Pilot Program for Whitwell Middle School, in Whitwell, Tennessee, during the 2016 School Year
When the students of Whitwell Middle School of Whitwell, a small southeastern Tennessee town, began studying the history of the Holocaust, as a way of learning about the tolerance of others, none of them could have predicted the outcome.
The Paper Clips Project started in 1998 as a simple 8th-grade activity. It evolved and received worldwide attention when the award-winning documentary, Paper Clips about the school’s project was released in 2004.
The Paper Clips Project changed the lives of those who created it and touched the hearts of Holocaust survivors and others, Jew and non-Jew alike, in countless communities around the world.
Upon learning the history and the use of paper clips during WWII, the Paper Clips Project began to take a unique shape. Students learned that the first patent for a bent wire paper clip was awarded in the United States, to Samuel B. Fay, in 1867. However, WWII events contributed greatly to the mythical status of the paper clip and the claim that it was invented by the Norwegian, Johan Vaaler. When other signs of resistance, such as flag pins or pins showing the cipher of the exiled King Haakon VII of Norway, were forbidden, Norwegian patriots wore paper clips on their lapels as a symbol of resistance to the German occupiers and local Nazi authorities. Wearing paper clips denoted solidarity and unity. To deter this display, it was soon prohibited and people wearing paper clips risked severe punishment.
Based on this portion of their learning, Whitwell Middle School students chose paper clips as the item they would collect to help them to visualize, measure, and comprehend the unfathomable number of 6 million Jewish victims. It wasn’t long before word spread about their project’s activity and paper clips began pouring in from around the world. A staggering 6 million clips, in all colors and sizes arrived at the school, in memoriam of the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. An authentic German rail cattle [box] car, the kind the Germans used to transfer millions of Jews to concentration camps and to their cruel death, was donated and was filled with the 6 million paper clips they had collected. It now stands as part of the Children’s Holocaust Memorial in the Whitwell schoolyard and, to this day, many more millions of paper clips continue to arrive.
The story, with a powerful lesson, of how small-town students and their educators have touched the hearts of millions, worldwide, has already been shared in hundreds of schools. But their story does not end there, as it has not yet been fully told. Whitwell Middle School students would now like to have the opportunity to witness and learn, first hand, how the Jewish people pulled themselves by their bootstraps, came together after so much loss and devastation, in their homeland and nation state, Israel, to become a source of inspiration and a blessing among nations.
Western Civilization Heritage Israel Program, (C.H.I.P), intends to complete the story of and for Whitwell Middle School, building bridges for learning western values by bringing past, present and future together through organized educational tour of Israel. The pilot program will offer students of Whitwell Middle School and their teachers the opportunity to visit Israel and to share their experiences with others.
Almost 68 years ago, the modern State of Israel was born as the ashes of the Holocaust were cooling and the world has never been the same. The miracle of modern Israel and what the Jewish people have built and accomplished, despite the horrors of the past and the challenges that remain, offers a moving experience for those eager to be so inspired. This program will teach children how Holocaust survivors and their descendants rebuilt their lives, nation, and homeland.
C.H.I.P – Bridges of Hearts, Minds and Souls
Your help is needed to fund the inaugural tour for the 30 students and their accompanying teachers who inspired the world with their Paper Clips Project.
There has never been a better time to bless our youth with a glimpse of modern Israel as it moves to become a leader among nations, through advances in the fields of business, technology, medicine, energy, agriculture, research and development. It is now essential for the story to be told, taught and ingrained in the minds of our youth, the future generations.
Experiencing the miracle of modern Israel, nestled in the ancient land of the Forefather Abraham and his descendants, will be a life changing trip for the students of Whitwell Middle School. It will then also inspire other schools to follow in their footsteps.
With this introduction we invite you to become an important and meaningful part of the Western Civilization Heritage Israel Project, by supporting this world-changing project. Our vision is that Whitwell Middle School is to be the first of many schools to be traveling to Israel through C.H.I.P.
C.H.I.P.’s message carries a profound sense of responsibility for making the world a better and more loving place for all future generations. By joining and supporting the C.H.I.P program you become one of the responsible links.
Music is a universal language. C.H.I.P has an original theme song, Rhyme in Peace (Original lyrics and score), Joe Santi (Joe Tarzan), lyrics, (all rights reserved) and Bartek Gliniak, music composer, (all rights reserved):
Enjoy reading and familiarizing yourself with the .C.H.I.P theme song and its message:
Rhyme in Peace
We go to learn, We come with love,
We go to grow, We come in peace,
To find the truth, So both of these,
That sages know. May now increase.
SHA-LOM SHA-LOM
SHA-LOM SHA-LOM
We bring our hearts,
And we’ll take home….,
The meaning of Shalom.
SHA-LOM
SHA-LOM
We, at C.H.I.P look forward to speaking with you soon and hope that you will consider supporting us in any way possible.
FROM THE PRESIDENT
To all supporters.
As an experienced managerial and administrative business executive and a freelance journalist, who greatly supports the nexus between the State of Israel and the non-Jewish world, I am proud to introduce you to “Western Civilization Heritage Israel Program” with the acronym “C.H.I.P”. We chose this name because the Nation State of the Jewish People, Israel, is the cradle and the heart of Western Civilization; Judaism is the birth place and the heart of both, Christian and Western Civilizations.
Our children are the future of our world; the way we teach our children is the way in which they will teach others. C.H.I.P is the future of our world. With C.H.I.P‘s Program, middle and high school youths, of all creeds, will travel to and visit the State of Israel.
C.H.I.P was born of a bold vision to make an educational trip to Israel an integral part of the life of as many as possible young Americans – and possibly other nationals – in an effort to generate a profound transformation in contemporary Western culture that will create a strong connection with the State and the People of Israel.
At C.H.I.P, our goal is to expose non-Jewish youths to “Jewish Israel”, the Israel that was first built by the Israelites-Jews over 3,600 years ago and was rebuilt by many Holocaust survivors immediately after World War II ended. The Land of Israel is called the Holy Land. With the C.H.I.P Program, non-Jewish children and youths will tour and thus appreciate the Israel that was built by Jews who, nowadays, are making “Jewish Light Unto the Nations;” the Land of Israel that stands by G-d for the Jewish People.
Part of the participants’ experience will be about “Other Religions Israel” but what C.H.I.P really wants the young to know about and understand is that Israel is, first and foremost, the JEWISH STATE, a democracy tightly following western values that were given birth there.
One of the primary objectives of the expedition is to motivate participants to find commonality with the State of Israel and her citizens, through peer educational experience, of historic and contemporary Israel.
The tour of Israel, conducted by professional educators/guides, will include visiting historical sites, i.e. the Dead Sea in the South, Tel-Aviv in the center of the country, the country’s Capital Jerusalem, the Lake of Galilee and the Golan Heights, up north, and so much more; also visiting Yad Va’shem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, archeological dig, a start-up company incubator, meeting with government officials and evenings of pleasurable fun with Israeli youths.
The purpose of C.H.I.P Program is to become somewhat of a mirror image of the highly successful ‘Birthright Israel’ Program (http://www.birthrightisrael.com/Pages/Default.aspx), a Program tailored to non-Jewish youths with strong emphasis on 21st Century educational interests through the eyes of modern Israel.
In the 21st Century Western Civilization is under constant threat and most young people have not been taught the roots of their Western Civilization’s culture, embedded in the Jewish Bible. This is all the more why we, at C.H.I.P, know that young people need to be taught the importance and the Holiness of Western Civilization and the Values that the Western world holds so dear, the values that all come forth from the Ten Commandments. These values have come forth form the Hebrew Bible, the vitality of today’s world and the world of the future in reference to all our functional and beloved values and cherished freedoms.
The future of Western Civilization will be based on young people learning and understanding what must be kept and cherished as being exceptional. Due to these values, originating in the 5-Torah books, Jews have been the roots of Western exceptionalism and there is no better starting point than a visit to the State of Israel.
C.H.I.P has many fans. Among the illustrious endorsees and supporters of the C.H.I.P Project are the Honorable Mr. David Siegel, current Consul General of Israel and Dena Weiss, former Director of Public Affairs, USA Western Region; Mr. Opher Aviran, Consul General of Israel to the Southeastern United States; Dr. Mordechai Kedar; Rabbi Baruch Cohon, of Cohon Memorial Foundation, and, Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg, the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth-El in Edison, New Jersey.
Whitwell Middle School, in Whitwell, Tennessee, has instituted the ‘Paper-Clips Project’ and has founded the Children’s Holocaust Memorial on the school’s grounds. We are proud and honored to announce that Whitwell Middle School will be the first school to travel to Israel with the C.H.I.P Program.
As the founder of C.H.I.P, my vision that gave birth to C.H.I.P came about from years of being familiar with and writing about the support for the State of Israel coming from the non-Jewish world, which, I sincerely believe, can be enhanced with the C.H.I.P Program.
Nowadays all Western youths must form a strong bonded coalition; let the ‘C.H.I.P’ Project be one other building brick in this alliance.
I am herewith asking you to honor us with your support; consider joining the C.H.I.P Project by endorsing it and/or contributing your financial support.
Sincerely,
Nurit Greenger, President/CEO
C.H.I.P
USA Tel.: 310.275.2877