Search results for: Holocaust education

Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, is one of several museums and institutions tapping into the potential of online presence and social media campaigns to raise awareness among an audience that increasingly has little first-person contact with the horrors of the Holocaust. “We realized in the last couple of years, particularly in social media, that people want to do something more participatory. It’s fine to read, learn and explore, but with the opportunity to engage with a particular topic or issue, people really want to do something,” said Dana Porath, Yad Vashem’s Internet Department Director. Porath, who was a Jewish educator for 15 years in North America before moving to Israel, began working at Yad Vashem in 1994 and joined the fledgling internet department in 1999. Today, the museum’s online presence is robust and growing. Five years ago, Yad Vashem began the IRemember Wall project in which participants are linked with specific names of victims. The algorithm is purposefully random, because, said Porath, “Every victim deserves to be remembered.” The project is held only once a year for International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Said Porath, it becomes “a collective experience” that combines the wall and the comments it garners. She said she expects to reach at least 3,000 participants this year.

The words of the Admor (Grand Rabbi) of Talne echoed poignantly at the main session of Yad Vashem's Tenth Annual Conference for Teachers from the Ultra-Orthodox sector in Israel, which took place on July 6-7, 2016. Close to 2,000 ultra-Orthodox educators, principals and school inspectors – men and women separately – took part in the conference, which was organized by the Ultra-Orthodox Section of the Department for Teacher Training in Israel at the International School for Holocaust Studies. “This conference marks the peak of the intensive work of the Ultra-Orthodox Section, which has been active at Yad Vashem for 15 years, in the world of Torah-based education,” explained Sarit Hoch-Markovitz, Director of the Department for Teacher Training in Israel. “It was on the one hand an opportunity to summarize our achievements, and on the other an opening for future activities aimed at bringing ultra-Orthodox teachers the newest pedagogical tools and knowledge in the fields of Holocaust education and research, while emphasizing the struggle of observant Jews during the Holocaust.”

Holocaust Denial on Trial, a website founded by Emory University professor Deborah Lipstadt to refute the misleading claims of Holocaust deniers, has been redesigned and relaunched. Created in 2005 through a partnership between Emory and the university’s Tam Institute for Jewish Studies, the website catalogues the legal and evidentiary material arising from David Irving v. Penguin UK and Deborah Lipstadt, a libel claim brought against Lipstadt and her publisher in 1996 by Holocaust denier Irving. Materials from the 32-day trial were posted on the Holocaust Denial on Trial (HDOT) website to provide perpetual access for scholars and the interested public and quality resources to combat Holocaust denial. The website’s redesign and relaunch are timed to coincide with release of the movie “Denial,” a feature film based on Lipstadt’s experiences during the case, which she chronicled in her 2005 book, “History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier.”

Holocaust education in any setting requires a careful approach, taking into consideration the cultural sensitivities of the target audiences, local history and current trends. In Israel, where Holocaust education has been created and developed over decades to produce models used around the world, this approach can be examined using the prism of the nationally instituted curriculum. The following article presents the rationale and ramifications of Holocaust education in Israel, as well as principles and suggestions to be considered in Holocaust education world over.