The Power of a Story, The Responsibility of a Witness
By Elizabeth Johnson
Long after statistics fade and headlines are forgotten, a single face can remain etched in memory forever. A trembling voice. A pause between sentences. A furrowed brow or tears. A story told not to revisit the past, but to ensure it is never repeated.
That enduring power has made film one of the most compelling vehicles for preserving history. Video invites viewers not simply to learn about another person’ s experience, but to bear witness to it. As the generation of Holocaust survivors grows smaller, that distinction has never carried greater urgency.
For veteran Emmy Award-winning television producer and filmmaker Glenn Fishkin, president and founder of Full Scale Production, storytelling has always been more than a profession. It is a means of preserving memory and creating understanding across generations.
His newest initiative, Voices Against Hate, builds on that conviction, using documentary filmmaking and short-form video to preserve Holocaust testimony while illuminating the contemporary realities of antisemitism. Through survivor interviews, personal narratives and educational storytelling, the project seeks to ensure history’ s lessons continue to resonate long after the last eyewitnesses are gone.
What was the moment when you realized this issue called for an initiative like Voices Against Hate? For me, it was a slow burn. Like so many people, I was horrified and outraged by the Oct. 7 attacks. But what stayed with me in the months that followed was the speed with which denial, distortion, antisemitic rhetoric and misinformation began spreading in public conversation.
I found myself constantly reacting, but eventually realized reacting was not enough. I kept asking myself: What can I actually do? The answer was the same thing I have done my entire career. I can tell stories. That led me back to“ Jewish American Soldiers: Stories From WWII,” a documentary I wrote, produced and directed in 2017. It aired on PBS stations across the country and is now part of the permanent collection of the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
At first, I thought Voices Against Hate would become another Holocaust documentary. But as I met with people across the Jewish community, almost everyone asked the same question: Could this be bigger? Could we preserve Holocaust memory while also telling the stories of antisemitism people are experiencing today? That is how Voices Against Hate was born.
Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte( JFGC) is serving as our fiscal agent and editorial partner, and we are working with the Stan Greenspon Holocaust Education Center( SGC), the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust, Women of the Shoah and others. Thanks to a small group of early donors, we have moved into production, interviewing Holocaust survivors and their families and capturing video at community events. The mission is simple but urgent: preserve memory, elevate lived experiences and help people understand what hate looks like before it becomes normalized.
Why was it important to connect Holocaust testimony with contemporary experiences of antisemitism? As they say, history might not repeat itself, but it rhymes. They are not separate conversations. That does not mean every antisemitic incident today is the Holocaust. It is not. We have to be careful and honest about that.
The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers. It began with words, lies, conspiracy theories, dehumanization, exclusion, silence and the gradual acceptance of rhetoric that should never have been accepted. When we interview Holocaust survivors and their families, we are preserving the lived experiences of people who saw what can happen when hatred, scapegoating and bigotry are normalized and institutions fail to respond.
Antisemitism today often uses old language in new forms. Social media gives lies and hate instant global reach, but many of the themes are painfully familiar: Jews as outsiders, Jews as manipulators, Jews as responsible for world events or Jews as people who do not deserve the same empathy or protection as others.
Holocaust memory gives us historical grounding. Contemporary stories show us why that memory still matters. If we treat them as separate, we risk locking the Holocaust safely in the past instead of recognizing what it still has to teach us.
What do people misunderstand about the ways antisemitism presents itself today? I think many people expect antisemitism to announce itself clearly. They expect a swastika, a slur, a Nazi salute or an attack on a synagogue. Sometimes it does look like that. But much of today’ s antisemitism is more subtle, coded and easily excused.
It can appear as conspiracy theories, double standards, holding all Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government, denying Jewish history or minimizing Jewish pain.
It also shows up in silence. People who speak loudly and passionately against other forms of hate sometimes become very quiet when hatred is directed at Jews.
Antisemitism is not just the isolated incident that makes the news. It is the accumulation. It is what Jewish students hear on campus. It is what parents worry about when they send their children to school. It is what people feel when they wonder whether it is safe to wear a Star of David or a kippah in public.
We need to help people recognize antisemitism not only when it is obvious, but when it is rationalized, minimized or hidden inside language that sounds acceptable.
Why do you believe stories can reach people in ways facts and statistics often cannot?
Facts matter. Statistics matter. History matters. But on their own, they don’ t always move people. A number can tell you antisemitism is rising. A headline can tell you something terrible happened. But a story can make you feel the human cost.
People may debate an issue, but it is much harder to dismiss a person. When someone looks into a camera and tells you what happened to them, what they lost, what they fear or what they still hope for, it creates a different kind of connection.
There is a line I heard recently that has stayed with me:“ Storytelling is a survivor skill.” For centuries, storytelling has been one of the Jewish people’ s most powerful means of preserving identity, memory, truth and faith across generations.
Voices Against Hate is not designed to shout at people. It is designed to bring them closer. My hope is these stories reach people who might tune out a debate or skip over a statistic but who will stop and listen to another human being.
As you interview Holocaust survivors and their families, what has stayed with you most? The details. The photograph someone saved. The name of a parent or sibling. The memory of a room, a sound, a warning, a goodbye. The way a survivor pauses before answering because the memory is still right there.
When you sit across from someone and hear what their family endured, history stops being abstract. It becomes a person. A voice. A face. A life interrupted, changed or shattered because of hatred. I have also been struck by the children and grandchildren of survivors. They are carrying stories they did not personally live through, but that profoundly shaped their families.
There is something sacred about the act of listening.
What responsibility does this generation have to preserve survivor testimony? We are becoming witnesses to the witnesses. That is a profound responsibility. For decades, Holocaust survivors went into classrooms, museums, synagogues,
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churches and community centers and said,“ I was there. This happened. Never forget.”
Now, fewer survivors are able to tell those stories in person. The responsibility shifts to us.
Preserving testimony is not enough if it sits on a shelf or hard drive. We have to make these stories accessible, teachable and emotionally alive. Future students may not be able to sit in a room with a Holocaust survivor, but they can still look into that person’ s eyes, hear the cadence of their voice and feel the weight of memory. Our responsibility is not only to remember. It is to carry memory forward in a way that helps people recognize hatred in their own time.
Why is it important for Voices Against Hate to reach beyond the Jewish community?
Antisemitism targets Jews, but it is not only a Jewish issue. It is a warning sign for society. History shows us that when antisemitism becomes normalized, it rarely stops with Jews.
We need Jewish audiences to feel seen and heard, but we also need non-Jewish audiences to understand what antisemitism is, how it appears and why silence is dangerous.
Fighting antisemitism cannot be left only to Jews. If someone watches one of these videos and responds differently the next time they hear a Jewish joke, see a conspiracy theory, witness a student being isolated or hear someone justify hatred, then the story has done something important.
Five years from now, what do you hope Voices Against Hate will have achieved? I hope Voices Against Hate is not viewed as a single project, but as an ongoing storytelling and education platform. We aim to build a library of Holocaust survivor testimony, family stories, contemporary experiences of antisemitism, educator resources, short-form videos and a full documentary. I would love to see these stories used in classrooms, teacher trainings, synagogues, churches, civic programs and interfaith conversations.
But the real measure of success will not be the number of videos we produce. It is whether the stories make a difference. If a student understands the Holocaust not as distant history, but as human experience, that matters. If a teacher feels better equipped to address antisemitism, that matters. If a non-Jewish viewer recognizes a form of antisemitism they had never understood, that matters. If a Jewish viewer feels less alone, that matters.
Ultimately, I hope Voices Against Hate helps future generations understand that memory is not passive; it asks something of us. We are not defined by antisemitism. We are defined by how we respond to it and how we mobilize to challenge it. And if we do not preserve these voices now, silence will ultimately become the storyteller.
To support Voices Against Hate, please contact Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte and designate your gift for Voices Against Hate.