As the voices of first-generation Holocaust survivors start to grow quiet, teaching the next generation is more critical than ever.
Many descendants have taken on the role of storytelling, but educators still face a challenge: How do you teach the history in a way that is engaging to students?
Two local artists turned to music.
Musician Jeff Jacob proposed the idea of a songwriting session for students — using Holocaust survivor testimonies to create an original, fully produced piece — to Ali Shrago-Spechler, a visual artist who is director of The George Gottlieb Institute at the David Posnack Jewish Community Center in Davie.
Together, they created “A Survivor’s Song” and offered it to history students from Cooper City High School and Everglades High School and their teachers through the Gottlieb Institute’s Testimony to Teach program.
“What better way to embody history than through music?” Shrago-Spechler said. “I think it’s a fantastic vehicle because it allows the kids to engage in every way. They are hearing it, writing it, singing it and, in that way, the history becomes a part of them and they become witnesses to it.”
Ali Shrago-Spechler, director of The George Gottlieb Institute, welcomes students at the David Posnack Jewish Community Center in Davie on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
The students sat through two initial sessions where they heard testimonies from first-, second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors. They then participated in a live songwriting session on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at the David Posnack JCC. With a small stage and mood lighting, Jacob set it up to look and feel like an MTV “Unplugged” session from back in the day.
Students took what they learned from the survivor stories to write song verses alongside first-generation survivor Ivan Gluck. The result was a fully-produced song titled “You Can Be a Candle.”
Song lyrics include poignant parts of the survivor’s experience, such as: “In the basement my life spared, tomorrow another day to fear,” and “Can’t find my slumber, with others in distress. We still held belief, cause we held each other dear.”
After the writing was complete, the students recorded parts of the song in an on-site mobile music studio, alongside local musicians and JCC staff.
“Bringing people together from all these walks of life felt really beautiful and impactful,” said Jacob, who has spent the past decade focused on purpose-driven music. “When it was done, I had such a rush of joy feeling like most people in this room were hopefully going to walk away with a memory that maybe they retain a little bit better and speak out when [they] see something like this happening in the future.”
Rabbi Leon Weissberg speaks with students during a tour of The George Gottlieb Institute during the Testimony to Teach program. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
How it started
Through Testimony to Teach, Shrago-Spechler uses different art forms to explain the story of the Holocaust to students.
The program began two years ago with Broward County students creating a short film based on Holocaust testimonies. Shrago-Spechler felt the students weren’t as immersed in the process as she would have liked.
“I just find when you’re dealing with hard histories, it can be really difficult to make a lasting impact on the kids,” she said. “ When you’re dealing with intense ideas and sad ideas, a lot of the time your brain kind of blocks the trauma off to protect you so the kids don’t end up engaging as much.”
And with visual art, she added, kids can be critical of themselves if they feel they aren’t artistic. Songwriting, however, was a perfect fit for the program.
“With music, anyone can write a song or write a verse or do rhythm, so we felt like it was a great way to bring this history to the kids,” she added.
Musician Jeff Jacob speaks with the students about composing the song. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A lasting impression
Before involving the students, Jacob, who is also the executive director of Temple Beth El of Hollywood, created the chorus, which he used as the jumping-off point for the live songwriting session.
He sang lead vocals alongside a band of six others, including Timothy LaRoque from the nonprofit Guitars over Guns, and Don Hicks, who plays the fiddle and is part of the Jewgrass Revival band at Temple Beth El.
In addition to the song, Jacob also plans to create accompanying videos. One will be a 3.5-minute music video with imagery from the live songwriting session, the other will be a longer mini music documentary that will include interviews and more insight into the program. The song and music video are expected to be released on all major streaming platforms for Yom HaShoah in April.
Musician Timothy LaRoque, from the nonprofit Guitars over Guns, participates in the session on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, at the David Posnack Jewish Community Center in Davie. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Jacob and Shrago-Spechler hope the song, and similar initiatives, will help connect students to the history of the Holocaust in a more profound way.
“After [the songwriting session], I was buzzing,” said Shrago-Spechler. “This is why I do this work — when you can see the impact it has on the kids and how they are going to talk to friends and how they stand up to hate.”
And the efforts continue. Shrago-Spechler has more programs in the works to bring Holocaust education to Broward County schools, including a May 7 event with culinary historian Michael Twitty, who wrote the book, “Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew.”
“It feels empowering to make some kind of impact in Broward County,” she said. “We can’t fight antisemitism all over the world, but if we can make a difference in our county, that’s really important.”