look like, we were able to get a physical sense of the enormity of the Holocaust. In actually working together with our colleagues to create these butterfly wings, we learned of the power of people pulling together to bear witness and how each of us has a responsibility to ensure that the Holocaust never happen again.  It was a great honor to host Jeffrey Schrier at UJA-Federation of New York. I would recommend this project as an educational tool to other Federations and school groups.  John Ruskay Executive Vice President & CEO UJA-Federation of New York On behalf of the Board of Directors of Holocaust Museum Houston I would like to express my sincere appreciation to you for allowing the Museum to present such an exceptional exhibition to the Houston community. Viewer response was immediate and emotional. What a perfect exhibition to help fulfill our mission! In the short two months that Wings of Witness at the Museum, over 3500 students embraced the unique opportunity to participate in the creation of the exhibition they came to view. To top that, during your week-long visit to Houston 800 additional students learned about the lessons of the Holocaust by working directly with you in hands-on workshops. Thank you for making it possible for the Museum to reach out to entirely new groups of visitors. The great scope of Wings of Witness required an amazing team of docents and volunteers, allowing the Museum to develop internship programs for high school and college students. Additionally, for the first time, elementary level students were able to take part in a tour of an age-appropriate exhibition.  While Wings of Witness was on view, the Museum not only witnessed an increase in general visitorship, but also an increase in the impact of its exhibitions on visitors. This is most eloquently reflected in the enclosed visitor comments.  Without the ingenuity and dedication of individuals like you, the Holocaust Museum Houston would not achieve its greatest successes. Our exhibitions play an integral role in reaching our goal to educate the community about the dangers of prejudice, hatred and violence against the backdrop of the Holocaust. Through Wings of Witness and its associated educational hands-on workshops, the Museum brought our community together in new and exciting ways.  May you and your work continue to educate and inspire. Susan Llanes Interim Executive Director Holocaust Museum Houston On behalf of the Anti-Defamation League's Holocaust Education Committee I would like to thank you for your participation in our in-service workshop for educators, The Holocaust: Its Relevance for the 21st century.  Your presentation of Wings of Witness made the workshop more colorful, relevant and exciting for our participants. It provided the educators a powerful pedagogic tool to engage their students in artistic venues for learning about history. Nothing can better attest to the success of your presentation then the teachers' personal comments. I have just completed the review of our program evaluations and I would like to share some participants' responses with you. An overwhelming majority of educators who completed the evaluations for the workshop rated your presentation as "Excellent" and found it useful for both their personal and students education. The following are some anonymous comments by educators who completed the evaluations: "Very interesting concept." "It was a fabulous experience. I wish my school could participate." "Great idea for earth science, recycling." "Exciting and original work." "Wonderful hands-on experience to put numbers of Holocaust victims in perspective." "An excellent example of concrete concept versus abstract for children." "I enjoyed being a part of history. Something I will be able to share with my students, children, and grandchildren." Thank you again for your wonderful presentation. I look forward to working with you again, as we expand the workshop to other areas in Southern California. Best of luck to you as you bring this amazing project to completion. Marjan M. Keypour Assistant Director of the Anti-Defamation League Los Angeles, California I am writing on behalf of Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School students, staff, and parents to thank you for your excellent presentations for our 4th-5th grade students this morning. You did a very nice job of introducing this delicate material in a sensitive way which helped the students to understand some of the complex issues surrounding the Holocaust. I believe the hands-on approach helped them to better understand the symbolism in the pop tabs, and you used especially well-chosen reminders that some of the pop tabs are different sizes, different colors, and some have broken parts, but that we should include ALL of them in the project. In addition, you extended the theme to other examples of ethnic and values-oriented victimization which encouraged the students to be aware of similar types of occurrences. Finally, you reinforced one of our own school themes that we need to understand the differences we all have, and to get beyond them (and appreciate them rather than stumble over them) in order to enjoy a peaceful world together. Thanks so much, and the best of luck to you as you continue this wonderful project in other schools throughout the country. We will be watching to see how your "Wings of Witness" continues to unfold in the years to come. David L. Adcock,Principal Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School Urbana, Illinois From: Great Neck North Public Schools          Richard E. Sherman Middle School          Great Neck, New York Yesterday's workshop, featuring Jeffrey Schrier, certainly had a huge impact on the 600 students and 75 staff members in attendance. Mr. Schrier's powerful message appealed to our students and surely held their attention for well over an hour. He explained his reasons for feeling a strong connection to the Holocaust and then discussed his reasons for choosing the Wings of Witness project. The symbolism of using soda can tabs to represent the victims of the holocaust and his decision to create from these 11,000,000 tabs a larger-than-life Wings of Witness sculpture made sense to our students and affected them powerfully. Most of all, our students had a chance to meet with a living artist, who used his art, not only for personal reasons (Mr., Schrier was not loath to acknowledge the extremely personal nature of his project), but also as a vehicle to get people to think about important social and historical issues. Mr. Schrier's warmth, patience, and sincerity enhanced the formidable appeal of his presentation.   The event's format also contributed to its success. First of all, our Dare to Care Committee, consisting of faculty members concerned with school-wide affective education, realized that Mr. Schrier's brand of caring would present a strong model to our students. (It did! Mr. Schrier deftly drew parallels between our own inaction and that of many Europeans some fifty years ago.) Staff members worked assiduously to prepare students for Mr. Schrier's arrival, especially in Language Arts classes, where students read about and discussed Mr. Schrier's project and prepared questions to pose to him. The assembly itself began well, featuring a heartfelt address from Bette Fleischer, a foreign language teacher at North Middle and herself a Hidden Child during a war. After Mr. Schrier's inspirational talk, he fielded students' questions and offered thoughtful, individualized responses to each. Throughout the day, students, selected to participate in workshops, actually constructed "feathers" that will soon become parts of Wings. Several students have been asked to respond to Mr. Schrier's presentation, but these will not be available until early next week, when we will gladly fax them to you. Patrick Sullivan, Principal Ira Gordon, Assistant Principal Michael Greenberg, English Chair We were very pleased with our decision to invite Jeffery Schrier to conduct his Wings of Witness workshop at Ramaz in commemoration of Kristallnacht. Students found both his remarks and style compelling and were impressed with the imaginativeness and colossal nature of the project. They were quite pleased to be part of a venture, which allowed them to participate with so many other people in doing something concrete to memorialize the victims of the Holocaust. As one seventh grader wrote: At first I thought that making the Wings of Witness sculpture was just fun, but then I realized that each silly soda can tab stood for a lost and murdered soul that was innocent but was killed because of hate and racism. I am happy to know that so many people are now working together to make a memorial for these lost souls. We applaud Mr. Schrier's ingenuity and the sincerity with which he communicates with students. We support his efforts and hope that  others will as well. Deedee Benel, Educational Director-Upper School Judy Sokolow, Educational programming-Junior High School RAMAZ - The Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein Upper School New York City, New York From: Robert E. Bell School          Chappaqua, New York Jeffrey Schrier's recent presentation was a resounding success. His work "Wings Of Witness" is a tribute to the 11 million people who lost their lives during the Nazi occupation of Europe during World War II. Mr. Schrier's opening statements captures the pain and suffering of the victims of this time, and in a sense he conjures up those lost spirits and gives them a voice. Our students were engaged throughout this part of the presentation. However, the real power of the presentation lies in the opportunity for our students to create a work of art that  commemorates the victims of the pogrom. The concept of phylogenic responsibility runs throughout the activity. Additionally, our school's themes of "Community, Leadership, and Respect" were both implicitly and explicitly expressed throughout the presentation. I heartily recommend this assembly to any school that is interested Martin Fitzgerald, Assistant Principal