The Summer International Seminar - North America
The Summer International Seminar is an intensive 19-day educational seminar that takes place in English every July. It is geared for educators who work in middle schools, high schools, colleges, universities and Holocaust education centers. This is the longest and most intensive Holocaust seminar in the world. The participants come mainly from North America, but educators from Europe and Latin America have participated as well. This seminar is built on three pillars: academic, pedagogical and an experiential. In the course of the seminar, top scholars and pedagogical experts from Yad Vashem's International School for Holocaust Studies will deliver over 50 academic and pedagogical presentations. In addition, participants will hear the personal stories of 7-8 Holocaust survivors and will travel throughout Israel.
China
Since 2010, the International School has hosted an annual 16-day intensive seminar for educators from China. This English-language seminar takes place in October and is geared for Chinese educators who lecture at different universities, post-graduate student researchers, and high school teachers. This seminar incorporates the essential elements of every Yad Vashem educational seminar and includes academic, pedagogical and experiential elements. We also incorporate presentations that deal with the suffering of the Chinese people under Japanese occupation and the fate of Chinese people outside China during World War II. Several of the presentations in this seminar are done in Chinese.
Korea
Since 2014, the International School has organized several seminars for educators from Korea in cooperation with the Israeli embassy in Seoul. These 10-day seminars aim to provide these educators with the academic, pedagogical and experiential elements that every seminar at Yad Vashem features. These particular seminars, which take place in English with simultaneous interpretation into Korean, also cover the Korean experience under Japanese occupation.
India
In 2012, the International School organized its first 10-day seminar in English for educators from India. Twenty educators who teach at different universities and high schools all over India participated in the seminar, which Yad Vashem coordinated with the assistance of the Israeli embassy in New Delhi. This seminar contained the essential elements of all our educational seminars: academic, pedagogical and experiential elements, as well as meetings with Holocaust survivors. This seminar also addressed the unique experience of the 1949 partition of the subcontinent between India and Pakistan, which affected Indian society and is seen as the major upheaval that this country experienced in the 20th century.
Taiwan
In 2012, the International School coordinated its first seminar for educators from Taiwan together with Pastor Alex Chou. This 10-day seminar was conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation into Chinese. The Taiwanese Ministry of Education will organize further educational seminars for high school and university instructors in 2019.
New Zealand
Since 2013, the International School has organized intensive 17-day educational seminars for high school teachers from New Zealand in cooperation with the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand. Every other year, we conduct this seminar for 20 educators who are chosen from all over New Zealand. Our fourth educational seminar will take place in January 2019 and will bring another 20 educators to Yad Vashem. This seminar features the essential elements of all Yad Vashem educational seminars: academic, pedagogical and experiential elements, including personal meetings with Holocaust survivors.
South Africa
The International School has coordinated two seminars for educators from South Africa, in 2008 and 2017, in cooperation with the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation in Cape Town, the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre and the Durban Holocaust Centre. Together with our partners, we have created a unique 10-day educational seminar that includes the essential academic, pedagogical and experiential elements, as well as personal meetings with Holocaust survivors. The seminar aims to connect the participants, with their country's long history of apartheid, and the persecution that the Jews suffered under the Nazi regime and occupation during World War II.