Founder of In My Pocket goes on tour
Rabinowitz followed the life story of Oppenheim Sim while meeting fellow educators heading similar projects, by travelling through England, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Israel and Scotland.
Founder of the In My Pocket Project Eli Rabinowitz recently completed a four-week international tour to showcase the educational program based on Dorrith Oppenheim Sim’s autobiographical children’s book In My Pocket.
The WE ARE HERE! Foundation in Perth announced the educational project in April this year to promote human rights and social justice through the principle of being an upstander.
Oppenheim Sim was on a Kindertransport to the UK from Germany in 1939 and was seven years old when she ended up in Scotland. She never saw her parents again.
She published her autobiographical children’s book in 1996. The beautifully illustrated book is aimed at nine to 11-year-olds and affords a new perspective on the current situation of child refugees and displaced people.
The In My Pocket Project is a creative and interactive program that inspires children to be upstanders and not bystanders, providing them with the tools to build strengths to live in our multicultural communities.
Program participants will watch a video and read Oppenheim Sim’s true story about her escape, all alone, in 1939 from Germany.
The project, spearheaded by Rabinowitz, was further developed for WA Museum Boola Bardip and other organisations in Australia.
It was also developed with the help of the Glasgow Jewish Archive Centre, Edinburgh University and Germany’s Stadtmuseum, supported by the Western Australia Consul with funding from the German embassy in Canberra.
Rabinowitz followed the life story of Oppenheim Sim while meeting fellow educators heading similar projects, by travelling through England, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Israel and Scotland.
He met with two of Oppenheim Sim’s children in Glasgow and spoke to program directors in her hometown of Kassel, Germany.
Rabinowitz, who has conducted extensive research into the Liverpool Street Station Kindertransport memorials, was invited to present the In My Pocket Project at the Australian Jewish Refugees’ 85th anniversary of the Kindertransport next year.
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