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UCLA Alum Captures Stories Of Genocide Survivors For 'One Life At A Time'
ALUM CAPTURES STORIES OF GENOCIDE SURVIVORS FOR 'ONE LIFE AT A TIME'
Daily Bruin: University of California - Los Angeles
April 14, 2015 Tuesday
Lindsay Weinberg
As co-founder and president of Jewish World Watch, an organization
fighting against genocide, UCLA alumna Janice Kamenir-Reznik has
aided and photographed survivors of mass atrocities during service
trips to places, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad.
On her first visit, Kamenir-Reznik spoke with a rape survivor who
was hospitalized for five years. After listening to her story,
Kamenir-Reznik said she wanted others to connect with survivors'
tales regardless of distance, which her photographs strive to help
accomplish.
Twenty-four photos from Kamenir-Reznik's trips will be on display
as part of Hillel at UCLA's exhibit "One Life at a Time," which will
open Wednesday. The exhibition is both in support of the Jewish World
Watch's Walk to End Genocide on Sunday and in honor of Rabbi Harold M.
Schulweis, co-founder of Jewish World Watch, who died in December 2014.
Kamenir-Reznik said she founded Jewish World Watch 10 years ago with
Schulweis, after they realized neither took action during the genocide
in Rwanda.
"Our inaction during Rwanda and the other genocides is the same thing
as what happened to us (during the Holocaust)," Kamenir-Reznik said.
"We needed to start an organization to make sure that the community
wakes up and understands our responsibility to speak out."
This year is the ninth annual Los Angeles Walk to End Genocide, a
public gathering to protest genocide and voice concern to legislators,
Kamenir-Reznik said. The event has grown from a couple hundred
participants at the first walk to about 4,000 last year.
Another part of Jewish World Watch, Kamenir-Reznik said, has been
developing relationships with survivors through eight service trips.
During these travels, Kamenir-Reznik said she photographed survivors
she spoke with, promising to share their story with others.
"They're separated child soldiers who we helped to rescue from the
clutches of a militia, who are now living in a transient house that
we built," Kamenir-Reznik said. "Or they're former sex slaves that
we've helped to liberate that are now learning how to be seamstresses
or cooks, so they can regain their humanity, independence and will
to live."
The purpose of the exhibition by Hillel is to ensure that victims'
stories are told, Kamenir-Reznik said, so they don't feel forgotten.
Photos were chosen from a collection of over 1,000, Kamenir-Reznik
said; photographers Barbara Grover and Michael Ramsdell also
contributed images for the exhibition.
Kamenir-Reznik said she hopes to reach the hearts and minds of people
in this country by portraying humanity in a powerful and relatable
way - "One Life at a Time," as the exhibit is titled.
"It's the one person looking at a photo, it's the one person taking a
photo, it's the one person in the photo," Kamenir-Reznik said. "It's
one life on all sides."
The exhibit was organized by fourth-year communications studies
student Marnina Wirtschafter, who works with Hillel through social
justice engagement and Jewish World Watch as the Rabbi Harold M.
Schulweis University fellow.
Wirtschafter, who will be the event's master of ceremonies, said
she believes art is a powerful tool in global justice, capturing the
victims' resilience.
"(Genocide victims are) fellow human beings and it doesn't matter that
they're on the other side of the world," Wirtschafter said. "When you
come and you see these photographs, you connect. Those eyes from the
photograph reach right out and they just touch you."
The art opening will feature a performance from JEWkbox a cappella
group, co-directed by third-year communications studies student Sophia
Wilkof. She said the group will perform their arrangement of "One Day"
by Matisyahu to interact with an overarching theme of peace.
"We are a people that has been persecuted and that's why we care
so deeply about other populations that have experienced similar
atrocities," Wilkof said.
This year's Walk to End Genocide will commemorate the 70th anniversary
of the liberation of Auschwitz and the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide. Third-year political science student Morris Sarafian
from the Armenian Students' Association will speak during the opening
ceremony Wednesday.
Sarafian said he will talk about his community's traumatic history
and pushing for its genocide to be acknowledged because he said the
Turkish government does not.
Among the stories Sarafian has heard from his family, one details
how Sarafian's great-grandfather's mother buried her twin daughters
in the Syrian desert; his great-grandfather only escaped persecution
when a Turkish family came to his aid.
"Not everyone on campus knows the Armenian Genocide even happened,"
Sarafian said. "I shouldn't have to deal with people doubting a really
tragic part of my history."
Since different perspectives will be shared at this event, Sarafian
said communities that have suffered from genocide in the past can
appreciate each others' narratives and see their common experiences.
Wirtschafter said she hopes when guests witness these stories,
they'll feel compelled to take further action, whether by donating
or by registering for the Walk to End Genocide.
"I'm not a photographer, I'm not a photojournalist, I'm just a person
with a little $100 camera," Kamenir-Reznik said. "This is not about
artistic photography, this is about a human being from here connecting
with a human being from there."
UCLA Alum Captures Stories Of Genocide Survivors For 'One Life At A Time'
ALUM CAPTURES STORIES OF GENOCIDE SURVIVORS FOR 'ONE LIFE AT A TIME'
Daily Bruin: University of California - Los Angeles
April 14, 2015 Tuesday
Lindsay Weinberg
As co-founder and president of Jewish World Watch, an organization
fighting against genocide, UCLA alumna Janice Kamenir-Reznik has
aided and photographed survivors of mass atrocities during service
trips to places, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad.
On her first visit, Kamenir-Reznik spoke with a rape survivor who
was hospitalized for five years. After listening to her story,
Kamenir-Reznik said she wanted others to connect with survivors'
tales regardless of distance, which her photographs strive to help
accomplish.
Twenty-four photos from Kamenir-Reznik's trips will be on display
as part of Hillel at UCLA's exhibit "One Life at a Time," which will
open Wednesday. The exhibition is both in support of the Jewish World
Watch's Walk to End Genocide on Sunday and in honor of Rabbi Harold M.
Schulweis, co-founder of Jewish World Watch, who died in December 2014.
Kamenir-Reznik said she founded Jewish World Watch 10 years ago with
Schulweis, after they realized neither took action during the genocide
in Rwanda.
"Our inaction during Rwanda and the other genocides is the same thing
as what happened to us (during the Holocaust)," Kamenir-Reznik said.
"We needed to start an organization to make sure that the community
wakes up and understands our responsibility to speak out."
This year is the ninth annual Los Angeles Walk to End Genocide, a
public gathering to protest genocide and voice concern to legislators,
Kamenir-Reznik said. The event has grown from a couple hundred
participants at the first walk to about 4,000 last year.
Another part of Jewish World Watch, Kamenir-Reznik said, has been
developing relationships with survivors through eight service trips.
During these travels, Kamenir-Reznik said she photographed survivors
she spoke with, promising to share their story with others.
"They're separated child soldiers who we helped to rescue from the
clutches of a militia, who are now living in a transient house that
we built," Kamenir-Reznik said. "Or they're former sex slaves that
we've helped to liberate that are now learning how to be seamstresses
or cooks, so they can regain their humanity, independence and will
to live."
The purpose of the exhibition by Hillel is to ensure that victims'
stories are told, Kamenir-Reznik said, so they don't feel forgotten.
Photos were chosen from a collection of over 1,000, Kamenir-Reznik
said; photographers Barbara Grover and Michael Ramsdell also
contributed images for the exhibition.
Kamenir-Reznik said she hopes to reach the hearts and minds of people
in this country by portraying humanity in a powerful and relatable
way - "One Life at a Time," as the exhibit is titled.
"It's the one person looking at a photo, it's the one person taking a
photo, it's the one person in the photo," Kamenir-Reznik said. "It's
one life on all sides."
The exhibit was organized by fourth-year communications studies
student Marnina Wirtschafter, who works with Hillel through social
justice engagement and Jewish World Watch as the Rabbi Harold M.
Schulweis University fellow.
Wirtschafter, who will be the event's master of ceremonies, said
she believes art is a powerful tool in global justice, capturing the
victims' resilience.
"(Genocide victims are) fellow human beings and it doesn't matter that
they're on the other side of the world," Wirtschafter said. "When you
come and you see these photographs, you connect. Those eyes from the
photograph reach right out and they just touch you."
The art opening will feature a performance from JEWkbox a cappella
group, co-directed by third-year communications studies student Sophia
Wilkof. She said the group will perform their arrangement of "One Day"
by Matisyahu to interact with an overarching theme of peace.
"We are a people that has been persecuted and that's why we care
so deeply about other populations that have experienced similar
atrocities," Wilkof said.
This year's Walk to End Genocide will commemorate the 70th anniversary
of the liberation of Auschwitz and the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide. Third-year political science student Morris Sarafian
from the Armenian Students' Association will speak during the opening
ceremony Wednesday.
Sarafian said he will talk about his community's traumatic history
and pushing for its genocide to be acknowledged because he said the
Turkish government does not.
Among the stories Sarafian has heard from his family, one details
how Sarafian's great-grandfather's mother buried her twin daughters
in the Syrian desert; his great-grandfather only escaped persecution
when a Turkish family came to his aid.
"Not everyone on campus knows the Armenian Genocide even happened,"
Sarafian said. "I shouldn't have to deal with people doubting a really
tragic part of my history."
Since different perspectives will be shared at this event, Sarafian
said communities that have suffered from genocide in the past can
appreciate each others' narratives and see their common experiences.
Wirtschafter said she hopes when guests witness these stories,
they'll feel compelled to take further action, whether by donating
or by registering for the Walk to End Genocide.
"I'm not a photographer, I'm not a photojournalist, I'm just a person
with a little $100 camera," Kamenir-Reznik said. "This is not about
artistic photography, this is about a human being from here connecting
with a human being from there."