1. European Department - ICHEIC Program
2. International Projects Department
3. Department for International Seminars in English and the Jewish World

1. European Department – ICHEIC Program

In July and August 2007, the International School will host seminars for teachers, educators and commemoration site workers from Austria and German states. Participants spend one to two weeks at Yad Vashem, focusing on various aspects within Holocaust education, such as daily life in the ghettos, the Holocaust and genocide, Jewish life before the Holocaust and more. Pedagogical issues will be discussed as well, including interdisciplinary teaching methods and age-appropriation of the material. The seminars include lectures, workshops, meetings with survivors and tours. Participants are given the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the School’s educational philosophy and the greater Yad Vashem complex, besides the Historical Museum. 

2. International Projects Department

More than forty educators from across the United States participated in a special seminar at the International School for Holocaust Studies, July 15-21, 2007.  The week-long Echoes and Reflections Summer Institute, organized in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, sought to enhance and supplement the seminar participants’ understanding of key content in Echoes and Reflections via the Yad Vashem museums, world-renowned researchers, and pedagogical experts.  Echoes and Reflections is a multimedia curriculum on the Holocaust jointly developed by the Anti-Defamation League, USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, and Yad Vashem. Since its launch in July 2005, several thousand teachers have been trained on how to use this resource material in their classrooms. For more information on this resource, see: www.echoesandreflections.org  

Since the beginning of 2007, the staff of the International School for Holocaust Studies has conducted workshops and organized Holocaust-related educational activities in 16 different countries to date. For more information about organizing professional development programs in Holocaust education in your region of the world, please contact richelle.buddcaplan@yadvashem.org.il
 

3. Department for International Seminars in English and the Jewish World

Between the months of June and August the department planned and carried out 8 international seminars for over 250 educators from around the world. This has been the most intensive summer ever in the history of this department. 

1. Seminar for Jewish educators from Hungary

      June 24, 2007 – July 3, 2007 (10 days)

This was only the second time that we hosted a seminar for Jewish educators from Hungary. 26 educators from Jewish day schools and other Jewish institutes came to study at Yad Vashem in order to enrich their knowledge and gain important pedagogical experience. We hope to be able to bring such a group every summer. 

2. The International summer seminar

        July 1, 2007 – July 19, 2007 (20 days)

This summer 40 participants from 7 different countries (USA, Canada, Slovakia, Poland, Serbia, Lithuania and Latvia) attended this seminar. They represented a wide spectrum of educators - schoolteachers, University professors and Holocaust museum personnel. Most of the participants were not Jewish and for the majority this was their first visit to Israel. 

3. The Seminar for Educators from South America

         July 4, 2007 – July 17, 2007  (15 days)

For the first time we hosted a summer seminar for participants from 8 different countries from South America (Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay) with 34 participants. Two thirds of the participants were Jewish, representing Jewish educational institutes, both formal and informal, and a third were non-Jews who represented different institutes, both academic and holocaust memorial centers.

4. The Vladka Meed Summer Institute for Teachers

         July 12, 2007 – July 17, 2007  (6 days)

  After a lapse of 6 years (2001) this important seminar for American teachers returned to Yad Vashem. This summer 47 American middle and high school teachers attended. This program includes a 5-day trip to Poland, 6 days at Yad Vashem and another 4 days at the Ghetto Fighters Kibbutz in the north. 

5. Seminar for Jewish Educators from France

           July 18, 2007 – July 30, 2007  (13 days)

For a number of years we have encountered difficulties in recruiting Jewish teachers from France. This summer 17 Jewish educators participated in this important seminar, which provided them with the tools to help them combat antisemitism in France and to deepen their Jewish identity through the study of the Shoah. 

6. Summer Seminar for Jewish Educators from North America

               July 22, 2007 – August 9, 2007  (20 days)

This summer 26 Jewish educators from North America (we had one participant from Austria and one from Australia) representing the entire gamut of Jewish observance - from ultra-orthodox to reform - came together for 20 days to learn how to implement the study of the Shoah in order to deepen and enrich a positive Jewish identity.

7. Seminar for Jewish Educators from the FSU (the former Soviet Union)

            July 30, 2007 – August 5, 2007   (7 days)

This summer 32 participants came from the FSU to take part in a seminar, developed in conjunction with the Jewish Agency and the Ghetto Fighters House. These educators came from both formal and informal Jewish educational institutes. They spent 7 days at Yad Vashem and another 7 days at the Ghetto Fighters House. 

8. Seminar for Jewish Educators from Italy

             August 27, 2007 – September 2, 2007   (7 days)

For the first time ever we hosted a special seminar for 24 Jewish teachers from Italy for a 7 day seminar at Yad Vashem. This attempt to reach Jewish educators in Italy we hope will continue on an annual basis. The teachers come from both elementary, middle and high school frameworks.

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