A cohort of 23 middle and high school English and social studies teachers from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas and one from Poland, recently completed a five-day Jewish Foundation for the Righteous summer institute in Newark, N.J.
The group, Alfred Lerner Fellows, all of whom were already teaching about the Holocaust, learned about “the complex history of the Holocaust” and addressed “new teaching techniques for introducing the subject of the Holocaust into their classrooms,” according to the foundation, which funds righteous gentiles 73 years old and above in 10 countries.
Experts from Yad Vashem, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the American Jewish Committee and from more than half a dozen U.S. and Canadian universities addressed the fellows.
Mary Beth Ely, of Liberty Park Middle School in Vestavia Hills, Ala., told JNS that she expected “to deepen my understanding of Holocaust history, and I was honored and proud to learn from renowned scholars from around the world whose expertise and passion brought the material to life.”
“I gained new insight into the dangerous and moral choices of rescuers, the ‘choiceless choices’ faced by Jews during the Holocaust and the importance of teaching students to recognize human agency and resistance,” she said. “I’m returning to my classroom with a renewed sense of purpose and powerful tools to help students think critically about the Holocaust, history, justice and antisemitism.”
Chrissy Hoerlein, of Simon Kenton High School in Independence, Ky., told JNS that she participated hoping to increase her knowledge and “better serve my students and develop lessons.”
“I could not have imagined the caliber of professors and lecturers. They were able to present new information in ways that enabled me to make deeper connections between events, laws, policies and propaganda relating to the Holocaust,” she said.
People could opt to help others during the Holocaust if they chose to do so, she said.
“I will be taking many lessons back to my classroom, but the most important, in my opinion, is giving the students a chance to do a deep dive into the stories of those who suffered in the Holocaust using primary sources or objects that allow everyone to see that at the end of the day, we are all the same,” she told JNS.
“We are all humans who want love, understanding, to care for our families and to live without persecution,” she said.
