Morris Rubell Holocaust Remembrance Journeys

Morris Rubell was a Holocaust survivor who had endured the nightmares of four different concentration camps before the liberation in 1945, when he was 15 years old. Over the years, he became dedicated to teaching young people the lessons of the Holocaust. He spoke at schools, to youth groups, and at community events.

When Morris Rubell died in 1995, his family decided that the best way to honor his memory would be to continue spreading his message of tolerance. They established the Morris Rubell Holocaust Remembrance Journeys Fund. The fund’s mission in honoring Morris Rubell is

• To continue the work he began in teaching tolerance by educating youth about the Holocaust.
• To increase young people’s awareness of the importance of individual responsibility in preventing acts of racism, bigotry, and cruelty.
• To participate in a process in which the youth of today can share insights on the human potential for good and evil.
• To further character education, responsible citizenship, and critical thinking skills.

“In everything we do,” said Michael Rubell, Morris Rubell’s son, “we both remember the Holocaust and bring the lessons of the Holocaust into action. We want to teach tolerance. We want people to stop looking at those who are different from them as 'The Other,' and we want people not to be bystanders when they see terrible things happening.”

The principal work of the fund is to conduct Remembrance Journeys: supervised one-day bus trips to Washington, D.C., for high school and middle school students. On the trips, students visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Lincoln Memorial. Accompanying the students are educators from the participating schools, as well as Holocaust survivors who recount their own stories on the trip there and back.

Once a year, the fund conducts the Rubell Student Seminar, which brings together the students and educators who have participated in Remembrance Journeys over the course of the past year. The one-day program has group activities and speakers. The purpose is to provide students with a forum for the exchange of ideas and an opportunity to share what they learned on the Remembrance Journey they attended and what they have done since.

“We try to make it clear to the students that this is not a Jewish cause, this is not a Jewish museum,” Michael Rubell said, in explaining his vision. “These lessons are something we all need to know. That’s why we go to the Lincoln Memorial. We tie the messages together.

“Now, more than ever, people are becoming afraid of anyone who is different from them. We are trying to break down those barriers. As Martin Luther King said, ‘We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.’ We need to work together and not just tolerate but cherish our differences. We need to learn to help each other.”