Enhancing the visual beauty and uniqueness of 4,000 Year Road Trip: Gathering Sparks is the Community Narratives Project, a collection of digital stories that reflect the multi-faceted nature of the Jewish people. The project was created through a unique collaboration between the Mizel Museum and members of Denver’s local communities. Throughout 4, 000 Year Road Trip: Gathering Sparks, visitors can learn more about the diversity of the Jewish people by viewing these compelling and vibrant short digital stories. iPads incorporate the medium of digital storytelling in a way that deepens the learning experience for museum visitors and highlights the central themes of the exhibit, including immigration, resilience, Jewish continuity and family, community, death, the Holocaust and more.
Visit the Community Narratives Project website HERE, where you can view all of the stories.
The museum warmly thanks each contributor to this essential component of the exhibition! Their stories listed below can be viewed at the museum during business hours. Check back to our website every month for a new featured story.
2008 Stories of Resilience
These stories became part of the museum exhibit Voices of Resilience, featuring ten members of the community who modeled great perseverance in the face of a spectrum of adversity.
| Francie Alpert | Holocaust; Immigration; France |
| Aliza Bulow | Conversion |
| Rabbi Sandy Cohen ddd | Female Rabbis |
| Rebecca Gershten | Rape |
| Ben Kapnik | Depression |
| Moshe Luber z’l | Resilience |
| Sarah Male | Alopecia |
| Elisha Noy | Founding of Israel, Immigration |
| Joan Wallach | Eating Disorders, Hearing Loss |
| Linda Weiss | Adoption, HIV |
2009–2010 Immigration Stories
These stories demonstrate the great diversity of the metro-area Jewish community, and address the universal topic of immigration.
| Tomas Berl | Fleeing Nazis; Fleeing Communism; Ecuador |
| Judy Blaine | South Africa |
| Jack Kamin | Lithuania, Jewish Music |
| David Kazzaz | Mizrachi Jewish, Iraq |
| Joel Odonkor | Conversion, Ghana |
| Bluma Palanovaddd | Uzbekistan; Bukharian Jews |
| Beatriz Pestana | Crypto-Jews; Venezuela |
| Elana Reman | Ukraine |
| Carlos Zarur | Sephardic, Mexico City |
| Jeff Zhuk | Belarus; Jews in Former Soviet Union |
2011 Stories of Community & Continuity
The museum collected these stories to expand and deepen visitors’ experience of Jewish life and culture.
| Alan Gass | Babi Yar Park |
| Julie Geller | Jewish Musician |
| Abigail Hirsch | Fifth Generation Denver |
| Alyssa Kapnik | Inheritance |
| Lee Fisher Rosenberg | Tay-Sachs Disease |
| Ed Stein | Social Action, Political Cartoons |
| Sheldon Steinhauser | Social Activism |
| Sheldon Ciner | Mohel, Jewish Continuity |
| Audrey Friedman Marcusddd | Jewish Education |
| Miriam Hoffman | Mikvah, Women’s Health, Jewish Continuity |
| Arel Mishory | Women’s Chevra Kadisha, Jewish Continuity |
2012 Generations: Survivor Stories
These stories illustrate the vastness of the Holocaust experienced in Eastern and Western Europe, Siberia, and Greece.
| Irene Abosch | Latvia |
| Eric Cahn | France, Germany |
| Miriam Hoffman | Greece |
| Don Krakowski | Siberia |
| Renee Krakowskiddd | Siberia |
| Gerard Rosenthal | Germany, Belgium, France |
| Alla Shcherbina | Sterodub, Ukraine |
| Joan Wallis | Daughter of survivor of Auschwitz |
| Jack Welner | Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz |
| Maria Zalessky | Latvia |
| Talia Zall | Granddaughtter of a Lodz Ghetto and Auschwitz survivor |
For more information about the Community Narratives Project email Deanne Kapnik or call (303) 749-5019.
