High School Senior Making the Consequences of Antisemitism Real

Adam Mendelsohn, 17, a senior at Edgewater High School in Orlando Florida, was dismayed and shocked by the hateful, antisemitic messages that he was seeing on social media in the aftermath of October 7th. Some of the posts resembled pre-Holocaust rhetoric.

“Social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and X have been bombarded with hateful speech about Jews,” he says. Phrases like, “Hitler was right” and “Jews are evil” are statements that hit home for Adam.

Adam Mendelsohn, second left, with his family in Orlando

He noted, “If you take the propaganda, convert it to black and white, and translate it into German, it’s scary how much it resembles pre-Holocaust propaganda.”

Mendelsohn, who attends public school, wanted to bring awareness to his fellow students to show his friends and community the potential impact of unbridled hatred. So he raised $30,000 and teamed up with the nonprofit organization Hate Ends Now to bring a unique exhibit to his school in Orlando.

This exhibit replicates cattle cars with which the Nazis forcibly transported Jews to the many concentration camps where they performed slave labor and became the victims of mass extinction.

The cattle cars enable students to immerse themselves in the experience rather than just sitting behind a desk, taking notes.

Videos are projected onto the walls of the cattle car where two different Holocaust survivors tell their stories. The exhibit also holds 25 different artifacts like the striped uniform Jews were forced to wear and posters Nazis used for propaganda.

Many students stated that they learned more in the 45 minutes that they spent in the cattle car than they had during their entire high school career.

Mendelsohn was also shocked by the overwhelming response of the community who were brought to tears.

Paperclips

Adam recently heard about the film Paperclips, a documentary about how a teacher in a small town in Tennessee wanted to portray how hate and stereotypes can lead to terrible things. The teacher chose the Holocaust and his students began collecting paper clips – one for each Jew murdered in the Holocaust – with the goal of securing six million paper clips to symbolize the Jews who were murdered. People from around the world sent in paperclips; in the end the town collected eleven million paper clips.

Inside the cattle car exhibit

The film was brought to Adam’s attention by Beth Landa, the wife of a Holocaust survivor. Adam was then inspired to create his own exhibit that could be put on display at his school. Only he wanted it at school by that Thursday morning to coincide with the opening of the cattle car exhibit.

On Sunday morning he said to his mother, “Mom I need to get six million paper clips by Thursday.”

Thinking that would be impossible but not wanting to squelch his ambitious dream she asked, “How do you think you can make that happen?”

He started to research online and discovered that six million paper clips would cost $40,000. If he purchased them in bulk it would cost $15,000 – still financially out of reach.

Mendelsohn found the Bulk Office Supplies Company online and called them to see what they could offer to donate but had no luck.

He did a little more research and found a picture of the owner, Alex Minzer, wearing a hat with the words, “Never again.”

Bingo.

Mendelsohn found his number in the yellow pages and reached out. Minzer loved Adam’s persistence and was willing to meet him the next day.

Minzer had sold his company to a family friend in Jerusalem, Levi Haller, who was willing to donate one million paper clips.

“My dad happened to have a conference in St. Petersburg which was right nearby. He put all the paperclip boxes in the car and brought them home.”

Adam and his buddies spent all night unboxing 10,000 boxes with 100 paper clips each. They worked the whole night to create the exhibit. A permanent display is in the works at Edgewater High School.

Paperclips resembling ashes

“People need to see a visual representation of what one million looks like. They can multiply this exhibit by six in their mind’s eye and begin to understand the numbers.”

From a distance, the paper clips look like a pile of ashes, reflecting the ashes of those who perished in the Holocaust.

“People don’t understand how much destruction can come from hate and ignorance,” Mendelsohn says.

In support of Adam’s project, political figures came to visit the exhibit. One of them was Congressman Maxwell Frost who flew in from Washington.

“I was thrilled to be able to explain to Frost that this exhibit is not about politics. It simply shows what happens when hate gets out of control.”

Adam hadn’t always been so passionate about Judaism and defending his religion.

When he was younger, Adam attended a reform synagogue. “I was never really involved with the Jewish community and never saw the beauty of Judaism. I didn’t feel connected at all,” he admits.

Adam’s Bar Mitzvah was supposed to have taken place in Africa, but his family got stuck in Montana while traveling. “It was the best place to be stuck,” Adam says because we met the Chabad Rabbi and we started learning Torah. I loved learning with him because it wasn’t about money. It was just because he cared about me.”

“I found my passion for Judaism in Montana. Back in Orlando, I got involved with the JSU (Jewish Student Union), led by Rabbi Daniel Nabatian and his wife Aliza.

“I found a spark inside me, and learning allows that fire to grow within me. A lot of people are too scared to stand up to antisemitism. I’m not too scared.”

“People literally think Jews want people dead. They think we are evil. If they think we are evil then they don’t know the first thing about the Jewish community. In Nazi Germany, kids were being taught from the age of two from books that describe that Jews as evil. The same thing is happening now. Any kind of hate is dangerous.”

So much has changed because Adam was brave enough to bring this exhibit to Orlando. He is now on the board of Hate Ends Now and is trying to get this exhibit into every school in the state of Florida.

Adam’s mother Ronni commented, “It’s a beautiful thing to see your child have an idea and work hard to bring it into fruition, especially about something he cares so much about.”

He is also still trying to secure the other five million paper clips he wants to add to the exhibit.