Shoah program launched at Darchei

A new Holocaust educational initiative was launched at Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway on Nov. 16.

More than 100 educators from dozens of day schools and yeshivot were introduced to the IWitness educational platform, a product of a new partnership of the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE) and the USC Shoah Foundation. They heard from speakers who will bring this ambitious, four-year project to schools and classrooms.

The IWitness-CIJE Jewish Day School initiative will offer new resources and activities in IWitness for effective and appropriate teaching of the Holocaust at Jewish schools.

“After speaking with educators, scholars and especially schoolchildren, I believe Holocaust education is sorely lacking,” said CIJE board member Elly Kleinman, a philanthropist and president of the Kleinman Holocaust Education Center. “Hopefully, this program will have success in filling the void.”

IWitness provides Internet access to 1,467 full life histories, testimonies of survivors and witnesses to the Holocaust and other genocides integrated into student-centered activities that can be used by teachers across multiple disciplines to encourage critical thinking and self-reflection, helping students get a sense of their own place in the world, while also developing digital literacy and other 21st century competencies.

“Through our new partnership, children will be able to better grasp what life was like for a lost grandparent before, during and after the Holocaust,” explained CIJE President Jason Cury. “These firsthand testimonies are both poignant and heart wrenching. Yet they teach valuable lessons about the circumstances, strength and heroism of survivors. The IWitness-CIJE Initiative will enable schools to focus on this material in a way that is meaningful and appropriate for each student.”