Students with Holocaust Survivor, Lena Goren, 2025
Students and survivors at their “table read” - which is the first reading of their script, 2025
about the program
Witness Theater was conceived and initiated by Irit and Ezra Dagan, and developed and expanded by JDC-Eshel, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s elderly division in Israel. The program was initiated in New York City in 2012 by Selfhelp Community Services and is generously funded by UJA-Federation of New York through the Community Initiative for Holocaust Survivors (CIHS), the Jewish Communal Fund and a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany (Claims Conference).
The Witness Theater program, now in its thirteenth year in New York, is an innovative and emotional intergenerational “journey” for Holocaust Survivors and high school students. Working together, the two generations elicit and expose the moving stories of survival and explore issues of war, loss and trauma.
Student with Holocaust Survivor, Ruth Rosenfeld, who records her parts for the production, 2025
A student rehearses lines with Holocaust Survivor, Sara Zucker, 2025
the process
Students and survivors meet in weekly two-hour sessions over the course of the academic year with a trained drama therapist and other program staff. The project culminates in a staged production with the students portraying the personal experiences of the group’s survivors, and the survivors narrating their own stories. The production is performed for the community and the student body in each high school location.
The program aims to involve Holocaust survivors in a therapeutic process designed to help them come to terms with their past, and to instill the memory of the Holocaust in the next generation. The public performances serve as a vehicle for the survivors’ testimonies to be heard by many and to witness the special connections made between the generations. Furthermore, the unique and original dramatic production that emerges out of the weekly group sessions creatively empowers the students to understand, describe and express the survivors’ stories.
The 2025 cohort on the night of their debut of “Between the Lines”
A scene from survivor, Ruth Rosenfeld’s piece in “Between the Lines,” 2025
A scene from survivor, Ruth Rosenfeld’s piece in “Between the Lines,” 2025
A scene from survivor, Ruth Rosenfeld’s piece in “Between the Lines,” 2025
the shows
Sally was the original drama therapist to facilitate this program in New York in 2012 at the Yeshivah of Flatbush HS. She is now the program's lead therapist and trains other drama therapists to facilitate the program at multiple other locations. Sally has been facilitating this program for 13 years. All shows are original and unique to the years’ cohort.
2022 “Witness Theater: In Their Eyes”
2021 “Witness Theater: The Space Between Us” - When COVID restrictions moved our program into the virtual space, the results were equally meaningful and artistically stunning!
2020 “Ordinary Blessings - A Tribute Video” - During the COVID Era it was impossible to have a live production. This masterpiece was created instead!
2018 “From Strength to Strength”
2016 “The Wisdom of Storytellers”
Earlier Witness Theater productions are available on DVD only