Rex Evans connects students to Holocaust survivors

After volunteering with the Museum of Tolerance and taking on an internship at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMOTH), Samo junior Rex Evans (’20) has received the Los Angeles Jewish Teen Initiative Teen Innovation Grant of 1,500 dollars to use toward a program he has developed, aimed to connect teens to holocaust survivors. Through his exposure to survivors in time spent at both museums, Evans felt it was extremely important for other teens to get the chance to learn through the survivors before it became too late. A few months into volunteering at the Museum of Tolerance, Evans had the experience of listening to survivor testimonies as part of his volunteer training. Though these testimonies taught him a lot, he felt it would be even more meaningful to forge personal connections with survivors. “While powerful and educational, the testimonies felt kind of impersonal as I would be in a room with up to 30 other people, and it would just be the survivor talking to us for an hour. While listening to testimonies has immense value, I felt that there was also a lot of value to conversing with survivors one-on-one, which is why I approached my supervisor at the museum about running events that would allow one-on-one conversations between survivors and teens,” Evans said. Evans makes sure to entertain both the survivors and teens, planning events with varying themes that include arts and crafts, board games/puzzles and most recently music, an idea credited to his sister Gracie Evans (’21). These events run smoothly and successfully with the help of his supervisor Elana Samuels, the Director of Volunteer Services at the Museum of Tolerance. However, it was at the LAMOTH where Evans first learned of the grant he would attain.  “I heard about it through the internship I did this summer that was also through the Los Angeles Jewish Teen Initiative. It is the Los Angeles Jewish Teen Initiative Teen Innovation Grant, which provides creative Jewish teens the ability to turn their ideas into reality,” Evans said.The mission of the Teen Innovation Grant is to push Jewish teens to explore their passions while reaching out to the greater Los Angeles community as well. The grant provides up to $1,500 (which Evans received in full), as well as a mentor from the community.Evans’ mentor is LAMOTH Director of Education Jordanna Gessler, who helps him to budget the money he received. He plans on using the money towards supplies, refreshments, transportation and other necessary costs for his events. Gessler provides additional help by working with Evans to come up with themes for the events and planning them. Evans held his first two events in March and November and is excited to continue making connections between these generations of Jewish people. The next event is scheduled to take place in January.