Someone you recognize and someone you don’t. Someone who lives in the spotlight and someone who doesn’t — Hollywood A-listers posing with Holocaust survivors. 

That was the premise fashion photographer Bryce Thompson conjured up in an effort to amplify the stories of the last living generation of Holocaust survivors. The idea was initially fueled by antisemitism that Thompson, who is not Jewish, saw his friends, neighbors and mother, who converted to Judaism, facing in recent years. But the project — which took three years to complete — assumed even greater relevance after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks, the ensuing war in Gaza and the record high levels of anti-Jewish incidents in the U.S. that followed. 

A new collection of photographs shot by Thompson, called “Borrowed Spotlight,” debuted on Tuesday to coincide with Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, with the release of a coffee-table book and weeklong exhibition at Detour Gallery in Manhattan. It features Hollywood heavyweights including Cindy Crawford, Jennifer Garner and Chelsea Handler.

With years of experience photographing high-profile shoots for publications including GQ, ELLE and Glamour, Thompson initially expected that the photos would speak for themselves. But he told Jewish Insider that the most impactful moments were the ones between shots. “Those were the moments they interacted the most,” he said of his photography subjects. 

“The moments off-camera that were not being photographed, those are the best moments,” Thompson continued. “That’s what started the conversation piece of ‘please tell us your story.’” Ultimately, ‘Borrowed Spotlight’ “turned into an interview with a Holocaust survivor and a celebrity, less than a portrait series.” 

Alongside portraits, mostly candid, the book quotes dozens of comments survivors made in casual conversation with the celebrities they were matched with. Among them was one made by Holocaust survivor and philanthropist Elizabeth Wilf, who was paired with David Schwimmer: “My grandchildren are my revenge, I guess,” Wilf told the “Friends” actor.  

“It became me listening and photographing the moments between people sharing their life stories,” Thompson said. “That really kicked off momentum for us. It was hard to walk away from those shoots and not be so emotionally moved that you want to dive right into the next one.” 

Initially, Thompson tried to pair survivors with celebrities who had common traits or roots, such as a shared country of birth. “But we found that no matter which celebrity we paired with which survivor, they always had common ground even if they were from different places. We’ve all got something in common with a survivor. The conversations flowed much easier than if we tried to curate it.” 

Supermodel Cindy Crawford said in a statement that when she was asked to participate in the book, “It was an instant yes.”

“I’ve always believed in being part of the solution, not the problem,” Crawford said. “The opportunity to meet and converse with a Holocaust survivor felt deeply meaningful.”

Several of the famous participants, including Scooter Braun and Sheryl Sandberg, frequently use their platforms to condemn rising antisemitism. 

But not all of the celebrities approached were so eager to participate; some feared it could hurt their careers to speak out against antisemitism so publicly — especially in the aftermath of Oct. 7. “That was sad to see,” Thompson said. “We’re in an industry where cancel culture is prevalent.”

He added that after Hamas’ attack in Israel and amid the war in Gaza “a lot of our yeses turned into maybes turned into nos because people don’t want to take political sides.” 

“But our message was clear,” Thompson continued, “we started this project before Oct. 7 as a Holocaust awareness project.” 

Thompson told JI that while “Borrowed Spotlight” won’t be an annual project — “that’s ambitious,” he said, “this one took almost three years” — he’s “happy to keep the project alive as long as it’s needed, whether it’s going to Israel to see the survivors of Oct. 7 from the Nova festival or anywhere else we can go to bring awareness.” 

Proceeds from book sales will support campaigns to educate younger generations about the Holocaust, according to the organizers. Proceeds from a private auction of select prints will benefit two organizations dedicated to Holocaust remembrance and survivor support: Selfhelp, which provides services and assistance to living Holocaust survivors in New York, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. 

The collection’s opening photograph, which did not include a celebrity, was already auctioned this week, going for $20,000. It displays the arm of survivor Joseph Alexander tattooed with a number from his time as an Auschwitz prisoner. 

Holocaust Survivor Avigdor Neuman told his story in front of the Knesset’s Chagall tapestries, in Jerusalem. In Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, thousands gathered to hear survivor Aliza Landau recount her experiences, along with the parents of hostages speaking about their sons’ continued captivity in Gaza. Dozens of teenage volunteer EMTs gathered at a Magen David Adom ambulance station in northern Israel to hear Holocaust survivor David Peleg speak. Women gathered in a Pilates studio in central Israel to hear a fellow member share her mother’s story of survival. 

And in hundreds of living rooms around Israel on Wednesday evening, Holocaust survivors or their children told countless stories to small groups. In the days leading up to Yom Hashoah, which began at sundown Wednesday, Israelis using the navigation app Waze could see the locations of such events and find links to sign up. One of those locations, in the central Israel city of Hod Hasharon, is the home of Adi Altschuler, the founder of Zikaron BaSalon – “memory in the living room.”

In between preparations to host 40 people for her own Yom Hashoah event, Altschuler spoke to Jewish Insider about how her initiative has become a ubiquitous way for Israelis to mark Yom Hashoah, the day that Israel commemorates the Holocaust. Over 2 million people attended Zikaron BaSalon events across the world this year, according to Altschuler.

Altschuler, 38, is an award-winning social entrepreneur who has been a well-known name in Israel for over 20 years since, as a teenager, she founded a youth movement for children with and without special needs to do activities together. 

The idea for Zikaron BaSalon brewed slowly, beginning in 2010, when she forgot about Yom Hashoah altogether, Altschuler said.

“I don’t have a personal family connection to the Holocaust,” she recounted. “I felt that I couldn’t connect to the topic … I was scared of it and deterred from it.” 

Altschuler heard sad music on the radio one day, and then talked to her mother on the phone and asked if something tragic had happened – because in Israel, when there is a terror attack, the music stations only play sad songs. Her mother reminded her that Yom Hashoah was beginning in a few hours and asked her how she planned to commemorate the day.

“I said, I don’t know, maybe I’ll watch ‘Schindler’s List,’” Altschuler said. “My mother was angry with me, so I went with her to a ceremony in Tel Aviv. I was 24 years old and I was the only one there who was under 60.”

“That was when it occurred to me that I am part of the last generation who will meet Holocaust survivors … I said to myself, what will Yom Hashoah look like in 30 years? … What will happen when there aren’t survivors anymore?” she asked.

Altschuler said she thought Yom Hashoah could end up either like Tisha B’Av – the day on which Jews fast to mark the destruction of the Temple, and something that most Israelis don’t observe – or the Passover Seder, which over 90% of Israeli Jews observe.

The following Yom Hashoah, Altschuler once again looked for a way to mark the day, and went to the same ceremony in Tel Aviv. On the way to her car, she heard shouting from an apartment, and could see through the windows that people her age were watching a soccer game.

“I thought, this is why people aren’t at the ceremony. They’re in their living rooms,” she said.

That was when the idea for Zikaron BaSalon started to come together. A year after that, Altschuler invited a Holocaust survivor to her home to tell her story, and 10 friends to hear her. Ultimately, 40 people attended.

For Altschuler, hearing a survivor’s testimony “took the big story of 6 million and turned it into the story of one person,” helping her connect. 

And the survivor herself, who had previously been intimidated by the idea of speaking at Yad Vashem or an entire school, had a chance to tell her story. The survivor started by saying “I hope I won’t disappoint you,” because she was hidden as a child and did not survive a concentration camp. Altschuler said these events, which feature a broad range of survivors with varying experiences, also give recognition to people whose Holocaust stories are different from what people are used to hearing.

“For the survivors who are still with us,” Altschuler said, “they want to be remembered and they want us to remember those who are not with us. It gives them a lot of strength, even when it is difficult for them to tell their stories.”

Altschuler and her friends asked questions and at the end, a friend took out a guitar and they sang songs.

“It wasn’t a ceremony that was forced on us. We created the experience,” she said. “We started a conversation about what we need to remember and what we can learn today. We even argued. It wasn’t sterile. But there was something in the informality of a living room that was right and authentic.” 

Altschuler then asked everyone who was in her living room to invite people to their homes the following year, which meant there were 40 salons in Israel, plus one in south Florida, where a friend of Altschuler’s lived, and where there is a large concentration of Holocaust survivors. 

In the ensuing years, Zikaron BaSalon expanded to 2 million attendees across 65 countries — 1.5 million of whom are in Israel. The president of Germany hosts one each year. Israel’s three major TV channels broadcast live from the events. 

After the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, Altschuler said hearing survivors’ stories had an even deeper meaning: “Zikaron BaSalon gives us hope and shows us how we can get up again after the most destabilizing metaphysical event in human history. These people rose and started families and established a country. We can absorb those values and they give us hope now.”

Altschuler encouraged people around the world to host their own events, noting that the Zikaron BaSalon has resources in many languages and volunteers around the world who can provide kits to prospective hosts. 

“You can do one with your family, or you can do something big — just do it. Just decide to take this responsibility to host, to tell the story … so it’s like a tradition, like a Seder, that our children will grow up with,” she said. 

“The most amazing thing is this doesn’t belong to anyone. My name isn’t on the website,” Altschuler said. “It’s a social movement of individual people who decided to take responsibility for remembering the Holocaust and did it in their own way.”

Abe Foxman, the former Anti-Defamation League national director, offered pointed criticism of the Trump administration in a Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration at the Capitol on Wednesday.

“As a [Holocaust] survivor, my antenna quivers when I see books being banned, when I see people being abducted in the streets, when I see government trying to dictate what universities should teach and whom they should teach. As a survivor who came to this country as an immigrant, I’m troubled when I hear immigrants and immigration being demonized,” Foxman said, to sustained applause from the audience.  

Foxman, who led the ADL for nearly three decades, made the comments while delivering an address at the 2025 Days of Remembrance, which was organized by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. 

Foxman also praised the Biden administration and the second Trump administration for each committing to addressing antisemitism. “We live in very chaotic times, where our values, our history, our democracy are being tested. As a survivor, I’m horrified at the explosion of antisemitism — global and in the U.S. I’m appreciative of President Biden’s historic initiative on antisemitism and thankful to President Trump’s strong condemnation of antisemitism and his promise to bring back consequences to antisemitic behavior,” Foxman said.

“We look around us and what do we see? Rampant antisemitism on college campuses and in cities worldwide in the aftermath of that horrific terror attack on our cherished Jewish state, Israel. We see social media algorithms that promote extreme views, conspiracy theories,” Foxman continued, adding that “online conspiracy theories are just one click away from antisemitism.”

“We also see forms of antisemitism that seemed unthinkable: Holocaust denial, distortion, civilization, exploitation and even glorification. We look around and see here in America antisemitism on both the far left and far right. The 20th-century history of Nazism and communism should be an alarm bell as to just how dangerous this is, and not just for us Jews, but for all of society, for all who care about democracy, individual freedom and dignity,” he said.

Foxman also noted that the scourge in domestic antisemitism was reminiscent of how Jew hatred worsened for years prior to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. “Antisemitism [is] not so different from the conspiracy theories that permeated Europe for centuries, long before Hitler was born and helped make the killings of two-thirds of our people possible,” he said.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also spoke at Wednesday’s reception, where he described the Holocaust as a “failure of humanity” and argued that the evil that perpetrated it was akin to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. 

“The Holocaust was a failure of humanity. But as we all know, no matter how hard we try, that kind of hatred continues to exist, just in many, many other forms. It shows up in different ways, and it shows up at different times,” Lutnick said. 

The Oct. 7 attack, Lutnick argued, was “carried out with the same genocidal hatred that fueled Auschwitz, and it’s that same disregard for human life that fueled the Sept. 11 attacks. It’s just the same hate, it just comes at a different time with a different name.”

Becoming emotional, Lutnick vowed “in very, very clear and plain language” that Trump “will never back down from defending the Jewish people, never.”