BIC Holocaust Education

Posts related to Holocaust Education.

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Holocaust Education Committee Field Trip

May 7th to the Toronto Holocaust Museum to attend a presentation entitled:  “Reflecting Together:  Interfaith Families and the Holocaust”.   The presenter is Rabbi Denise Handlarski a Trent University education professor and long time friend of Beth Israel.  More details about this can be found at this link.   The presentation is from 7PM-9PM.   

For those interested in possibly car pooling and taking some extra time to visit the THM on May 7th, please contact Ralph.

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Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah)

On behalf of the Beth Israel Holocaust Education Committee:

Yom HaShoah V’Hagvura (Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day) occurs every year on the Hebrew date of 27 Nisan.  It is observed in Israel as its Holocaust memorial day.  This year marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps.   The theme this year at Beth Israel is resistance and resilience as expressed through art. 

Please join us on Wednesday, April 23rd from 5 – 8:30 p.m. at Beth Israel Synagogue. 

At 5:00PM the doors open for attendees to peruse a Yad Vashem exhibit entitled “The Anguish of Liberation in Art”.   Other related resource materials will be presented as well.

At 5:30 PM, please join us for a commemorative candle lighting. 

At 6:15 PM, please join us for a screening of Hilary Helstein’s documentary, “As Seen Through These Eyes” (trailer link here) .  It threads together incredible stories of defiance and resistance to Nazi brutality through expressions of art.  A cautionary note that some graphic images are presented.

For more information email Ralph.   Click here to RSVP.

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Some Holocaust Education Learning Resources

Elie Wiesel’s ‘Night’ is available for free as an audiobook:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEKtHbS0YJ4 (the full version);  separated by chapters:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_4Q1RYoCEA (Chapter 1; others listed there)
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Max Eisen Lecture on Holocaust Studies

If you misserd Trent University’s inaugural Max Eisen Lecture in Holocaust Studies this past September (2024) entitled The Shattering of the Assumptive World: A Family Story presented by Dr. Peter Suedfeld, the full recording can be found here.   It is a deeply impactful narrative of Dr. Suedfeld’s family, their Holocaust experiences, and the lasting outcomes.

Lecture Abstract:

Two families, joined in marriage, lived as ordinary Hungarian citizens for several centuries. Their accustomed way of life changed drastically when in the 1940s the Holocaust focused on the Jews of Hungary. Over the next few years, they lost all rights, possessions, and protection from the state. Eventually, all younger men became slave labourers for the army; other family members were deported to concentration camps, mostly to Auschwitz, where many were murdered; and most of the rest were crammed into the ghetto. Peter, the sole child in both families, was hidden in an orphanage. The talk describes the diverse nature of their experiences and of how the survivors rebuilt their lives, with new homes, new work, and in some cases new families.

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Yom HaShoah Events

Learning about the Holocaust and Its Meaning Today

Below are a set of links to Yom HaShoah events of note for our local community. 

Online participation is possible. 

Click on the links below to reach the event or learning materials.Yom HaShoah Candles

Yizkor:  Our Commitment to Remember

6 million worlds extinguished.

6 million pairs of hands that could no longer be held

6 million lifetimes of stories that could no longer be told

We cannot undo these horrors

What we can do is honour

We honour 6 million worlds in our candle lighting

We honour 6 million worlds in our remembering

We honour 6 million worlds by saying Never Again

We honour by bearing witness, by teaching this difficult history to our children. We honour by asking:

Where is the seed of this hate?

How was it made to blossom?

How was this hate elected?

Who is feeding it today?

To every soul that perished in the Nazi Holocaust, Jewish, Roma, disabled, gay, trans, to the millions of universes we can no longer explore,

To each of you, we pledge: We will keep learning, we will keep teaching, we will keep speaking, we will keep thinking, we will keep loving, we will keep building relationships across difference

We refuse to believe that we are powerless against hate, we refuse to abandon faith in humanity, we refuse to take anything for granted. In your memory, in the shadow of 6 million worlds, We will do everything we can to make never again mean never again.

 

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Resources for Combating

Anti-Semitism and Hate

In light of the increase in antisemitism at home and abroad, the Beth Israel Holocaust Education Committee has compiled a list of community and educational resources to combat antisemitism and hate here. If you have further resources you would like to suggest, please email Ralph. shoaheducation@jccpeterborough.com https://jccpeterborough.com/events/education/stop-hate-resources-for-confronting

 stop hate