Holocaust Memorial Invites Teachers to Participate in Subsidized Educational Seminar at Yad Vashem

In an effort to encourage innovative new approaches to teaching Holocaust studies, the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach, a Committee of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, has partnered with Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to those who perished in the Holocaust, to offer a subsidized 10-day teachers’ program in Jerusalem.

The Sixth Annual Holocaust Memorial Institute at Yad Vashem will feature classes taught by internationally respected Holocaust educators July 7-16, 2015. The program will focus on “Approaches to Teaching the Holocaust,” and is open to a limited number of teachers from Jewish institutions, with priority given to teachers of students in sixth to 12th grades.

The goal of the Institute is to stimulate teachers to discover new ways to communicate the lessons of the Holocaust with their students, using multi-dimensional techniques that will be relevant to today’s children and young adults.

Tamara Donnenfeld, Director of Lifelong Learning at Temple Beth Am of Pinecrest, participated in the 2014 Institute at Yad Vashem and described it as a “phenomenal experience.”

“It was an amazing program that exposed us to entirely new methodologies of teaching the Holocaust,” Donnenfeld said. “The instructors and staff at Yad Vashem have incredible resources, and opened our eyes to entirely new content and approaches to teaching our students.”

One of the new innovations that Donnenfeld has added to Temple Beth Am’s educational program is a curriculum for seventh- and eighth-graders that conveys the lessons of the Holocaust through graphic novels, a very popular medium among today’s adolescents and young adults.

Donnenfeld, who will participate in her third Leo Martin March of the Living in April 2015, recommended the Institute at Yad Vashem for all Jewish studies educators seeking to expand their professional capabilities.

The cost of the program is approximately $500 per person and includes airfare, hotel (double occupancy), meals, transportation to Yad Vashem and conference fees. Participants arrange their own air travel and receive a $1,000 stipend upon completion of the program. They are responsible for their own round-trip transportation from Ben Gurion Airport to Jerusalem and any personal expenses.

Participants must agree to complete one educational project for Yad Vashem and one educational project for the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach. They also must agree to meet twice as a group after returning to Miami, bring their students to the Holocaust Memorial and meet with a Holocaust survivor living in South Florida.

For more information and registration, contact Daniel Reed, Education Coordinator of the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach, at 305-538-1663 or dreed@gmjf.org.