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November 21, 2016

Today I write to reflect on my joint announcement with LAMOTH that I am leaving the Museum and returning to Remember Us where I served as executive director before joining LAMOTH three years ago. I am deeply moved to be returning to Remember Us, where I first worked as the inaugural Board Chair turned executive director in 2011, in partnership with RU founder Gesher Calmenson. There, the expanded work of Remember Us and its Holocaust Bnai Mitzvah Project was first introduced to Los Angeles . That same year, the Righteous Conversations Project was conceived and lovingly incubated, engaging students and young adults with Holocaust Survivors, together shining a light on the broken places in today's world.

As I reflect on the close of what has been an exceptionally deep and meaningful chapter, I want to convey my appreciation to the survivor/educator/mentors in our community. As my friend and colleague Rabbi Boruch Sufrin teaches, we are all part of a human chain of history and memory. It has been a privilege to serve, to nurture, to love, to grow and to lead this precious community.

My hope is that we can create a caring circle of love and support encompassing  Remember Us, LAMOTH, USC Shoah Foundation, Museum of Tolerance, Yad Vashem and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and that this circle of care will continue to carry the past with wisdom and dignity.  My greatest wish is that each survivor who was part of our darkest past will find solace, dignity and respect in the way their stories are carried forward by each of us.

I pray that in this new Jewish year, we carry forward only that which strengthens and nurtures us. In a world that requires so much of us, let us work together, old and young, women and men, girls and boys, left and right, people of all faiths, and together, cast a penetrating gaze on all that requires humanity’s attention. And let us commit to repair, together.

May we go from strength to strength,

Sam

samarahutman@gmail.com

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