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Educate:
to train or develop; to instruct. The direction and objectives
of the Department
for Seminars for Educators from Abroad coincide precisely
with the dictionary definition.
These seminars, which range from eight to twenty four days,
attempt to provide a maximum amount of current, serious and
in-depth Holocaust education in admittedly short periods of
time. As such, the goal is awesome, its implementation even
more so.
The participants in these seminars are educators who come from
elementary schools as well as universities, are members of the
clergy, children of Holocaust survivors, staff members from
the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Facing
History and Ourselves program, the Wiesenthal Center in the
United States, and the Imperial War Museum in Great Britain,
to include just a few. Their countries of origin include
Australia, Europe, Scandinavia and more. Last month, the first
seminar for Belgian participants took place.
The International School for Holocaust Studies offers these
unique and unparalleled seminars in French, Polish, German,
Spanish, Hungarian and English, the coordination of which is
the responsibility of the Director of the Department, Ephraim
Kaye and the Department Coordinator, Kathryn Berman. Their
efforts are supported and implemented by a close-knit group of
staff members who conduct the seminars for non-English
speaking educators.
Participants spend the majority of their time at Yad Vashem in
the classroom where those accustomed to teaching a class find
themselves on the other side of the desk. Pre-eminent
educators, many of whom are on the Yad Vashem staff, deliver
lectures beginning with ancient and medieval antisemitism and
continuing through the stages of the Holocaust. Survivor
testimony is an integral component of all courses; in any
given course, four to seventeen survivors give their
testimonies.
A typical seminar day runs from nine in the morning until four
in the afternoon, or longer if it is in English. Breaks are
provided for the participants between the lectures, so there
is an opportunity to recover from the intensity of the lecture
and to reflect upon the material and share insights.
Seminars also provide time away from Yad Vashem in the form of
trips to the Galilee, the Golan Heights, Massada and the Dead
Sea. Course participants travel to the Ghetto Fighters'
Kibbutz for further pedagogical instruction in an alternative
setting. Time spent in the International School for Holocaust
Studies is designed to provide physical as well as mental
stimulation to those willing to accept the challenge. This
training is intended to provide the educators with the extra
stamina necessary for the pedagogical challenges to come.
If you ask participants for an evaluation of their time at Yad
Vashem, you will find the praise, while consistent and heady,
to be tempered with constructive criticism, such as the need
for longer breaks, more debriefing with staff members and
among themselves, and more free time for study and research in
the pedagogical center. By far, the majority of comments are
extremely positive, e.g. "In virtually every way, this
seminar met and frequently exceeded my highest
expectations." "Those of us who are middle-aged,
desk-bound academics are not used to 12-13 hour marathon days,
but usually there was a built-in lull before we dropped from
exhaustion." With reluctance and, understandably, some
relief on the part of all involved, the seminars come to an
end with feelings of frustration for what was left undone, as
well as satisfaction for what was accomplished. The Yad Vashem
team, at the same time both flexible and demanding,
consistently endeavors to couple a safe and friendly
environment with an expectation of commitment from the course
participants.
Friendships, formed during the seminar both professional and
personal, reflect the atmosphere that has been painstakingly
created. Often these connections enable the educators to
continue the intellectual pursuit of Holocaust study and
education. This reflects not only their personal commitment
but suggests a realm of potential benefits to students in the
diverse arenas that the participants represent. While this is
not one of the over-riding goals of the seminars, it certainly
stands as a testimony to the ongoing and ever expanding
educational possibilities that Yad Vashem's International
School is able to provide through teacher education.
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