Passover is a time of telling — in fact, the very word "haggadah" means "the telling." Telling is all we have today of that perilous journey from the narrow space of Mitzrayim to freedom. We have no eye-witness or survivor accounts; we have no photographs of enslaved Jews; we have no films of fleeing caravans; we have no proof of the parting of the Sea of Reeds or of the fates of pursuing soldiers within it.

It is no surprise, therefore, that some historians are skeptical of our sojourn in Egypt and our escape from it; you might call them "Exodus deniers."

The Holocaust is a fresh wound — in some ways, too fresh, for it pains us terribly. Nevertheless, though we must seek to heal from it, we must also seek to document it to the fullest.

Museums like Yad Vashem in Israel and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington collect survivor testimonies, artifacts, and documents.

Private and not so private individuals (we are thinking of Steven Spielberg and his Shoah Foundation) add to the store of Holocaust knowledge.

And survivors have bravely stood up in front of adult audiences and schoolchildren to tell what they experienced — and why the like must never happen again, to anyone anywhere.

An increasing number of survivors have set down their histories on paper and/or sent them across the Internet. Some of these accounts find publishers and readers, some do not, but the act of writing them, like adding letters to a Torah, is a holy one, and must be encouraged.

Last week the Claims Conference announced a worthy project: It is seeking survivors’ unpublished memoirs from around the globe to be part of an electronic collection that promises to be a valuable resource for scholars — as well as strengthening the evidence against those who would deny the Holocaust. Saul Friedlander, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, announced the initiative and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel is its honorary chairman.

This area is privileged to be rich in survivors. We urge them to learn more about this program, and to contribute to it. Their testimony and the information it can convey are a precious legacy for the future. For more information, go to www.memoirs.claimscon.org