Sixteen college professors from across the United States attend this week a special seminar at Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies in Jerusalem to study about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.
It is the 3rd annual "Echoes and Reflections Professors’ Study Tour" to Israel, an intensive weeklong program designed to enhance teachers’ understanding of the Holocaust and foster their commitment to educating future teachers and their students about the subject.
The program is developed by the Anti-defamation League (ADL), the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, and Yad Vashem.
The professors hail from Alabama A&M University, Northern Arizona University, Boston University, University of Georgia, University of Hawaii, University of Virginia, Lehigh University, Pacific University (OR), University of Northern Colorado, Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne, Loyola Marymount University, Columbia University, Ohio State University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Louisville, and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Participants will have comprehensive tours of the Yad Vashem campus, including the Holocaust History Museum, and meet with Holocaust survivors, world-renowned historians, and pedagogical experts, and have the opportunity to share educational strategies.
Among the issues the seminar will address are the challenges of teaching the Holocaust, the rise of modern anti-Semitism, the dilemmas of Jewish leadership during the Holocaust, and the ‘unprecedentedness’ of the Holocaust in an age of genocide.
On their return to their home campuses, participants will work with their colleagues and with ADL regional offices to coordinate teacher-training seminars and bring Echoes and Reflections programming to their campuses.