15 July 2007
More than 40 educators from across the United States will participate in a special seminar at Yad Vashem opening Sunday, July 15, 2007. The week-long Echoes and Reflections Summer Institute will take place at the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, and is being held in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the USC Shoah Foundation Institute. Echoes and Reflections is a multimedia curriculum on the Holocaust developed by the Anti-Defamation League, USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, and Yad Vashem. The Summer Institute aims to enhance and supplement staff and educators’ understanding of key content in Echoes and Reflections via the Yad Vashem museums, historians and educators.
The opening session will take place Sunday evening in the Valley of Communities at Yad Vashem, with the participation of Yossie Hollander, benefactor of Echoes and Reflections, Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem, Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the ADL, and Dorit Novak, Director of the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem.
“The Echoes and Reflections project serves as a model of how three major international organizations can come together, create path-breaking educational materials, combining the best pedagogical tools, visual history and historical accuracy. This week's institute is an opportunity to explore the issues raised in Echoes and Reflections together with world-renowned Holocaust researchers and educators. As misinformation about the Holocaust and antisemitism spread through the Internet, it is vitally important that teachers have the tools to provide accurate information in the classroom and beyond,” said Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem.
During the course of the seminar, participants will hear survivor testimony, including from Abraham Foxman, tour the Yad Vashem campus, and have in-depth sessions on lessons covered by the Echoes and Reflections curriculum including “Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Bystanders” and “Jewish Resistance”, as well as educational methods, and other issues.
