The picture from one of the panels at the exhibit is simple enough: It is a young woman wearing a white blouse staring up at the camera.
Upon further inspection, you learn the blouse was the first article of clothing the woman, Ellen Dorman, was given by the British Army after she and thousands of others were liberated from a concentration camp in Germany in 1945.
A quick glance down shows the actual blouse.
The photo and blouse are part of the beautifully curated exhibit, “Journeys Beyond Genocide: The Human Experience” — a permanent exhibit housed at Chhange (Center for Holocaust, Human Rights and Genocide Education) on the campus of Brookdale Community College in Lincroft.
Chhange is unique in that it captures three horrific events in world history: Not only the Holocaust during World War II, but the Armenian Genocide from World War I and the more recent genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994.
And it does so by bringing those events to life, showing visitors that these events were not just in faraway places and distant times, but atrocities that still have impact and importance in New Jersey in the present day.
Executive Director Asya Darbinyan said Chhange prides itself on having original documents and survivor archival items that were loaned or donated by the local community.
“When we are talking about the history of the Holocaust, of the life of European Jews before the Holocaust, we are showing the life of our neighbors,” she said. “So, it’s not faceless, nameless people from the past, it’s close to home.
“That’s something we always remember to tell our visitors: These are not people from history — these are your neighbors.”
Darbinyan said that, because New Jersey is such a melting pot, a state that includes larger-than-you-may-realize communities of Armenians and Rwandans, Chhange is able to interact with historians of the atrocities and survivors or descendants of survivors.
The aim, she said, is not just simply preserving the past, but bringing a greater understanding to the present — to hopefully prevent genocides from occurring in the future.
“We have a permanent exhibit called ‘Journeys Beyond Genocide: The Human Experience,’” she said. “We show the common elements in these three genocides.
“The message is that genocide is not a tragedy or legacy of one ethnic, religious or national group that goes through that ordeal. Genocides may and do occur anywhere in the world, and it’s the responsibility of humanity as a whole to prevent them from happening, to hold perpetrators accountable, to demand justice.
“We encourage looking into these tragic chapters of history in conjunction with one another, rather than in isolation.”
Having survivors speak adds to the impact.
“Their message is always about the present and the future — and the message is: You can be the change,” Darbinyan said. “What are you going to do about certain things that happen around you? Are you going to be a bystander, or are you going to say something and act as an upstander?”
Chhange operates on a mixture of donations and fundraisers. As you can imagine, it always could use more funding. (Click here to learn how you or your organization can donate.)
Chhange, which connects with nearly 50,000 people annually (in person and through virtual programs) is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday. Walk-ins are welcome, but advance notice for groups allows the center to prepare a tour geared toward the group, bringing in docents to lead the tours as well as a survivor speaker if possible (call 732-224-1889 or email [email protected]).
And, while Chhange caters mostly to students and local community groups, it has welcomed corporate groups in the past — and aims to do more, Darbinyan said.
BINJE recently spoke with Darbinyan, who has a Ph.D. in history, Holocaust and genocide studies, and Howard Dorman, the well-known retired partner from Mazars USA who serves as president of the board of directors at Chhange.
Here’s a look at more of the conversation:
BINJE: Chhange is unique in that it details three genocides that took place in the beginning, middle and end of the 20th century. No other museum or center is structured that way. Give us the background on how Chhange came to be.
Asya Darbinyan: Chhange grew out of a lunch-and-learn series developed by Brookdale professors Seymour Siegler and Jack Needle. The initial series featured testimony by local Holocaust survivor Arno Penzias (a Nobel Prize winner) setting the stage for the educational focus of Chhange, which is teaching the human story behind genocide. Based on its success, the two were encouraged to found the Center for Holocaust Studies. On May 15, 1979, the opening ceremony was held for the first Holocaust studies center in New Jersey.
From the beginning, there was a dedication to educating about Holocaust, human rights and genocides — to not only focus on the Holocaust. In fact, when it came time to create the exhibits, the first prototype was on the Armenian Genocide.
BINJE: Chhange serves more than 50,000 educators and students a year from New Jersey. What is the mission?
AD: We engage with more than 700 educators through professional development programs. We have workshops on Holocaust education, genocide education and a variety of social justice and propaganda topics.
We make sure New Jersey educators who attend our workshops are equipped with the necessary tools to be prepared to address those difficult topics in classroom — and help them create safe spaces for their students to be able to have respectful, constructive conversations.
BINJE: What is the student reaction?
Howard Dorman: The biggest question that we get from middle school kids is: Are we born with hate, or do we learn it? It sparks conversation and transformation. We do a lot of follow-up survey work with the school boards, trying to understand the impact. Later this year, we are going to have an art exhibit of student work because we have seen how they show their feelings through art.
BINJE: Speaking of students, Chhange’s 43rd Annual Colloquium will be held May 21 at Brookdale. The event draws hundreds of fifth- to 12th-grade students. This year’s topic: ‘The Art of Dialogue: Recognizing Humanity in Each Other.’ Asma Rasheed and Braden Chapman, young leaders from BridgeUSA — an organization for students and by students dedicated to reducing political division by engaging young people directly in constructive dialogue across lines of difference — will lead the day. Tell us about that.
AD: We realize communication and dialogue is the No. 1 problem today. People do not listen to each other, and when we are not willing to listen empathetically, we are not going to be able to learn anything — we are not able to see ‘the other’ side and realize that maybe it’s not even ‘the other,’ we’re more alike than different.
BINJE: We’re a business site, so we have to ask about how businesses can help.
HD: We have a history of collaboration with different businesses, but we’d always love to have more. Every year, we honor a corporate partner who has been supportive of Chhange. This spring, we honored Prestige Capital, a finance company in Saddle Brook. In previous years, we’ve honored Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla, Attorneys at Law; Millenium Home Mortgage; OceanFirst Bank; and Woodhaven Lumber & Millwork. About a third of our revenue is generated from fundraising. The rest is donations — so our corporate partners are definitely a key to us being able to continue our work.
BINJE: The work, of course, is about remembering the atrocities. Speak more on that.
AD: We have these amazing communities around us that are willing to come work with us, donate artifacts, share those histories. They make this possible. They support our educational initiatives and annual commemoration programs and help bring an understanding of the issue so we all can see that this is a problem for humanity. We share these histories.
HD: New Jersey is the first state to mandate Holocaust education (an effort by Gov. Brendan Byrne in 1982 was codified by Gov. Christie Whitman in 1994). My mother, Ellen, is the reason I’m involved. A Holocaust survivor, she did a lot of speaking in schools early on — before the Holocaust Commission was formed. All she wanted to do was just change the behavior of one child at a time. That’s all we want to do. Remember, if we don’t tell the story, who will?
Note: Ellen Dorman spent four years in the Tarnow Ghetto, Plaszow Work Camp and Auschwitz before being liberated from Bergen Belsen in April 1945. She came to the U.S. in 1946, eventually settling in New Jersey with her husband, Victor Dorman, also a Holocaust survivor. She is the young lady described above in the exhibit picture.
