Projects
2022 Third Year Projects
Charlotte Smith
‘Suspended’ is a collection of poetry and essays in response to teachings learnt in Holocaust education program, 'Suspend Judgement'. The collection is divided into three sections; Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3, the number of years over which my education spanned.
The poetry focuses on the humanitarian and philosophical perspective of the Holocaust. Some questions that the poetry and essays respond to include:
How was it humanly possible?
Where was God in the Holocaust?
I invite all readers to feel the content with a heart of flesh. As we are human beings, and so too were, are, and forever will be, the Jewish people.’
Samantha Lane
Throughout my three years participating in the Suspend Judgement Program, I have chosen the medium of dance to explore my chosen learning from the modules.
This year, I aimed to include ideas I’ve previously explored including bystanders, denial and suffering, whilst also delving into the role and responsibility of a witness. The piece features a dancer symbolising human suffering and several dancers who throughout the piece move from being bystanders to witnesses. The motif of the dancer covering her mouth and reaching out symbolises the silenced sufferings of the Holocaust survivors. As the dance progresses, the motif is manipulated to highlight the impact listening and learning has on the awareness of the Holocaust.
The message portrayed in this dance is that as witnesses, it is our duty to stand up against injustice. It takes just one person listening to make a voice heard.
Ella Watney
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
Ezekiel 36:26
My piece is a response to a passage from the Book of Ezekiel, the third book of the Tanakh, where G-d promises his people ‘hearts of flesh’. I was inspired by the words of Rabbi Ariel Burger, which Ms Dickson shared with third years in one of our earliest sessions this year. Rabbi Burger says that this softening of the heart is incredibly important. We should all be deeply open to experience not only joy, but pain as well; we are called to recognise where our discomfort and happiness can meet; to sit in our grief and let it be true.
I have created a heart shaped vase and filled it with flowers, both dead and living, because while human emotions can be scary, ugly, and painful, they can also be beautiful. Our hearts were built to feel, and feeling is what allows us to be a true witness.
Alice Conway
Creator of the Suspend Judgement website.
My legacy and my project, is this website. Through my understanding of the role of being a witness, I feel a sense of duty to share what I have learnt in the Suspend Judgement program and make it accessible to all people.
Lessons from Elie Wiesel in Rabbi Burger’s book Witness has taught us that evil acts stem from places of weakness in society, and it is only through discussion and persistence in questioning facts that the moral of the story shines through. History can only stay alive through vulnerability and morality and there couldn’t be a better way to summarise what the core of the Suspend Judgement program is about.
Information leads to education, and I hope that visitors to this website are able to walk away with a changed perception of what it means to be a witness in our society.
2020-2022 Projects
Samantha Lane 2020 - ‘First, we were humans’
Lily Nugent and Skye Nugent 2020
Georgia Nelson 2020
Rosie Pope 2021
Ella Watney 2021
Samantha Lane 2021
Katelyn Perry 2021
Video Gallery
Art Gallery
Alexis Hosking 2021