Dear Holocaust Educators,

 

In our effort to learn and understand more about the Holocaust, we begin to make important connections to other crises of human rights both before and since the Shoah. As we mark the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide with a national commemoration on April 7, it is also our obligation to examine human rights violations within our own borders. The award-winning film Twelve Years a Slave challenges us to look honestly at one crucial aspect of our national history through the unflinching re-telling of Solomon Northrup's memoir. In 1841 a free black man from New York is captured and sold into slavery in Louisiana and we cannot look away from the realities of his experience.  

 

Each of us and each of our students relates to history through our unique lens and life experience. As we study the Holocaust, it remains important to respect these individual differences and broaden the opportunity for connections.

 

Josey G. Fisher, Editor

Holocaust Education Consultant 

Saint Joseph's University -   

Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations

City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA

 

"The Popes and the Jewish People: The Story of a Transformed Relationship"

 

A series of programs to mark the upcoming canonizations of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II

     

 

"When Racism and Theology Mix"

Thursday, March 20, 2014      7:00 - 8:30 PM 

Haub Executive Suite, McShain Hall, 5th floor 

Open to the public.

 

Guest speaker: Kevin Spicer, C.S.C., Ph.D., author of Hitler's Priests: Catholic Clergy and National Socialism and Resisting the Third Reich: The Catholic Clergy in Hitler's Berlin

 

 

"The Legacies of Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II"

Thursday, May 1, 2014      7:00 - 8:30 PM

President's Lounge, Campion Hall

Open to the public. 

 

 

 

Three Interfaith Dialogues on Papal and Other Texts Across the Decades

Thursdays, April 3, 10, & 24, 2014      7:00 - 8:30 PM

 

   

 

ADL's Walk Against Hate

 

Sunday, May 18, 2014      1:00-4:00 P.M. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive/West River Drive, Philadelphia

 

 

 Further information and registration.  

 

 

  

 

   

"Survival in Sarajevo,  

The Story of La Benevolencija:  

Jews, Muslims, Croats and Serbs Working Together during the Bosnian War, 1992 - 1995"

 

Opening Event for Centropa Exhibit

April 1, 2014      5:30 - 6:30 PM

Free Library of Philadelphia

1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103

 

Centropa Teacher's Workshop, co-sponsored by the Consortium of Holocaust Educators of Greater Philadelphia, in conjunction with exhibition  

April 2, 2014      4:00 - 7:00 PM

 

Act 48 available. A light supper will be provided. $10 registration fee. For further details, contact Beth Razin. 

 

 

Gratz College

 

Jewish Poland Travel-Study Tour   

 

June 24 - July 6, 2014

Deposits due by January 31, 2014

Click here for details and application or contact Mindy Blechman, 215-635-7300, ext. 154.

 

 

 

Gratz College Summer Institute  

 

"Teaching the Holocaust" with Josey G. Fisher

July 20-25, 2014  

"Holocaust Art" with Rabbi Lance J. Sussman 

July 27-August 1, 2014

   

For further information, additional online summer courses, and registration contact Mindy Blechman.

 

 

   

 

Holocaust and Jewish Resistance  

Teacher's Program

July 1-19, 2014

 

Intensive program for high school teachers starting in Washington, D.C. and traveling to Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic.

 

Application deadline March 14, 2014

Further information and application.  

 

 

 

Centropa Summer Academy

 

Vienna and Sarajevo

July 9-17, 2014

 

For teachers, pedagogical experts and museum educators.   

 

   

 

Jan Karski Institute for Holocaust Education

Summer Certificate Program

July 13-19, 2014

 

For high school teachers, held on campus of Georgetown University, Washington, DC, taught by Georgetown faculty

and broad range of guest lecturers, including access to museums and government agencies. Fulfills state requirements for public, private and parochial schools. Competitive admission.

 

Click for information.   

Application deadline April 19, 2014 - click here to apply.

 

    

 

 

Belfer National Conference for Educators

 

English Language Arts Section:  

July 13-15  

Social Studies Section: July 16-18

 

For teachers of middle school, high school and community college faculty.

 

Click for further information and online registration

 

 

Museum Teacher Fellowship Program

July 20-24, 2014

 

For Holocaust educators of grades 7-12 who have had five years or more experience. Competitive admission.

 

Applications due February 7, 2014.  Click here to apply. 

 

Yad Vashem   

 

The 9th International Conference on Holocaust Education - "Through Our Own Lens: Reflecting on the Holocaust from Generation to Generation"

July 7-10, 2014

 

 

 

Summer Seminar for Educators in Jewish Frameworks

July 21-30, 2014

 

For further information, click on "email." 

 

 

     

 

 ***NEW RESOURCE!***

 

   

New video portal organizes key elements of Yad Vashem website specifically for Holocaust educators. Includes methodological and pedagogical guidelines, historical background, archival videos, first-person testimony - designed for practical classroom application. Click here.

 

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Facing History and Ourselves

The Weimar Republic: The Fragility of Democracy

Click here. 

 

   

Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation

Free online video courses, 20-80 minutes each, prepare teachers to teach lessons on Jewish armed and unarmed resistance. Includes printable lesson plans and short films. All suggested curricula fulfill Common Core Standards in English and Social Studies for grades 6-12.

Click here.  

   

 

YIVO -- reVILNA: Vilnius Ghetto Project

  

For resources relating to this year's theme and to request Days of Remembrance CD/DVD Planning Guide, click here. 

 

 

 

My Family for the War  

  

 

 

 

by Anne C. Voorhoeve, Dial, 2012, translated from the German by Tammi Reichel.  

Protestant eleven-year-old Ziska flees Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport because of her grandparents' Jewish heritage. Placed with an Orthodox Jewish family in London for the war years, Ziska becomes conflicted over her religious identity and growing attachment to her foster parents.  

Grade 9+

 

 

 

The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi  by Neal Bascomb, Arthur A. Levine Books, 2013. Adaptation for younger readers of author's well-researched adult non-fiction Hunting Eichmann

(Houghton, 2009).
Grade 8+

 

 

Odette's Secrets    

The Tattered Prayer Book (Mom's Choice Awards Recipient) by Ellen Bari and illustrated by Avi Katz. Gihon Rivers Press, 2013.  

Young girl finds a burnt and tattered prayer book at her grandmother's house and discovers her family's German Jewish history for the first time. Recommended for adult to read to elementary school-age child as an introduction to the Holocaust.

by Wendy Lower, Houghton, Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. As consultant to the USHMM, Lower has broadened previous research of German women's participation in the genocide, using first-person testimony to illustrate both professional and personal culpability and brutality. 2013 National Book Award finalist.

 

   

A highly original book for Holocaust educators, utilizing the artwork of the Polish survivor/author as basis for lesson plans that meet State and National Core Curriculum Standards.