THE MEMORIAL LIBRARY/
THE OLGA LENGYEL
INSTITUTE
PARTICIPANTS AND FACULTY AT THE 2015 MEMORIAL LIBRARY SUMMER SEMINAR IN NEW YORK CITY.
2015
Dr. Sondra Perl
Director, The Holocaust Educators Network
Dr. Jennifer Lemberg
Associate Director, The Holocaust Educators Network
The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
Contents Overview
I.
Introduction
II.
2015 Memorial Library Summer Seminar on Holocaust Education
III.
Satellite Seminars
IV.
Mini-Grant Program
V.
Professional Development/Conferences
VI.
Assessment Survey
VII. International Programs
VIII. Words of Appreciation
IX.
Appendices: 2015 Seminars Agendas and Participants
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Final Report 2015
I. Introduction
The Memorial Library and the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust and Human Rights provide
professional development opportunities for educators across the United States and Europe. Our focus is
on using the lessons of the Holocaust to shed light on current issues of social injustice. Our long-term goal
is to work with teachers across the globe so that they can advance a classroom agenda that teaches
students about the Holocaust while also empowering them to step up and speak out on behalf of human
rights. In this report, we begin with our flagship program, the Memorial Library Summer Seminar in New
York City, and then report on our outreach programs in the United States which include our satellite
seminars, mini-grant project, and workshops at professional conferences. Following our programs is an
overview of a large-scale assessment study conducted by an independent research firm to evaluate the
effectiveness of our work in the United States. The assessment survey was distributed to all teachers who
attended our programs since their inception in 2006 and have become members of our professional
development community, the Holocaust Educators Network. We conclude with a description of our support
for and development of outreach efforts in Europe, notably in Romania and Bulgaria, where we have
begun to work intensively with teachers and administrators in both countries.
II. 2015 Memorial Library Summer Seminar on Holocaust Education
The Holocaust Educators Network (HEN), a division of the Memorial Library, has its start each summer at
the Memorial Library Summer Seminar. It is here, at the offices of the Memorial Library at 58 E. 79th
Street in Manhattan, that we hold a 12-day seminar for twenty-five middle school, high school, and
college teachers from across the United States. In the seminar we use writing and dialogue to reflect on
the challenges of teaching the Holocaust and other genocides, and to create plans for bringing what the
participants have learned back to their schools and communities. The group of teachers we convened in
the summer of 2015 represented a wide variety of schools and backgrounds—some were teacherconsultants from the National Writing Project, others were teacher-leaders from the US Holocaust
Memorial Museum, additional participants came to us via the Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Teachers
Program, the ADL Bearing Witness Program, and the Shoah Foundation Visual History Project. Two
educators from Hungary also joined us as part of a US State Department program.
To prepare, participants were asked to join the Memorial Library’s website, where they engaged in online
conversations beginning approximately six weeks before the seminar. Online forums included a space for
participants to introduce themselves to build community in advance of their meeting in person, and others
where they could discuss Olga Lengyel’s Five Chimneys and HEN Director Dr. Sondra Perl’s On Austrian
Soil and begin the shared process of dialogue and learning.
Dr. Perl opened the seminar with an overview of the themes that would guide our shared inquiry, focusing
on identity, Holocaust history and testimony, approaches to designing curricula, inquiry methods, and
professional stance, including the following:
Examining Identity
 Who are we? How are our identities formed?
 What texts, images and artifacts do we choose to represent ourselves?
 What is the relationship between our personal and professional identities?
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Studying the Holocaust
 Listening to Survivor Testimony
 Gaining Perspectives on Judaism: History, Culture, Rituals & Practices
 Accessing History through Conversations with Scholars and Artifacts
Working on Curriculum
 Responding critically and generously to classroom approaches
 Considering the relationship of Holocaust education to social justice in the world today
 Creating and taking next steps: Networking among ourselves, working with our students, and
bringing this work to our communities
 Effecting change: Memorial Library mini-grants & ongoing collaboration with HEN and other
partner organizations.
Understanding Pedagogy
 We start with ourselves and then move into the world based on the premise that teaching and
learning are both personal and social engagements.
 We write -- composing stories, poems and personal reflections — exploring the way writing
anchors us in a shaky world and gives voice to what often remains inchoate or unsaid.
 Ultimately, the seminar is an inquiry that will grow from our shared reading, writing, responding,
and reflecting.
In teaching the seminar, Perl was joined by HEN’s Associate Director, Dr. Jennifer Lemberg. Alice Braziller,
Micha Franke and Oana Popescu Sandu served as important members of our teaching team. Ildiko Kope
provided essential back-up and office support and Doua Abulafia was our summer intern.
The program included:
 Holocaust survivor testimony by Irving Roth;
 a lecture entitled “How Was It Possible?” by noted historian Peter Hayes at the Museum of Jewish
Heritage;
 a lecture on the concentration camp system by Dachau educator Micha Franke;
 a workshop on culturally sensitive pedagogy by Professor Miriam Ezzani;
 workshops by three former Memorial Library participants, Michelle Clark, Corey Harbaugh, and
Diane Williams focusing on Holocaust education across the US and action projects for the classroom
focusing on social justice;
 a premier of a new documentary, The Sharps’ War, about two Americans who rescued Jews during
the Holocaust, introduced by the filmmaker (their grandson), Artemis Joukowsky;
 a workshop on responding to the film by Facing History and Ourselves NYC leader, Kevin Feinberg;
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Final Report 2015
 a discussion about the history of Judaism with Rabbi Deborah Hirsch followed by a Shabbat service
at Temple Shaaray Tefila and then a Shabbat meal back at the Memorial Library;
 a klezmer performance, and
 a ten-year anniversary celebration with invited guests from NYC and California.
Throughout twelve days (June 20 to July 1, 2015), the seminar aimed to make connections between the
historical legacy of the Holocaust and present-day instances of social injustice. We requested that the
teachers send lesson plans in advance so that, as in prior years, their work could be easily distributed
and used in the curriculum groups, where teachers demonstrated their best practices for learning about
history, processing student responses to atrocity, and building connections to current issues in creative and
innovative ways. This year we also created both print curriculum booklets and flash drives filled with all
the materials distributed and referred to in the seminar in order to make disseminating the materials to
participants’ home institutions easier.
In its tenth year, the goals of the seminar built upon its original purpose while also seeking to improve
upon the previous summer. Our aims were as follows:
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To teach teachers about the Holocaust, focusing on history, testimony, and contemporary
theoretical concepts;
To help teachers create new methods for engaging students with hard issues by using ‘writing-tolearn’ practices and other interactive teaching strategies;
To introduce teachers to and involve them in the use of new media for studying the Holocaust;
To develop pedagogical techniques for addressing the range of responses that comes into play
when teaching the Holocaust, and for directing the energy generated by those responses toward
addressing contemporary conflicts;
To build teachers’ cultural knowledge of Judaism in order to enhance their ability to teach about
the Holocaust;
To connect our work with the Holocaust and other genocides to issues of social justice today; and
To encourage and support teachers in the creation of action projects in their schools and
communities.
Participants came from schools in fifteen different states and two from abroad: Alabama, Arizona,
California, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin and Hungary. A list of participants’ names and schools are attached.
Please see Appendix A.
All were awarded $350 and a certificate marking 75 hours of completed professional development for
their participation in the seminar.
Other Highlights from the Summer Seminar
Each day of the seminar began and ended with the opportunity to reflect, in writing or through other
shared activities, on issues, questions, and troubling or traumatic content that arose during the course of
the seminar. As mentioned above, we listened to testimony from Holocaust survivor Irving Roth who bore
witness to his experience of Auschwitz and Buchenwald and also spoke about the importance of
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
Holocaust memory and its implications for the future. Additional weekend and evening activities and field
trips provided the opportunity for our participants to grasp more fully the ethnic diversity that
characterizes New York City and to take in the myriad cultural events that make New York unique.
The Memorial Library provided an elegant venue for these events while serving as a comfortable home
base. Once again, “identity boxes” created by the teachers at the beginning of the seminar provided rich
visual reminders of the unique personal histories that each of us brings to our study of the Holocaust.
The Memorial Library and TOLI also sponsor Satellite Seminars led by seminar participants who have
returned to New York for further training. In 2015, summer seminars were held in 11 other states. A more
complete description of these seminars follows below.
Please see Appendix B for a complete Calendar of Activities. Plans are currently underway for the 2016
Summer Seminar as well as a Leadership Institute offered to potential future Satellite Seminar leaders.
Selected Comments from participants in the 2015 Memorial Library Summer Seminar in New York:
“It would be impossible to find one word or even a few sentences that would embody my experience. I am
grateful for feeling valued. I am humbled to have learned alongside such wonderful professionals. I am
driven to become a different teacher and empower my students. Now more than ever I have greater clarity
about why it is so important to teach the Holocaust.” – Michelle Sorise, Great Neck South High School
“The particular strength of this seminar lies in its communitybuilding. As a teacher, I know how hard it is to build community
in a classroom of students from the same area of the same
age. You managed to take a group of different ages, from
disparate backgrounds, or different faiths and philosophies,
and turn us into a FOREVER FAMILY… My writing group really
increased the confidence of this closet poet. My life has been
forever changed by this seminar and I can barely contain my
love and gratitude. I feel honored, fortunate, and
rejuvenated.” – Sally Ingram, Saint Bernadette School
“I know that I am a changed teacher after this. I felt so
confused before I came about why this work compels me so
much, and unable to articulate it. Now, I know to say that the
lens of the Holocaust is that through which I can most
effectively teach my students about being human. In addition to
that, I am taking away the message that without using humanity
to teach about these inhumanities, my work will fall flat. When
being presented with atrocities and the dark side of human
nature, students need especially to feel nurtured, valued, and
supported. This is a change I need to make, and incorporating
writing more casually and formally is a first step. Thank you so
much for doing this work, bringing us here, and celebrating us
as professionals and peers. It has been wonderful.” – Kate
Molony, Central Catholic High School
“THIS PROGRAM MET MY
NEEDS AS A TEACHER AND A
HUMAN BEING ON THE
LEVELS OF MORALITY,
PHILOSOPHY, AND
HUMANITY… THANK YOU,
THANK YOU FOR PUTTING
TOGETHER SUCH AN
AMAZING PROGRAM THAT
HONORS TEACHERS AND
THEIR VOICES WITH SUCH
SKILL AND DEDICATION.”
– JEFFREY PARKER,
NORMAN HOWARD
SCHOOL, ROCHESTER, NY
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Final Report 2015
IV. Satellite Seminars
In June and July of 2015, the Memorial Library and TOLI supported 11 Satellite Seminars across the
United States. What follows are brief descriptions of each. Final evaluations and in-depth reports on
each satellite are available on file at the Memorial Library.
California Satellite Seminar: Crossing Lines: Tools for Teaching Tough Topics
Elk Grove, California- June 22 to 26, 2015
Led by Pam Bodnar and Gail Desler
History unfolds one story at a time. From the strawberry fields of historic Florin, California, emerged the
untold stories of the Mien and Hmong. Encouraged by a Holocaust survivor and a former JapaneseAmerican internee, refugees from the “Secret War in Laos” rolled back their sleeves, opened their hearts,
and brought history to life. Through the lens of survivors, participants gained an understanding and
appreciation of the common threads connecting the exclusion and forced removal of any group of
people. During our 2015 Crossing Lines seminar, teachers explored the difference a single person can
make by choosing to cross the line from bystander to upstander. Through the strategies, resources and
tools shared over the course of the week, teachers left feeling empowered to create “safe spaces” in the
classroom.
Speakers:
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Steve Ly, Board Member, Elk Grove USD, Welcome
“Rescuers, Perpetrators & Bystanders.” Sam Edelman, Director, The Center for Excellence on the
Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, Human Rights, and Tolerance
Marielle Tsukamoto, Florin Japanese American Citizens League, on resilience
Chiem-Seng Yaangh, Ph.D, “Journey from Laos”
Joe Liow and Kaying Thao-Yang on Mien Culture and Art
Bernie Marks, Holocaust survivor
Hannie Voyles, Holocaust survivor and author, on stories of survival and resilience
Dr. Lorie Hammond, professor emeritus at CSU Sacramento in Teacher Education, cross-cultural
education activities
Selected comments from California seminar participants:
“It was packed & I learned so much. The atmosphere is intellectual AND passionate. I’m thrilled to spend time
with like-minded people.”
“A wonderful mix of listening, watching, writing, creating & talking. Websites, guest speakers, essay contest,
crosswords – too much to say, I have amazing notes.”
“Hearing the story of a Holocaust survivor in person is an incredible experience – I feel honored and
humbled. I really benefitted from the additional information on the Secret War. I plan to use Time of
Remembrance (website) and TED Talks in my classroom.”
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Participants in the Crossing Lines seminar in Elk Grove, California.
“I am taking away many great topics to use in my classroom. I am excited about creating a better
culture/community in my classroom.”
“I come away with a far deeper understanding of the Mien and Hmong cultures, as well as renewed
appreciation for the important job we, as teachers, have in empowering our students with knowledge of other
people. It is only through knowledge and the courage to stand up for what is right that lasting change can be
made.”
Kentucky Holocaust and Social Justice Seminar: Social Justice Centered Classrooms: A Thinking and Writing
Retreat
General Butler State Resort Park, Carrollton, Kentucky - June 24 to 28, 2015
Led by Stephanie Smith and Casi Owens
Conducted with the support of the Memorial Library and the Kentucky Writing Project State Network, our
seminar focuses on developing social justice-centered classrooms using lessons from the Holocaust, other
genocides, and contemporary social justice issues. Participants interact with esteemed guests including a
local Holocaust survivor and experts in Holocaust studies and the Rwandan genocide. We offer
opportunities for participants to deepen knowledge of historical and contemporary human rights issues
and how to teach about them; to consider the importance of primary source testimony; to learn more
about Judaism and its traditions to contextualize understanding of the Holocaust; and to make connections
between the lessons of the Holocaust and current social justice issues. It is our goal for teachers to leave
with pedagogically sound methods and materials to further inquiry and to build lessons, units, or
programs that meet classroom, district, and community needs.
Speakers and Highlights:
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Katie Rupp, Intermediate Elementary Instructional Demo
Alexis Storch, Echoes and Reflections
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Final Report 2015
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Werner Coppel, Holocaust Survivor
Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp
Gatsinzi Basaninyenzi, Alabama A&M University, on the Genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda
Brad Shoopman on creating digital stories
Selected comments from Kentucky seminar participants:
“I plan on using ‘Why Knowing about the Holocaust Matters’ as my second module beginning fall 2015 at
Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky. We will spend a week and a half in and out of class
reading and discussing key aspects that I will choose from Echoes and Reflections and The World Must
Know. Students will then spend a week writing and editing papers on “Why Knowing about the Holocaust
Matters.” I also direct a summer writing camp in Winchester, Kentucky, for children in 3rd through 10th
grade. I plan on using Hanna’s Suitcase (a resource introduced to me by Alexis Storch) as one of our
primary text resources. This will occur the last week of July 2015. Thank you again for your generosity. My
teaching life will never be the same.”
“Although I teach Elie Wiesel’s memoir in
my classroom, what I have learned this
week is helping me to transform my
classroom into one where we “do the Night
unit,” to one where I am choosing many of
the texts. . . to get my students thinking
about prejudice, hate, oppression, and
genocide. And not just to teach it to teach
it because I have a feeling of some sort of
social obligation, or to shock my students,
but to show them the other side of it and
how they do not have to be in the mire of
negativity, but cling to the hope and the
stories of the people who fight hate, for
those are the stories that they need to hear.
Teenagers often feel like they are alone in CHAPLAIN ALLI COHEN PROVIDES INFORMATION ABOUT THE TORAH AT
the world and that nothing ever feels good, TEMPLE SHOLOM DURING THE HOLOCAUST AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
but by giving them stories of people with SEMINAR IN KENTUCKY .
real struggles other than their own and
stories of people who fight back and resist and bring hope to the hopeless, I want my students to see that
they have a voice that they can use. And that words have the capability of helping or hurting, so if we have
the choice (which we always do), we should always do good because our choices define who we are and
affect more people than just ourselves.”
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
Maryland Holocaust Educators Network Summer Seminar: The Holocaust, Human Rights, and the Role of
Education
Salisbury University, Salisbury, Maryland – July 19-24, 2015
Led by Dr. Diana Wagner and Dr. Sandy Pope
“The Holocaust, Human Rights, and the Role of Education” gathers middle school through university-level
teachers from across the region to study the Holocaust and genocide in a context of local issues of civil
rights and social justice. Together, we witness, study, and collaborate to invigorate our teaching. Teachers
from all disciplines, middle school-university level, are accepted through a competitive application
process, and may represent public, private, and charter schools throughout the mid-Atlantic region. The
seminar is free, and participating teachers receive all books and materials, workshops and seminars, field
trip transportation, evening events, and most breakfasts and lunches. Extremely low-cost housing options
are available on the Salisbury University campus.
Speakers and Highlights:
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Rabbi Arnold Bienstock, Welcome and Introduction to Jewish History and Practice during visit to
Temple Beth Israel, Salisbury
Dr. Maarten Pereboom, author of History and Film: Moving Pictures and the Study of the Past,
screening of “Night and Fog” and discussion of Holocaust film
Laura Lane, former U.S. Embassy official in Rwanda during the genocide, on rescue and resilience
Anna Gross, Holocaust survivor, visit during day spent at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Deborah Batiste, training in Echoes & Reflections curriculum
Shabbat service at Temple Beth Israel
Skype chat with Carl Wilkens, author of I’m Not Leaving and the last American to remain in
Rwanda during the genocide
Screening of “The Ghosts of Rwanda"
Selected comments from Maryland seminar participants:
“It was great getting to meet colleagues from other school districts and to work with people from around the
world. The opportunity to meet Laura Lane and Skype with Carl Wilkens was an amazing experience that few
people will ever have.”
“The best experience I had was meeting a wonderful group of educators who are committed and passionate
about reaching others through education. I also feel that I have gained a better understanding of the
material and how to better approach this topic in my own classroom.”
“I really enjoyed all the classes. The USHMM was the best experience.”
“Loved the range of topics (music, Rwanda), great guests, professors had a wide range of information and
did a lot of prep work to create a great experience!”
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New England Holocaust Educators Network Satellite Seminar
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts - July 27 to August 1, 2015
Led by Cara Crandall and Paula Mercier
Conducted with support from the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, this seminar brings teachers
from across New England together to deepen their practice on the teaching of Holocaust and genocide
as well as social justice issues. Using an inquiry process, participants explore past and recent genocides
through a multi-disciplinary approach. In addition, the seminar employs writing as both a reflective
practice and as a study of literary and non-fiction texts, written and film, to understand how stories are
used to resist, remember, and reflect on these events. This reflection and analysis will leads to an
examination of questions about morality, ethics, and social justice. The local focus includes scholars and
authors who have also used writing to explore and understand atrocities, their causes and impacts. This
work enables teachers to return to their classrooms and schools with curriculum materials and ways of
working with such issues to help their students develop their own critical thinking skills, deepen their
writing, and understand themselves as agents who can affect the world around them.
Hanna Perlstein Marcus, author of Sidonia’s Thread: The Secrets of
a Mother and Daughter Sewing a New Life in America,
with participants and faculty in the seminar in New England.
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Speakers and Highlights:
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Dr. Anna Ornstein, Holocaust survivor and author of My Mother’s Eyes: Holocaust Memories of a
Young Girl
Dr. Dawn Skorczewski, Brandeis University, on Pedagogical Implications for Teaching about the
Holocaust and Using the Shoah Foundation Archives
Micha Franke on contemporary understandings of the concentration camp system
Linda Christensen (via Skype), Director, Oregon Writing Project and author of Teaching for Joy
and Justice: Re-Imagining the Language Arts Classroom
Field trip to the Yiddish Book Archives and visit with Hanna Perlstein Marcus, author of Sidonia’s
Thread: The Secrets of a Mother and Daughter Sewing a New Life in America
Tour of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies, University of Massachusetts
Rabbi Benjamin Weiner, Jewish Community of Amherst, on Contemporary Jewish Life and the
Legacy of the Holocaust
Shabbat service at the Jewish Center of Amherst
Selected comments from New England seminar participants:
“What is my feedback!? AMAZING – that is my feedback –
though I don’t know if that even comes close to how
“THIS EXPERIENCE WAS
fantastic it was. Meeting all of these educators, survivors,
INSPIRATIONAL . IT MADE ME
witnesses, professors, authors, and other teaching
professionals has been life changing. I never thought that I
PROUD TO BE PART OF SUCH A
would have the chance to be connected with this plethora of
DEDICATED AND CARING GROUP
extremely knowledgeable people, but now that I have, I
OF PEOPLE.” A PARTICIPANT IN
cannot wait to keep in touch and continue to learn from
them. In particular, Dr. Anna Ornstein, Hanna Marcus,
THE NEW ENGLAND SEMINAR IN
Micha, and Rabbi Weiner were the presenters that I felt
MASSACHUSETTS
impacted by the most. Micha’s presentation about Dachau,
the system of concentration camps, the rise of the SS, and
the use of graphic images really provided me with a great deal of information I did not know before, and a
perspective I have never had the opportunity to hear before either, so that was wonderful.”
“Great class! Tight community! Everyone seemed to enjoy one another.”
“I loved it!!! Absolutely loved it. I can’t thank you enough –
I feel like I really learned a lot, and am happy to have met other educators passionate about the field of
Holocaust curriculum development. I look forward to future contact.”
“I thought that his seminar was fabulous! The required readings, presenters, facilitators and on-site visits were
excellent.”
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Final Report 2015
Michigan Satellite Seminar: Studying, Learning, and Teaching the Holocaust
Holocaust Memorial Center-Zekelman Family Campus, Farmington Hills, Michigan - July 13 to 18, 2015
Led by Corey Harbaugh and John Farris
Located at the Holocaust Memorial Center-Zekelman Campus in Farmington Hills, this seminar offers an inquiry
into the best and proven practices for teaching the Holocaust. Participants experience the seminar
simultaneously as students and also as successful teachers of the Holocaust, and discover meaningful ways to
take back what they learn in our week together to their classrooms across Michigan. The program offers
expert presenters on Holocaust-related topics and Jewish history and integrates the resources of a world-class
Holocaust museum. Presenters included a historian of Nazi Germany and more than one Holocaust survivor.
Participants also have time to explore the rich resources and research facility of the Holocaust Memorial
Center in order to deepen their personal and professional inquiry into teaching. In addition to bringing the
strengths of the Memorial Library’s training program, the seminar blends the philosophies, and pedagogies of
esteemed organizations including The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The National Writing
Project, Facing History and Ourselves, and Echoes and Reflections.
Speakers and Highlights:
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Welcome from Stephen Goldman, Director, Holocaust Memorial Center
Dr. Jeffrey Haus, Director of Jewish Studies Program, Kalamazoo College, on The Jews of preHolocaust Europe
Introduction to Judaism and Jewish Spiritual Life at Temple Beth El
Survivor Testimony from Paula Marks Bolton
Dr. Randall Bytwerk, Calvin College, on Julius Streicher, Der Sturmer, and Nazi Propaganda
Rob Hadley, USC-Shoah Foundation: IWitness, Testimony, and the History of Holocaust Education
Training in Echoes and Reflections
Shabbat service at Temple Beth El
Selected comments from Michigan seminar participants:
“We know that as teachers we teach who we are rather than merely what the facts are. Building my own
background knowledge and understanding and continuing to learn myself helps me take lessons and emotions
I have experienced myself from far above the second grade level of my own class and then use these to build
developmentally appropriate background understandings and emotions that will make my students more
ready for the perspectives, sensitive feelings, and critical thinking that will be required when they are ready
for the Holocaust units my middle and high school colleagues will share later.”
“It was quite simply the best seminar I have attended.”
“…the seminar was outstanding. I especially liked the opportunity to work with like-minded professional
teachers. Thank you to Corey and John and the Holocaust Center and the survivors and everyone who worked
to offer this Holocaust Seminar. You did an outstanding job of providing resources but at the same time
making things even more complicated with even more essential questions both for ourselves as teachers and
for ourselves as humans.”
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HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR PAULA MARKS BOLTON WITH PARTICIPANTS AND FACULTY IN FARMINGTON HILLS,
MICHIGAN.
“I thought this was an excellent seminar and am going to recommend it to my ELA friend in our school. Both
Corey and John were excellent facilitators and organized, and like great teachers do they adjusted the
schedule to fit the needs of the group. I am extremely glad I attended and happy after so many years of
study/teaching this class that I have excellent resources and more people in my network to collaborate with.”
“The enthusiasm and passion that both Corey and John exhibit for both teaching and the Holocaust are
valuable assets to this program. I learned a great amount of information and am extremely glad that I had
the opportunity to participate.”
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Final Report 2015
Montana Satellite Seminar: Worlds Apart But Not Strangers: Holocaust Education and Indian Education for All
University of Montana and Har Shalom Synagogue, Missoula, Montana - July 19 to 25, 2015
Led by Marcia Beaumont, Brenda Johnston, and Wendy Warren
Worlds Apart but Not Strangers: Holocaust Education and Indian Education for All is designed for individuals or
teams who currently teach or are interested in teaching about the Holocaust and Indian Education for All (a
Montana mandate), and would like to discover ways to make connections between these topics. The institute
focuses on past history, including the Holocaust and the impact of U.S. policies on Native peoples of our
nation. Highlights include guest speakers and presenters from Missoula’s Jewish Community and Native
peoples from Montana. Our lens then turns to the present, as we consider the roles (perpetrator, ally, and
bystander) people choose in their daily interactions with each other as well as the stereotypes and prejudice
affecting our schools and our communities today. We ask participants to imagine the world they’d like to see
and design an action plan to help their classroom, school, and community move closer toward that goal.
Speakers and Highlights:
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Presentation on using Echoes and Reflections Curriculum
Panel on Yiddish Culture with members of Har Shalom Synagogue
Visit to the Flathead Reservation and Kerr Dam with talk by Kamiah Dumontier
Session with leaders from the Missoula chapter of the National Coalition Building Institute
Presentation by Kevin Kickingwoman (Blackfeet), University of Montana, on Blackfeet song
Presentation by Jennifer Stadum, Office of Public Instruction, Indian Education for All
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P ARTICIPANTS IN THE
WORLDS APART BUT NOT
STRANGERS SEMINAR IN
MISSOULA , MONTANA VIEW
THE TORAH WITH KATE
SOUKONNIKOV AT HAR
SHALOM SYNAGOGUE .
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Selected comments from Montana seminar participants:
“The Worlds Apart seminar was a complete immersion experience. The usual class teaches facts about an
event but leaves us short of understanding the impact decades later that the experience had on generations
of people. I had read about the Holocaust and Native American experience but to understand both of them
on an emotional and intellectual level is very powerful. This experience will allow me to teach with a much
greater sensitivity and depth of understanding!”
“The most impactful experiences were by far the small group simple conversations that took place between
participants and guests. The Holocaust and Native American experience must be seen and heard through
individual lives. Seventy years, one hundred fifty years later you must hear in human voices the resonating
impact that these events still have on millions of people.”
“I want to thank you for one of the most unique and truly amazing experiences I have been a part of as a
teacher. You created in this seminar the opportunity for us to see the two events in a very real, human,
personal way. This was an experience that I will remember forever and that has had a deep impact on me
as a teacher and as a person.”
“Meeting Laurie, Kate and Kamiah along with the
other guests at the seminar gave me a truly deep
understanding in a very personal way of the loss
created by these events. Genocide is often described
in numerical terms, how many thousands or millions
died. Writers hope that the scope of the numbers
will impress on readers the destructive power of the
events. Instead what changed for me was the
understanding that genocide is not the murder of
millions but the brutal murder of one life repeated
over and over again millions of times. Each life,
each face, each future stolen is an act of brutality.”
“I
WANT TO THANK THE
MEMORIAL L IBRARY
FOR
ALLOWING ME TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS AMAZING
SEMINAR .
IT
IS ONLY THROUGH THEIR INCREDIBLE
GENEROSITY THAT
THIS EVENT .
I
I
WAS ABLE TO BE A PART OF
WANT THEM TO KNOW THAT THEY
HAVE TRULY CHANGED US AS TEACHERS IN A WAY
THAT WILL NOT FADE .”
–
A PARTICIPANT IN THE
WORLDS APART BUT NOT STRANGERS SEMINAR IN
MONTANA
Long Island Satellite Seminar: Memory after the Holocaust: Lessons and Legacies
Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center, Glen Cove, New York - July 20 to 24, 2015
Led by Traci Garrison-Feinberg, Meryl Menashe, and Michelle Sorise
How do teachers address the issues of today’s world in ways that help them and their students make
appropriate connections to the curriculum? The inaugural Long Island seminar focused on the lessons and
legacies of the Holocaust and how they apply to students’ decision-making about social justice issues in
their world today. Starting with the belief that every student has the potential to make a positive
difference in their communities, the seminar was designed to extend each participant’s current knowledge
of the Holocaust and to encourage new and innovative ways to teach this history. Activities included
writing, lesson plan development, survivor and 2nd generation testimony, and time in the HMTC museum
galleries to explore the history of the Holocaust, before, during and after the war. Participants were
introduced to a variety of literary and film resources and left with a variety of teaching materials and
strategies, many aligned to common core standards.
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Final Report 2015
Speakers and Highlights:






Conversation with Joshua Green, producer of Memory After Belsen
Exploring the Holocaust through Art, presentation by Janet Lust Ganes, art educator, and Fanny
Lust, survivor (Janet’s mother and inspiration for some of her art)
Exhibits at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center
Observation of second-generation Surrogate Survivor training session at Temple Judea with
Holocaust survivor and author Irving Roth
Introduction to film Paper Clips and One Clip curriculum
Riva Minsky Sender, Holocaust survivor
Selected comments from Long Island seminar participants:
“Riva Minksy Sender’s testimony was very interesting. She brings forth the concept of never give up. Her
message is one of we must get along with everyone. She touched me in a personal way. Bringing a survivor’s
point of view is something that is just great for children. The Art and the Holocaust session with Janet Ganes
and Fanny Lust was very well done. Creating art from a survivor testimony is very strong. It allows children to
look at a picture and makes them see different things when you tell them to look again.”
“The 2G Training is an example of actions that prepares us for a world without Holocaust survivors and helps
answer the question how stories of the Holocaust will be told in the future.”
“This has been an incredible week of learning and growth. As a whole unit, the information presented was
both interesting and stimulating. The sessions that included hands-on activities helped to make the seminar
enjoyable as well as practical.”
LONG ISLAND SEMINAR PARTICIPANTS AND FACULTY IN THE HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL AND
TOLERANCE CENTER CHILDREN ’S MEMORIAL GARDEN , GLEN COVE , NEW YORK.
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
New Mexico Satellite Seminar: Teaching the Holocaust for Social Justice
Manzano High School, Albuquerque, New Mexico - June 15 to 19, 2015
Led by Leslie Lawner and Susan Quintana
Teaching the Holocaust for Social Justice helps teachers in New Mexico develop meaningful ways to teach
the Holocaust and other events involving intolerance and persecution. Background on the Holocaust is
provided through lectures from specialists, opportunities to examine the exhibits and materials at the New
Mexico Holocaust and Intolerance Museum, and exemplary lessons presented by the seminar leaders. The
group also heard from a Holocaust survivor. Lessons will address the need to meet common core
requirements at the middle and high school level. The seminar also included a lecture, museum visit, and
dinner at the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center which focused on the history of Indian schools and related
questions of social justice.
Speakers and Highlights:







Elana Haviv, Educator, presentation on her “Telling History Story Box” project
Survivor testimony from Herb Beenhouwer
Presentation of Echoes and Reflections curriculum by Sherry Bard of the Anti-Defamation League
Socratic Seminar on Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower led by local educator and past seminar
participant Michelle Thompson-Lloyd
Lecture on the history of anti-Semitism by Rabbi Paul Citrin
Visit to the Hispanic Cultural Center and lecture on the history of Crypto-Jews by Linda Lopez
McAlister, Camino Real Productions
Visit to the Holocaust and Intolerance Museum and presentation on Yiddish language and culture
by Harvey Buchalter
Selected comments from New Mexico seminar participants:
“Powerful, enjoyable, inspiring, memorable.”
“Freewrites, timelines, identity, identity box. . . Socratic seminar, giving my students time to reflect, maps,
collaborating with other teachers, vocabulary in Echoes—everything was helpful.”
“It was outstanding and far surpassed my expectations.”
“Great! Tons of information . . .overwhelming in a good way.”
“Better than I could ever imagine.”
“The amount of content, networking, ideas (practicing those ideas) has been incredible!”
“The program far exceeded my expectations, since most in-person programs on the Holocaust are only brief
overviews without going into the depth covered in your program.”
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Final Report 2015
WRITING AND REFLECTION
ARE PART OF AN INTERACTIVE
LESSON BASED ON SIMON
WIESENTHAL ’S THE
SUNFLOWER DURING THE
TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST
FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE SEMINAR
IN NEW MEXICO .
North Carolina Summer Seminar for Holocaust Educators
Cardinal Gibbons High School, Raleigh, North Carolina – June 23 to 27, 2015
Led by Mark DeLaRosa, Katy King, and Karen Klaich
The North Carolina Holocaust Institute introduces the foundations of the Holocaust and Judaism to
teachers from public, private, and parochial schools. The special focus of this seminar includes the
historical context of racial prejudice in North Carolina as participants travel to the International Civil
Rights Museum and the site of the F.W. Woolworth building in Greensboro. By continuing to examine the
state’s history, participants in the seminar explore how to create effective lessons on the Holocaust using
the Common Core and other standards required in specific school settings.
Speakers and Highlights:









Visit to the North Carolina Museum of Art
Visit to the International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, NC
Lecture by Kenneth Begos, author of Against Their Will, on the U.S. eugenics program and its influence
on Nazi policy
Presentation by Michael Abramson on the History of Judaism in NC
Testimony by Rebecca Hauser, Holocaust survivor
Musical presentation by the Magnolia Klezmer Band
Presentation by Lynda Moss, North Carolina Council on the Holocaust, on local resources for teachers,
followed by visit to the Council’s traveling exhibits and available classroom activities
Talk by Father William McConville, O.F.M, on “Common Religious/Historical Dialogue”
Shabbat service and Oneg at Temple Beth Or
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
Selected comments from North Carolina seminar participants:
“The seminar was beyond my expectations - I not only learned so much new
information; I was also humbled and inspired by the knowledge and
dedication of the participants.”
In response to the question “As you think back on this seminar, what stands out
for you?” participants answered as follows:
“The enthusiasm of the leaders and participants”
“The knowledge gained and the resources given were fantastic, but it was
the loving, non-judgmental acceptance that gave me hope! Emotionally
strong”
“The writing and sharing; the discussions about our experiences”
“The speakers were amazing. I really liked the variety of speakers and
topics.”
HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR
REBECCA HAUSER AND HER
DAUGHTER BONNIE SPOKE
WITH THE GROUP .
“People - from teachers to speakers, meeting people has changed my heart.”
“The variety of information, viewpoints, and resources that were presented, addressing issues of
racism, human rights, and the Holocaust”
VISITING THE NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART.
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Final Report 2015
Ohio Satellite Seminar: Pathways to Justice
The Summit Country Day School, Cincinnati, Ohio - July 20 to 25, 2015
Led by Sue Fletcher and Rosie Sansalone
The focus of this seminar is to familiarize teachers with historically and pedagogically sound strategies for
teaching the Holocaust and to demonstrate how Holocaust pedagogy can open up new ways of teaching
about social justice pertaining to contemporary and local issues. Situated on the campus of The Summit
Country Day School, the program is led by experienced teacher-facilitators who guide participants
through a highly interactive seminar that includes hearing Holocaust survivor testimony and examining
primary source documents. The seminar also offers access to proven instructional materials designed to
encourage students to find connections between the Holocaust and civil rights issues.
SPEAKERS AND HIGHLIGHTS :







Father Philip Seher, The Summit Country Day School Chaplain, on connections between the Holocaust
and Social Justice via his personal story of growing up in postwar Europe
Presentation and musical performance on second-generation experience by Sylvia Samis, child of
Holocaust survivors and member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Visit to the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education, with testimony from Werner Coppel,
Holocaust survivor
Visit to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center with testimony from Dr. Herman Turner,
veteran, educator, Olympic athlete, and Civil Rights activist
Caleb Paull on making meaning through creating digital stories in the classroom
Visit to the Islamic Center of Cincinnati
Shabbat service at Rockdale Synagogue following a presentation by Rabbi Meredith Kahan
SUE FLETCHER AND ROSIE SANSALONE WITH PARTICIPANTS AT THE PATHWAYS TO JUSTICE SEMINAR IN OHIO .
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
Selected comments from Ohio seminar participants:
“The facilitators complimented each other perfectly. There were extremely knowledgeable and provided a safe
learning environment.”
“I wish everyone, teachers, parents and community leaders could attend these tours and outings we
experienced. . . Every experience was amazing.”
“Thank you, thank you. I was amazed at the opportunities to meet and spend time with other group members. It
was nice to know them as people and hear their stories.”
In this section we would also like to share an excerpt from a poem composed by a participant in response
to having attended the seminar:
Thank You
…I went out in the world this week
To the past through stories shared
But also into the community
Which I did not realize was there
I took a risk this week
I chose to look inside
To learn about who I am
I am striving not to hide
I learned so much this week
About empathy and fear
To be an upstanding participant
Living fully while I am here
I made new friends this week
A mosaic of humanity
From all faiths and backgrounds
Each gave a gift to me
●
●
●
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Final Report 2015
Texas Satellite Seminar: And then They Came for Me: What the Events of the Holocaust Can Teach Us about
Our Lifetime Responsibility for Each Other
Crownover Middle School, Denton, Texas – July 19 to 24, 2015
Led by Melissa Alexander and Carol Revelle
This seminar focused on instructional approaches that facilitate deep and thoughtful learning through
instruction centered on the Holocaust and other social justice issues. Meeting at the Dallas Holocaust
Museum on the first day to take a tour, hear testimony from a survivor, and explore available resources,
participants went on to examine research-based instructional approaches that provide a safe and
dynamic environment for students to engage in these difficult but engaging topics. Guest speakers helped
the group to understand the cultural aspects of teaching tough topics and show how to help students
“speak-up” and find a voice for social action. Each teacher left the institute with a self-created projectbased-learning unit that can be used in her classroom. Culminating activities included a ride on the
Grapevine Vintage Train to the Fort Worth Stockyards in order to remember those who were lost and to
commit to modeling compassion, seeking justice, and demonstrating action.
WRITING AND REFLECTING IN FORT WORTH
DURING THE SEMINAR IN TEXAS .
Speakers and Highlights:





Page 22
Visit to the Dallas Holocaust Museum with survivor testimony from Jack Repp
Workshop on spoken word poetry with educator and artist Joaquin Zihuatanejo
Modeling best practices through gallery walks, literature circles, and more
Presentations by Christal Bloomer and Vanessa Capaldo, past seminar participants
Field trip to historic sites in Fort Worth
The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
Selected comments from Texas seminar participants:
“Seminar was excellent - thank you!”
“I feel very empowered with many new tools and techniques.”
“[I feel] prepared; much more confident… I can now teach this topic with some authority.”
All of the participants who responded to an evaluation form said that they would recommend the seminar
to a colleague.
IV. Mini-Grant Program
Begun in 2007 to sponsor action projects undertaken by teachers who have completed the summer
seminars, the mini-grant program continues to flourish with close to $6K in support distributed in 2015. A
full list of the grants funded follows below. Detailed descriptions of these and other programs supported
by mini-grants can be found on the Memorial Library’s website.
Diane Williams, Anser Charter School, Boise, Idaho
Bridges - Connecting the Past with the Present to Create Understanding
$1,000.00
As Boise’s community continues to grow and shift, Diane Williams’s students felt inspired to promote the
strength of Boise’s diversity. Having observed refugee teens being bullied, they knew that if they could
promote understanding, they could prevent bullying. Working with partners including The Agency for New
Americans, Boise Contemporary Theater, and the Boise Bridge Program, students created a program
called “Story, Humanity, and Home.” Joining in with Boise’s campaign to become a City of Compassion,
Anser junior high students and refugee students from Hillside Junior High worked together to act as
cultural ambassadors responsible for educating and inspiring diversity in the Treasure Valley. They
published illustrated poetry books distributed to area schools and created a performance piece on the
themes of compassion, acceptance, and hope that was performed at the Boise Contemporary Theater.
STUDENTS IN
DIANE WILLIAMS ’S
CLASS IN BOISE ,
IDAHO PERFORM
“STORY,
H UMANITY, AND
HOME ” AT THE
BOISE
CONTEMPORARY
THEATER .
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Final Report 2015
Scott Lone, West Bend East High School, West Bend, Wisconsin
Trip to the Illinois Holocaust Memorial Museum and Education Center in Skokie
$1,000.00
Students in Scott Lone’s U.S. History classes spend three weeks studying the Holocaust, looking at hard topics
such as the origins of anti-Semitism, Nazi propaganda, life in the ghettos, the Final Solution, Jewish resistance,
and the prevention of genocide. In the past, the unit has culminated with students completing a project related
to Holocaust literature and the opportunity to meet with a local Holocaust survivor. This year, students had the
chance to take a trip to the Illinois Holocaust Memorial Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Illinois, a first
for their district. At the Museum, they toured the permanent exhibits as well as special exhibits on postwar life
in Skokie, which had the largest per capita population of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel. Following their
tour, they were able to meet with Ida Paluch Kersz, a hidden child during the Holocaust who was separated
from her twin brother but then reunited with him 50 years after the war. The event was highly meaningful for
everyone who participated: on an evaluation form, 100% of the students recommended that plans be made
to continue an annual visit to the Illinois Holocaust Memorial Museum and Education Center, while a number of
parent chaperones sent emails sharing their gratitude.
STUDENTS IN SCOTT LONE ’S U .S . HISTORY CLASSES IN WISCONSIN MEET WITH CHILD SURVIVOR IDA PALUCH KERSZ AT THE
ILLINOIS HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM AND EDUCATION CENTER IN SKOKIE .
Zack Hull, Carson Middle School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Lecture and screening of “Nicky’s Family” at the Pittsburgh Jewish Film Festival
$900.00
This year, an opportunity presented itself from the local Jewish history federation near teacher Zach
Hull’s middle school in Pittsburgh. Along with students at several other area schools, the entire eighth
grade was invited to a local Pittsburgh theater to listen to a lecture from a historian on the life of Sir
Nicholas Winton, a famed rescuer of Jewish children. After learning about Sir Winton, students watched
“Nicky’s Family,” a film produced about his life. Afterward, students participated in discussions with
teachers and leaders in the “JFilm” program. This event formed part of a larger Holocaust and genocide
unit.
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
Here are some student responses to attending the lecture and film:
“Nicky’s Family was a great learning experience. It showed us that even in dark, trying times any small person
can change circumstances for the better. I not only learned more about the situation in central Europe, but
about the incredible strength and selflessness that it takes to make such a drastic change in the lives of
hundreds. Now those hundreds have expanded to thousands. It is honestly one of the most inspiring and
beautiful things to know that someone worked so diligently to help so many families and children that he
didn’t even know. I am very happy that my school was able to go on this trip and I sincerely hope that future
grades will be able to have the same great experience that I did.”
“The movie ‘Nicky’s Family’ inspired me to do more to help others in need. Look at what man, just one man with
some good friends behind him, did, saving thousands of children that he had little to no relation to. Think of what
I, just one person with a few good friends backing me up, could do to make a difference in the world. What if
everyone, billions upon billions of people, could do if we worked together to make the world we live in a better
place.”
“My initial reaction to this movie was something I am typically skeptical about experiencing - hope. For me, hope
has always been something of an excuse, a way for people to think positively in a time of distress. I’ve never
really believed in it. I’ve seen evidence of it, but I’ve turned away from any situation in which hope is said to be
the answer. Seeing this movie not only opened my eyes, but it opened my mind as well. I felt hopeful for the Jews
in the film being rescued. This movie was a wonderful experience for me. I was exposed to selflessness and
bravery. I saw hope.”
Gail Desler, Elk Grove Unified School District, California
Promoting Digital and Global Citizenship p via the Digital ID PSA Contest
$250.00
The Digital ID PSA Challenge is an annual online invitation for students around the world to step up to a
global microphone and speak out on digital citizenship issues by creating a 90-second Public Service
Announcement (PSA). Empowering students to take a stand against all forms of bullying, including
cyberbullying, is at the heart of the Digital ID project. Mini-grant funding from the Memorial Library
provided winning entries (3 elementary, 3 middle school, 3 high school + 1 special category) with a small
prize recognizing their achievements.
Grant recipient Gail Desler writes about the importance of teaching “digital and global citizenship”:
“Across grade levels and subject areas, digital citizenship can act as a powerful catalyst for shared conversations
about the Holocaust. Pulling from the Common Sense Media (commonsense.org) curriculum, my district, for
instance, is introducing elementary students to the Power of Words, a lesson that teaches essential Holocaust
vocabulary: perpetrator, target, bystander, and upstander – and includes an activity on “crossing the line.” By
middle school, the Cyberbullying: Be Upstanding lesson builds on both the concepts and vocabulary of the
elementary lesson, adding the introduction of empathy and “stepping up” strategies. At the high school level, with
the Breaking Down Hate Speech lesson, students are challenged to envision “How can you create a community
culture in which hate speech is unacceptable, both online and offline?” It is hard to imagine teaching a
comprehensive digital citizenship program without incorporating a component of the Holocaust - or teaching
about the Holocaust without applying the lessons of 60 years ago to our students’ current realities.”
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Final Report 2015
Erin DeHart, York College, York, Nebraska
Experiential Learning about the Holocaust and WWII
$1,000.00
Erin DeHart’s mini-grant project helped York College students take an experiential course about the
Holocaust. Students completed some course work while in Nebraska and then traveled to New York City
and Washington, D.C. to further explore themes and ideas pertaining to the Holocaust and social justice.
A highlight of this experience was an afternoon at the Memorial Library, where students were able to
hear from Dori Katz, Professor Emerita at Trinity College and author of many books, including, most
recently, Looking for Strangers: the True Story of My Hidden Wartime Childhood, which recounts her
experience as a hidden child in Belgium. The trip also included visits to the Museum of Jewish Heritage,
the Museum of Tolerance, Ellis Island, the Tenement Museum, and Shabbat services at B’nai Jeshurun
Synagogue in New York as well as to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Arlington
Cemetery in Washington. Throughout, students used exploratory writing and journaling to process and
create meaningful dialogue to apply the events of the Holocaust to their personal lives.
ERIN DEHART AND STUDENTS IN HER EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING CLASS AT YORK COLLEGE , NEBRASKA HEAR
FROM SURVIVOR AND AUTHOR DORI KATZ ABOUT HER EXPERIENCE AS A HIDDEN CHILD IN BELGIUM .
After returning home to Nebraska, one of the students wrote the following about the class and the trip:
“Now that I have been exposed to the Holocaust by means of reading books depicting life at concentration
camps, exploring museums dedicated the time period, and hearing life accounts by survivors I can say that
my perspective on the life I live is forever changed. Almost every time I met survivors and heard their stories
or read books written by them, I was blown away by their lack of bitterness and anger. For the most part
they were all so joyful and thankful that they had been given more years to live. . . Love really is the most
important thing that we can have in our lives. When the victims of the Holocaust were stripped away from
all of their physical wealth, their love for other people could not be taken. His love for his wife helped
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
[survivor and author] Viktor Frankl survive though he did not know if she were alive or dead. But that is the
wonderful thing about love; it can stretch across dimensions between the living and the dead. It is of no
matter the distance between two people or the state of their physical being because love can still exist. It
does not need permission from the receiver for love to be given. Love is our only hope in combating evil.
Through my experience learning more about the Holocaust in this class, my heart has grown to be more
accepting of those around me. . . If the Holocaust has taught me anything, it is to love others as often and as
deeply as I can because there is nothing greater and more beautiful than that. It is also my duty to pass on
the stories told by those who witnessed the Holocaust to the generations after me.”
Lori Menning, New London High School, New London, Wisconsin
Holocaust Inquiry Project: “Our Journey”
$1,000.00
Lori Menning’s New London High School Bilingual Seniors approached her to express their wish to create a
culminating a Holocaust Inquiry Project to expand their knowledge and share it with current students before
they graduated. Having begun their journey into learning about the Holocaust with Mrs. Menning in 2011 –
one which included an Adopt-a-Survivor and Holocaust Inquiry Studies Project – they are the final class of
bilingual students to have participated in these inquiry projects. The intended outcome of this program was for
these senior student leaders to collaborate to teach others with the goal of increasing the awareness of the
Holocaust. Their extensive, months-long program included a visit with Holocaust survivor Henry Golde at New
London High School; a trip to the Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Illinois to tour the exhibits
and hear from another survivor; and an opportunity to compile a book entitled “Our Journey,” so that students
could share their passion for continuing to teach about the Holocaust as they make connections to the present.
Nicolas Darlinton, Sage Valley Middle School, Idaho
Understanding Human Rights with Free? Stories Celebrating Human Rights
$1,000.00
In the Vallivue District’s 8th grade English Language Arts curriculum, students are to explore and consider
social justice issues. Their work entails reading and writing about justice issues in a variety of venues:
reading historical fiction, interviews, primary documents and memoir about the Holocaust, nonfiction and
primary documents about slavery in America, and futuristic dystopia, as well as writing about these issues
in a variety of scenarios. In my classes, students start the year by
discussing and examining the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
These rights then become a framework for discussing literature
throughout the entire year. With this project, Nicolas Darlinton
purchased copies of Free? Stories Celebrating Human Rights along
with other books that served as mentor texts that guided students in
their work to create and share their own stories that contemplate
human rights, slavery and the Holocaust. With the class set of books,
all 8th grade students were able to read and discuss Free? at the
same time.
STUDENTS IN NICHOLAS DARLINTON ’ S CLASS IN
SAGE VALLEY, IDAHO, PARTICIPATE IN AN
IN -DEPTH STUDY OF THE HOLOCAUST AND HUMAN RIGHTS .
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Final Report 2015
V. Professional Development / Conferences
To showcase the work of teachers who have attended the seminar in New York City, the Memorial Library
held two panels at national conferences in 2015:
At the Annual Meeting of the National Writing Project (NWP) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from November
18-19, teachers from the Memorial Library presented a panel chaired by Sondra Perl and Jennifer
Lemberg, “Opportunities and Challenges in Holocaust Education.” In this session, Corey Harbaugh (MI)
and Enithie Hunter (GA) shared their ideas for teaching about the Holocaust and other genocides with an
emphasis on writing and inquiry. Corey and Enithie offered insights and lessons from their schools and
communities to consider how the principles of place-based education can play a meaningful role in
teaching about genocide, and to explore what happens when students are located at the center of
instruction that takes on difficult histories.
On the evening following the panel, the Library hosted a reunion dinner for approximately twenty
teachers from within our network who were in Minneapolis to present at either NWP or the National
Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Convention. The dinner provided an opportunity for teachers to
reconnect, catch up on their activities over the past year, and strengthen our network.
The next day, Jennifer Lemberg chaired a panel at the NCTE Convention. Entitled “Why Teach the
Holocaust? An Inquiry of Purpose and Hope,” and featuring presentations by Sue Fletcher (OH), Carol
Revelle (TX), and Corey Harbaugh, this highly interactive session presented effective methods for
engaging students through creative inquiry-based projects that address the challenges to teaching about
the Holocaust. More than eighty people attended the panel.
SUE FLETCHER , CAROL REVELLE , AND COREY
HARBAUGH PRESENTED THEIR WORK AT A
PANEL ENTITLED “WHY TEACH THE
HOLOCAUST ? AN INQUIRY OF PURPOSE AND
HOPE ” AT THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF
TEACHERS OF ENGLISH (NCTE ) CONVENTION
IN MINNEAPOLIS .
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
VI. Assessment Survey
In 2015, the Memorial Library received the results of a comprehensive survey undertaken in the fall of
2014, when the Library hired an independent research firm to design and conduct a programmatic
assessment of every seminar held over the past nine years. The survey was sent to 553 potential
respondents who had attended the Memorial Library Summer Seminar in New York City or one of the
satellite seminars. The findings were overwhelmingly positive, with an exceptional overall response rate of
42% from program participants who were contacted via a series of emails. The research was conducted
by NuVoodoo Media and analyzed by Joel S. Lind of Personal Media Research, both from Cincinnati,
OH. Full assessment results are available on file at the Memorial Library.
METHODOLOGY




All educators from the program’s 2006 inception to the present (except those for whom the
Library had no currently valid email address) were invited to take the survey via a series of
emails, amounting to 553 potential respondents.
The survey was conducted online during a three-week period in November 2014.
Respondents were assured of confidentiality and total anonymity.
We received 228 completed surveys, demonstrating an exceptional overall 42% response rate,
including a two-thirds majority of all NYC Summer Seminar attendees.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: HIGHLIGHTS

The teachers come to the program from the full range of school levels, and from a balanced
proportion of urban/suburban/rural communities. A great many come from schools populated
heavily by poor students, and minority populations tend to be high in a majority of the schools.
The overwhelming majority of schools have no or very few Jewish students.

During the 2014-15 school year, program participants will have spent 25,000 teacher hours,
teaching more than 2,000 courses, and 43,000 students on the Holocaust. These figures will
increase dramatically every year.

At the time of the survey, cumulatively, since the beginning of the program, participants have
taught 6,500 courses and at least 137,000 students about the Holocaust and other genocides.

Participant impact beyond the classroom is also considerable, including extra projects with 31,000
students and 17,000 community members; work with other teachers in in-service programs has
reached an additional 14,000 teachers.

The program scores consistently high A’s for training teachers on the main topic areas it covers:
Identity and Dehumanization, Survivor Testimony, the History of Anti-Semitism, the Role of
Propaganda, Jewish Life Before, During and After the Holocaust, and Connections to Social
Justice.
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Final Report 2015

Even though half of this sample had taken courses and received prior training in
Holocaust/Genocide education, most of those educators considered their knowledge and
understanding of the subject to be only in the high B-range, and their knowledge of Judaism and
Jewish culture below the B-range. They, and those without prior training, almost universally give
themselves A’s and A-minuses today.

The program draws excellent marks, overwhelmingly A-range, for every topic, criterion, or quality
on which respondents were asked to grade it.

Whenever the survey asked respondents to compare the Memorial Library program to other
professional development programs they had attended, respondents overwhelmingly called it
‘better,’ and a majority called it ‘far better.’

Nearly all respondents, 99% of the sample, say they would recommend the Memorial Library
program to a colleague, with many commenting on the quality of the instruction and faculty, the
integration of subject matter, and, not least, the profound effect on them and on their teaching
which will last throughout their careers.
You lit a fire and you tend that fire with some of the most important
professional relationships of my life. I often use the phrase "sitting at Olga's
table" when I think of my place at the library, and the library's place in my
personal and professional life. I sat with friends at Olga's table, and I learned
and experienced really important things there. It fed me and feeds me still. The
impact of looking into Irving's face and then Gisa's as they shared their
testimony will never be over for me. I left Olga's table a changed teacher and
changed as a human. I am grateful.
As I review my notes from the seminar, I come across this quote: Pedagogy is
“the activity of teaching; of teaching hope; of teaching life; of teaching
humanness; of teaching vigilance; of teaching expression; of teaching the
fullness of person; of teaching acceptance and love; of teaching strong stuff;
of locating ourselves.” No other professional experience has prompted me to
reflect in such a way, which, in turn, has brought immeasurable value to my
practice [as a Holocaust educator].
--Selected responses from the Memorial Library Assessment Survey
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
VII. International Programs
In 2015, the Memorial Library was again able to offer programs abroad. This year, in addition to the
seminar in Romania, we were also pleased to launch a program in Bulgaria. Programming in 2016 will
also include a seminar in Austria. Details about that seminar as well as all other international programs
are available on the Library’s website.
The Holocaust in Romania: Between History and Perception
Lugoj and Surduc, July 19 to 23, 2015
Led by Oana Nestian Sandu
The activities of the Memorial Library and the Olga Lengyel Institute, in partnership with “Elie Wiesel”
National Institute for the Study of Holocaust in Romania and Percept Ministries Association in Romania,
started with seminars on Holocaust education for school superintendents. The seminars offered learning
opportunities about teaching methods, curricular and extra-curricular activities and provided participants
with the opportunity to share their views and needs regarding teaching about the Holocaust.
In 2015 the seminar welcomed 36 researchers, teachers and doctoral candidates from across Romania.
The aim of the seminar was to contribute to increasing the quality of education and research regarding
the Holocaust and social justice in Romania. The program provided a rich opportunity to integrate
national and international approaches in teaching and researching about these topics and in
understanding the contemporary relevance of this important part of modern history.
The objectives of the program were to:





Develop a rational understanding of the history of the Holocaust;
Develop teachers’ understanding of the impact of stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination at
individual, group and society level;
Promote positive values for life in a diverse world, such as: tolerance, interculturalism, dialogue
and appreciation of the other;
Develop teachers’ and researchers’ understanding of the Jewish life before and after the
Holocaust;
Learn about the use of primary sources in researching the history of the Holocaust.
The seminar offered lectures and workshops exploring an extensive list of topics, among them antiSemitism, Romanian Jewish life, the memory of the Holocaust in the post-Communist era, the use of
primary sources in learning about the Holocaust, and Holocaust denial. Educators met Holocaust survivors,
saw Holocaust-related films and documentaries, and toured the synagogue in Lugoj.
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Final Report 2015
Selected comments from Romania seminar participants:
“Congratulations to the organizers! I would be happy to participate in other events like this in the
future.”
“Thank you again. I hope we will collaborate in the future. Congratulations for your work. It was a
special seminar with high quality speakers.”
“I was very impressed to see that there is a high quality scientific community focused on the
Holocaust, which combines the study of the archives with oral history. The critical approach
associated with combining various sources will allow the discovery of new aspects that are unclear
now. Thank you!”
“I liked the clarity and the usefulness of the information. I had the honor to discover specialists in the
field, to improve my knowledge and to have a holistic perspective on the topic.”
“I hope you will continue to accept applications from young researchers. Currently the history of the
Holocaust is very little present both at school and university level. It is extremely important that
students and graduate students get better information from the beginning.”
PARTICIPANTS , SPEAKERS , AND A VISIT TO THE SYNAGOGUE IN LUGOJ AT THE
SUMMER SEMINAR IN ROMANIA .
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
Learning from the Past – Acting for the Future: Teaching about Holocaust and Social Justice
Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, July 26 to 30, 2015
Led by Oana Nestian Sandu
This project is developed by The Memorial Library and The Olga Lengyel Institute in partnership with the
Bulgarian Ministry of Education, American University in Bulgaria and Israel-Bulgaria Institute. The aim of
the project is to contribute to increasing the quality of education regarding the Holocaust and social
justice in Bulgaria. The program provides a rich opportunity to integrate national and international
approaches in teaching about these topics and in understanding the contemporary relevance of this
important part of modern history.
The objectives of the program are to:





Develop teachers’ awareness of historical and current dialectical discussions concerning the
Holocaust and other instances of social justice;
Develop teachers’ understanding of the impact of stereotypes, prejudices and
discrimination at individual, group and society level;
Develop teachers’ understanding of the Jewish life before and after the Holocaust;
Increase appreciation for innovative, student-centered teaching methods, including extracurricular activities and partnerships between school and other institutions and
organizations
Promote a blended approach of Holocaust education and Human Rights education.
The methodology of the training is learner centered, based on the principles of experiential learning and
a human rights-based approach in education.
A group of 45 teachers from all over Bulgaria have the opportunity to learn from internationally
renowned lecturers, to interact with survivors and to think creatively and collaboratively about how to
teach the Holocaust and social justice. A variety of methods are used in order to stimulate the
engagement of participants, their reflections and a high level of interaction: presentations, analysis,
discussions, reflections, group work, videos, visits to authentic sites, guest speakers, survivors’ testimonies,
etc.
Selected comments from Bulgaria seminar participants:
“The day in Sofia was a great idea - visit of the synagogue, kosher dinner, getting to know Jewish traditions.”
“I am impressed by the organization, the lectures, and the other participants.”
“I want to thank the organizers for the seminar - the chance to meet wonderful lecturers and other teachers from
all over Bulgaria.”
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Final Report 2015
Some examples of what participants rated most useful were:
“The new teaching techniques shown and the suggestion to teach about the Holocaust together with teaching
about the human rights.”
“The good balance between information about the Holocaust and getting to know more about the Jewish
traditions, the diverse lectors; the fact that everyone could participate in the seminar activities.”
PARTICIPATING IN THE SUMMER SEMINAR IN BULGARIA, WHICH INCLUDED LECTURES ,
MEETING WITH A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR , AND AN EXCURSION TO THE SYNAGOGUE
IN SOFIA.
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
VIII. Words of Appreciation
Sondra Perl, Jennifer Lemberg, Alice Braziller, Micha Franke, Oana Nestian Sandu, the teachers who
participated in the 2015 Seminar along with the Satellite Seminar leaders and participants and
international program participants would like to extend their sincere appreciation to the Board of the
Memorial Library and to The Olga Lengyel Institute for their ongoing support of this project. As the
Holocaust Educators Network continues to grow, we are ever mindful of the shared vision that supports
our work and the privilege it is to carry on the legacy left to us by Olga Lengyel.
IX. Appendices
Appendices follow on subsequent pages of this report.
SHARING A MOMENT WITH HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR IRVING ROTH AT THE
2015
MEMORIAL
LIBRARY SUMMER SEMINAR IN NEW YORK CITY .
Page 35
Final Report 2015
Appendix A – 2015 Memorial Library Summer Seminar Participant List
Name
School
State / Country
Christal Bloomer
Metro Opportunity High School
Texas
Vanessa Capaldo
Nick Kerr Middle School
Texas
Patrick Connelly
Aquinas Institute
New York
Merry Davin
American Indian Magnet School
Minnesota
Angela Gascho
Academy of Our Lady of Peace
California
Donna Hughes
Saraland Middle School
Alabama
Sally Ingram
Saint Bernadette
Maryland
Greg Kocourek
Bloomington Junior High School
Illinois
Jennifer Kohut
Riverside University High School
Wisconsin
Ashley Libben
West Noble School Corporation
Indiana
Jennifer McConnell
St. Thomas High School
Texas
Kathleen Molony
Central Catholic High School
Oregon
Jeffrey Parker
Norman Howard School
New York
Tricia Parker
Sunnyslope High School
Arizona
Stefani Pastor
Seton-LaSalle High School
Pennsylvania
Marianna Pataki
Kispesti Károlyi
Gimnázium
Cecilia Pattee
Idaho State Department of Education
Idaho
Oana
University of Southern Indiana
Indiana
Janette Robertson
George Bush High School
Texas
Robin Siczek
Holy Trinity Catholic Middle School
North Carolina
Michelle Sorise
Great Neck South High School
New York
Peter Strand
Irving International School
Montana
Péter Szabó
Paksi Vak Bottyán Gimnázium
Paks, Hungary
Reggie Wynn
Ragsdale High School
North Carolina
Mihály
Magyar-Spanyol
Tannyelvű
Budapest, Hungary
Popescu-Sandu
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
Appendix B – 2015 Memorial Library Summer Seminar Calendar of Activities
Saturday
June 20
9am
Sunday
June 21
Breakfast available at the Library
beginning at 8:15 a.m.
Monday
June 22
8:45 Meet in lobby of Museum of
Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery
Place
9:00 - 9: 15 Creating our Space 9:00 - 12:30 Working with
Artifacts
9:15 - 10:15 Poetry and the
Holocaust
Tuesday
June 23
Breakfast available at
the Library beginning at
8:15 a.m.
9:00 - 12:00 History of
anti-semitism and "The
Longest Hatred"
10:30 - 12:30 Creating identity
boxes
Lunch
12:30 - 1:15 Lunch at the Library 12:30 - 1:30 Lunch on your
own/time in the bookstore
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch at
the Library
1pm
1:15 - 2:30 Sharing identity
boxes, cont'd
1:00 - 3:00 Irving Roth,
Holocaust survivor and
author of Bondi's
Brother
3pm
6pm
Participants arrive check in at Columbia
begins at 3pm
1:30 - 2:30 "How Was It
Possible?" Lecture with Peter
Hayes, Dept. of History,
Northwestern University
2:30 - 3:00 Garden of Stones
with Liz Edelstein, Director of
Education, the Museum of
Jewish Heritage
5:30 Meet Alice
4 - 5:30 Writing and Reflections 3:15 - 5:30 Wrap-up to museum
Braziller in the lobby of
visit
Wallach Hall to travel 5:30 - 6:00 Preparing for our visit Jennifer Lemberg on Visiting
together to the Library to the Museum
Sites of Memory
6pm Reception at
Memorial Library, 58
East 79th St., #2F
-Introductions &
Overview of the
Seminar
-watch excerpts from
Shoah foundation
interview with Olga
Lengyel
2:30 - 4:00 "Where I'm From"
Writing Activity
FREE EVENING - no activites
planned.
Walk to World Trade Center
Memorial Plaza (weather
permitting)
Dinner in Chinatown at Joe's
Shanghai, 9 Pell St.
3:00 - 3:15 Break
3:15 - 5:00 Irving Roth,
cont'd
5:00 - 6:00 Writing Time
- Reflections on the Day
FREE EVENING - no
activites planned.
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Final Report 2015
9am
Wednesday
June 24
Thursday
June 25
Friday
June 26
Saturday
June 27
Breakfast available at the
Library beginning at 8:15
a.m.
Free day / optional
walking tour led by Alice
Braziller
Breakfast available at the Library
beginning at 8:15 a.m.
Breakfast available at the
Library beginning at 8:15 a.m.
9:00 - 10:30 Micha Franke Optional Brooklyn walking 9:00 - 12:00 Engaging with Judaism
tour: cross over the
on the Concentration
- workshop
Brooklyn Bridge, visit
Camp System
Plymouth Church, take
the subway to Coney
10:45 - 12:30 Sustained
silent reading and writing Island, eat lunch at
Nathan’s, stroll the
Boardwalk, visit the
Aquarium, return to Park
Slope for dinner at Alice's
apartment.
Lunch 12:30 - 1:30 Lunch at the
Library
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch at the Library
1pm
1:00 - 2:30 Remarks by Rabbi
Deborah Hirsch, Temple Shaaray
Tefila
1:30 - 2:30 Curriculum
Groups Round 1
10:15 - 12:30 Workshops
with Leaders in the Field:
Making Classroom
Connections
Diane Williams, ANSER
Charter School, ID, Seminar
Alumnus and co-leader of the
Memorial Library Satellite
seminar in Idaho
12:30 - 1:15 Lunch at the
Library
1:15 - 4:00 Diane Williams,
continued
2:45 - 3:45 Curriculum
Groups Round 2
2:30 - 2:45 Break
4:00 - 4:15 Break
3:45 - 5:00 Writing and
sharing in small groups
3:00 - 4:00 Curriculum Groups
Round 3
5:00 - 5:45 Steve Ausnit,
member of the Board of
Directors of the Memorial
Library
4:15 - 5:00 M.Berez presents
FREE EVENING - no
activities planned
6:00 - 7:00 Shabbat services at
FREE EVENING - no
Temple Shaaray Tefila, 250 E. 79th activities planned
St.
3pm
6pm
9:00 - 10:00 Curriculum
Groups Round 4
Shabbat dinner at the Library
Page 38
4:15 - 6:00 Sustained Writing
time
The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
Sunday
June 28
Special events day at the
Library - late start
9am
Monday
June 29
Breakfast available at the
Library beginning at 8:15
a.m.
Tuesday
June 30
Breakfast available at Library
beginning at 8:15 a.m.
Wednesday
Thursday
July 1
July 2
Breakfast available at
Library beginning at 8:15
a.m.
9:00 - 10:00 Curriculum
Groups Round 5
9:00 - 11:00 Echoes and
Reflections Presentation
9:00 - 11:30 Pedagogy
of Hope: Pat Carini,
Sondra Perl, and more
1:00 - 1:45 Lunch at the
Library
1:45 - 2:30 Sondra Perl
presents On Austrian Soil
1:00 - 2:00 Lunch at the
Library
2:00 - 4:30 Workshops with
Leaders in the Field: Making
Classroom Connections
Michelle Clark, High Tech High
School, CA, Seminar Alumnus
1:00 - 2:00 Lunch at the
Library
2:00 - 5:00
Reading, writing, and
celebrating our voices:
what we are taking away
Check out by
11 am;
please
remember to
11:00 - 11:15 Break
10:15 - 1:00 Dr. Miriam
return your
11:30 - 11:45 Break
Ezzani, UNT Department of
room key,
11:15
1:00
Workshops
with
Education,
on
Culturally
11:00 - 12:30 Kevin Feinberg,
and safe
11:45 - 1:00 Moving
Leaders in the Field: Making
Facing History and Ourselves, Responsive Pedagogy
travels!
Classroom
Connections
ahead,
looking
forward:
on the theme of rescue: why
Corey
Harbaugh,
Gobles
High
mini-grants,
satellites,
risk your lives for others?
School, MI, Seminar Alumnus online evaluations, and
and co-leader of the Satellite staying in touch
Seminar in Michigan
Lunch 12:30 - 1:30 Brunch at the
Library
2pm 1:30 - 3:30 Screening of "Two
Who Dared: The Sharps'
War," with special guest
Artemis Joukowsky
3:30 - 4:30 Discussion of film
led by Kevin Feinberg
4:30 - 5:00 Reflective Writing
time
2:30 - 3:00 Embodied
Knowing and the Holocaust
3:00 - 4:00 Sustained silent
writing and revision groups
4:00 Travel downtown
5:00 - 6:00 Break
6pm
6:00- 7:00 Reception at the
Library
7:00 - 9:00 Klezmer
performance and discussion
6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Boat 5:00 - 7:00 10th Anniversary
ride on "The Ventura" around Cocktail Party
Lower Manhattan.
Boarding begins at 6:00 at
the North Cove Marina,
World Financial Center
5:30 - 6:00 Closing
activity
Final dinner and
farewells
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Final Report 2015
Appendix C – 2015 Romania Seminar Participants
Name
Institution
1
Mihaela Gligor
Researcher at the Romanian Academy Cluj
2
Geanina Turcanu
History teacher at School no.1 Slobozia Conachi
3
Roxana Cercel
History teacher, Bucharest
4
Dragos Curelea
History teacher, Ph.D. student, Sibiu
Daniel Șipoș
Graduate Student at the Faculty of History and Political Sciences, Oradea
Vasile Husar
Graduate Student at the Faculty of History and Political Sciences, Oradea
Oana Mitu
Graduate student, „Dunărea de Jos” University, Galati
Daniel Stejerean
Director of the Holocaust Museum in Nord Transylvania, Simleul Silvaniei
9
Roxana Ghita
Post-doc, West University Timisoara
10
Constantin Dinu
History teacher, „Ioan Petruș”, Otopeni
11
Cristina Soangher
History teacher School no. 85, Bucharest
Marilena Ene
Graduate Student,Bucharest University
13
Ligia Istrate
Ph.D, „Babeș-Bolyai” University, Sibiu
14
Maria Ghegu
Graduate student, Bucharest University
Daniel Hrenciuc
Teacher at Colegiul Tehnic Radauti
16
Cristina Maria Ciuperca
Graduate student Faculty of Sociology, Bucharest
17
Lavinia Buda
Ph.D student at Babeș -Bolyai University, Cluj
18
Florin Petrescu
DirectorTeacher Training Institution Ilfov
5
6
7
8
12
15
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
Cristina Tomuleț
University lecturer, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj
20
Daniela Sara Popescu-Fuchs
Graduate Student, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj
21
Eugenia Mihalcea
Ph.D. student, Bucharest University
22
Radu Patrascu
Graduate student, Faculty of Sociology, Bucharest
23
Ariadna Petri
Research assistant at Open University in Israel
24
Marius Cazan
Research assistant at Bucharest University
25
Florin Vladicescu Popentiu
Professor at Oradea University
26
Marina Fabian
Ph.D. student at Ion Creanga University, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Irene Teodor
Graduate Student at Political Science Faculty, Bucharest
Ștefan Marius Deaconu
President of the Association of History Students Oradea
29
Ella Stiniguță
Graduate Student, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj
30
Camelia Pertrani
Bucharest
31
Cristina Sandor
Bucharest
19
27
28
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Final Report 2015
Appendix D – 2015 Romania Seminar Agenda
SUNDAY
09:00 – 10:00 Arrival of participants in Surduc/Lugoj
MONDAY
10:00 – 10:15 Gathering of participants
10:15 - 11:00 Opening of the 5th edition. Opening remarks by:
Francisc Boldea, Mayor of the City of Lugoj
Alexandru Florian, Director General of the National Institute for the Study of Holocaust in
Romania “Elie Wiesel” (INSHR-EW)
Gigel Dumitru Olariu, President of Precept Ministries Foundation
Steve Ausnit, Vice-President of the Board of Directors of The Memorial Library
11:00 – 13:00 Getting to know each other session
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 15:50 Interbelic anti-Semitism, Liviu Rotman
15:50 – 16:00 Break
16:00 – 16:50 Holocaust survivor Liviu Beris
16:50 – 17:00 Break
17:00 – 18:50 Life of the Jewish community in Romania. Historical and cultural context, Victor Neumann
19:00Dinner
TUESDAY
08:00 – 09:00 Breakfast
09:00 – 11:50 New forms of denial in post-communist Eastern Europe, Michael Shafir
11:50 – 12:00 Break
12:00 – 13:00 The history of anti-Semitism in the U.S.A., Marjorie Stern
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 15:50 Involvement of the secret services of the Antonescu regime in the Holocaust, Adrian
Cioflanca
15:50 – 16:00 Break
16:00 – 16:50 Legislation regarding the Jews in Romania 1938-present day, Alexandru Florian
16:50 – 17:00 Break
17:00 – 19:00 Movie: Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
19:00Dinner
WEDNESDAY
08:00 – 09:00 Breakfast
09:00 – 10:50 Acculturation orientations in current society. Majority-minority relations, Oana Nestian
Sandu
10:50 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:00 Popricani Mass Grave, Elisabeth Ungureanu
12:00 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 14:30 Current forms of discrimination, Aurora Martin
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The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
14:30 – 14:40
14:40 – 15:40
15:40 – 16:00
16:00 – 18:00
19:00 –
Break
The Memory of the Holocaust in the post-communist era, Alexandru Climescu
Break
Religious persecutions in Romania in 1940-1944, Viorel Achim
Dinner
THURSDAY
08:00 – 09:00 Breakfast
09:00 – 10:30 Holocaust in Romania, Radu Ioanid
10:30 – 10:50 Break
10:50 – 12:30 Holocaust in Romania - continued, Radu Ioanid
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 14:30 Movie: Odessa
14:30 – 15:00 Travel to Lugoj
15:00 – 16:00 Visiting the Synagogue and the Baptist school in Lugoj
16:00 – 17.00 Inauguration of the Max Ausnit Memorial School
17.30 –
Farewell dinner
Page 43
Final Report 2015
Appendix E – 2015 Bulgaria Seminar Participants
Name
School and Town
1
Maria Pavlova Krazheva-Mesheva
High school Patriarh Evtimii/ Plovdiv
2
Stoyanka Rangelova
Ivan Vazov Language School
3
Mario Dimitrov Alexandrov
Velisar Peev Vocational Gymnasium, Svoge
4
Boryana Georgieva Valcheva
“Yane Sandanski” Science And Mathematics High School
5
Krasimira Angelova
Aprilov National High School, Gabrovo
6
Boris Panayotov Slavov
Bacho Kiro School,Letnitsa
7
Vaidin Misankov
“St. st. Cyril and Methodius”, High school, Yakoruda
8
Tanya Kostadinova Trapova
PMG “Yane Sandanski” High School, Gotse Delchev
9
Irina Ivanova Grancharova
St.st.Cyril and Methodius High School,Yakoruda
10
Lyubomira Nestorova Pankovska
General educational school St. Patriarch Evtimii, Plovdiv
11
Svetlana Georgieva Taleva
High school Patriarh Evtimii/ Plovdiv
12
Tanya Zheleva Elenska
Dobri Chintulov High School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Sliven
13
Mihaylov Hristo Lilov
Krumovgrad Vasil Levski Secondary School
14
Vyara Boyanova Petrova
Krumovgrad Vasil Levski Secondary School
15
Tatyana Ivanova Angelova-Krastovcheva
“Hristo Botev” High School, Dupnitsa
16
Dimitrina Kirilova Zareva
Hristo Botev” High School, Dupnitsa
17
Svetla Karayaneva
Highschool of the Humanities "St.St. Cyril and Methodius", Plovdiv
18
Mariyana Petrova
*ROMAIN ROLLAND* Foreign language school Stara Zagora
19
Branekova, Lyudmila
Foreign language school - Lovech
20
Ventsislav Metodiev Chobanov
''Hristo Smirnenski High School '' Krumovgrad
21
Hristina Hristova
Professional School of Veterinary Medicine “Prof. dr Dimitar Dimov” Lovech
22
Emilia Stamenova Tsvetkova- Nikolova
“St.st. Cyril and Methodius”, Kyustendil
23
Krasimira Lazarova Milenkova-Sergieva
PGT “N.J.Vaptsarov” Slivnitsa
24
Еli Yordanova Georgieva
Kyustendil, Primary school “Ivan Vazov”
25
Boyanka Marinova Dimitrova
Veliko Tarnovo; Regional Inspectorate of Education
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Plovdiv
The Memorial Library/ The Olga Lengyel Institute
26
Veronika Kirilova Borova
Kyustendil, VII OU ”Ilio Voivoda”
27
Tyana Georgieva Docheva
Secondary school “Hristo Botev”; Kubrat
28
Violeta Petrova Georgieva
University of Veliko Tarnovo „St. St. Cyril and Methodius”, European
Information Center - Veliko Tarnovo
29
Yuliya Georgieva Chortleneva
High School „Hristo Smirnenski”, municipality Chernoochene,
Kardzhali, Chernoochene village
30
Rumyana Ivanova Sotirova
Sekondary School Dimcho Debelyanov – Plovdiv
31
Nadezhda Krumova Miteva
Maths Secondary School ‘Geo Milev’ Pleven
32
Yuliya Timova Todorova
Maths and Science High School
33
Rositsa Dimitrova
“P. R. Slaveykov” Secondary School, Vidin
34
Milena Detelinova Georgieva
Maths Secondary School ‘Geo Milev’ Pleven
35
Stancheva, Tanya Angelova
Damyan Damyanov School of Humanities, Sliven
36
Tanya Asenova Kostadinova
Vocational Technical HighSchool "Vasil Levski" – Vidin
37
Teodora Aleksandrova Shishkova
PG “Gen. Vladimir Zaimov”, Sopot
38
Genovska Neli
Lycee de langue française de Varna
39
Dragomir Plamenov Dachev
SOU “Bacho Kiro” – Pavlikeni
40
Emil Ivanov Krustev
97 SOU/ 140 SOU –Sofia
41
Aneta Atanasova Tumbeva
Vocational High School for Tourism and Catering “H. Stoychev” Razlog
42
Sonya Danchova Krancheva
Secondary School “Bratya Kanazireri” Razlog
43
Neli Ivanova Dimova
IEG Varna
44
Vesela Hristova
Goethegymnasium, Burgas
region
Page 45
Final Report 2015
Appendix F – 2015 Bulgaria Seminar Agenda
Day 1
9.00-10.30
Day 2
Creating a
participatory
learning space:
Presentation of
program,
objectives,
participants
Coffee break
Identity
10.30-11.00
11.00-12.30
Stereotypes,
prejudices and
discrimination
Pyramid of hate
Arrival of
participants
12.30-1.30
Lunch
The history of
anti-Semitism –
lecture by Diego
Lucci
1.30-3.00
3.30-5.00
5.00-5.30
8.00-
Page 46
Day 4
Nazi and fascist
propaganda and
its impact on the
Holocaust –
lecture by Radu
Ioanid
Survivor
testimony –
Assia Raberman
Acculturation
orientations in
today’s society
Coffee break
The Holocaust in
Europe. The
European
historiography
and the national
myths related to
the Holocaust
– lecture by Radu
Ioanid
Lunch
Departure to
Sofia
Coffee break
Upstanders /
Bystanders
Coffee break
Human rights
based approach
in education
Synagogue visit
in Sofia
Lecture by Filip
Dimitrov
3.00-3.30
6.00-7.30
Day 3
7.00 PM
Opening
reception
Wrap-up of the
day
Guided tour of
Blagoevgrad
Dinner
Visit to the
Chabad House
Kosher dinner
Departure to
Blagoevgrad
Day 5
The Righteous
Pyramid of
Alliance
Lunch
Jews in Bulgaria
during WWII –
Lecture by
Michael BarZohar
Coffee break
Jews in Bulgaria
during WWII –
Lecture by
Michael BarZohar cont.
Wrap-up of the
day
Dinner
Lunch
Teaching about
the Holocaust
and social justice
– approaches
and methods
Coffee break
Action plan
Evaluation
Distribution of
certificates &
Farewell dinner