The Butterfly Project

I have a special favor to ask. I know many of my artist friends read this blog and even those who are not artists can help on this one. The Holocaust Museum of Houston is sponsoring a very special project. One I intend to join in and I am asking you to join me, too.

The museum is dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust and remembering the six million Jews murdered as well as honoring the survivors. Using the lessons of the Holocaust, they teach the dangers of hatred, Prejudice and apathy. Their banner line reads "STOP HATE. START NOW"

The Butterfly Project is dedicated specifically to the 1,500,000 innocent children who perished as a result of the Holocaust by collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies. In Spring of 2013, these butterflies will become part of a breathtaking exhibition to serve as a memorial for these children. The project is based on a poem:

I Never Saw Another Butterfly

The last, the very last

So rich,brightly, dazzlingly yellow
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing
Against a white stone.

Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly 'way up high.
It went away I'm sure
because it wished to kiss the world good-bye

For seven weeks I've lives here
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelion call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.

Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live here in the ghetto.

Written by Pavel Friedman on June 4, 1942
Born in Prague January 7, 1921
Deported to Terezin Concentration Camp April 26, 1942
Died in Auschwitz September 29, 1944

Join me in creating a butterfly...you can go to the website for the Houston Holocaust Museum and get more details but all you need to do is create a butterfly about 8 X 10 inches and send it off to the museum. They have a submission form you can print out.

It won't take much time or effort, but the gift would be great. I am told it is a great mitzvah.......