Bringing the lessons of the Holocaust into today's world
Holocaust Education in New York City – and Beyond
The Memorial Library was founded in 1962 by Auschwitz survivor Olga Lengyel as a memorial to the martyrs who died fighting Nazi aggression during World War II. Olga envisioned the Library as an educational and literary center that would exhibit works of art, literature, and music related to the war. After Olga’s death in 2001, the Board of Directors turned its attention to teacher education, contacting Dr. Sondra Perl, Professor of English at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. With the Library’s support, Dr. Perl created the Holocaust Educators Network, a nationwide program designed to bring the lessons of the Holocaust into today’s world. Beginning in the summer of 2006 with 21 teachers, HEN now numbers over 800 teachers in 40 states.
Featured Teacher
Program Director Dr. Sondra Perl, Winner of the CCCC Exemplar Award
The Olga Lengyel Institute and the Memorial Library are proud to announce that Dr. Sondra Perl, founder and director of the Holocaust Educators Network (HEN), received the Exemplar Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in 2016. The CCCC is the world’s largest professional organization for researchers and teachers of composition. It presents [...continue] View all educators
Mini-Grants
Graduates of the Memorial Library Summer Seminars are eligible to apply for mini-grants of up to $1,000 for projects in their classrooms, their schools, and their communities. Grants are awarded to support a wide variety of classroom work, visits by Holocaust survivors, field trips to Holocaust centers and other relevant sites, and extended programming and community outreach that bring Holocaust and social justice education to wider audiences. To date, the Library has awarded more than forty grants to participating teachers across the United States.
.
Learn about Mini-GrantsSatellite Programs
The Satellite Seminar Program brings the Holocaust Educators Network to teachers across the country. These five-day seminars are designed to provide a collaborative and safe environment in which teachers can explore the difficult subject of the Holocaust and other genocides. While each Satellite focuses on local issues, the overall goal is for teachers in all of the Satellites to leave with strategies, materials, and ideas for use in their own classrooms. One long-term goal is for teachers to become advocates for social change and to return to their classrooms with action plans that will enable them and their students to have a positive impact on their communities.
Satellite Locations
Learn about Satellite ProgramsInternational Programs
In addition to its work with educators from across the United States, the Memorial Library has also steadily expanded its reach overseas after identifying a critical need to train teachers in Europe. Beginning in 2012, it began providing important resources to European educators with limited or no access to the tools they need to engage students in the study of the Holocaust and social justice issues.
The Library currently runs training seminars in Romania, Bulgaria, and Austria. The long-term goals of these initiatives are to bolster the National Network of Holocaust and Social Justice Educators in the countries where it offers programming and to build a broad platform for international Holocaust educators. In only a few short years, the Library’s Holocaust Educators Network has already grown to include more than 200 teachers in Europe.
International Programs
-
Romania
Each year, the Olga Lengyel Institute (TOLI) and The Memorial Library work in partnership with the “Eli Wiesel” National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania and the Precept Ministries Association to organize summer seminars for Romanian educators. Held in the towns of Surduc and Lugoj, the seminars expose participants to innovative teaching methodologies and provide them with a forum for thinking creatively and collaboratively about how they teach the Holocaust and social justice in their schools. [...learn more]
-
Bulgaria
The Olga Lengyel Institute (TOLI) and The Memorial Library – in cooperation with the Bulgarian Ministry of Education, American University in Bulgaria, and the Israel-Bulgaria Institute – organize annual summer seminars for educators from across the country. Entitled Learning about the Past – Acting for the Future: Teaching about the Holocaust and Social Justice, the seminars aim to enrich the quality of Holocaust and social justice education in Bulgaria. They provide a meaningful opportunity for participants to integrate national and international pedagogical approaches in the teaching of these challenging topics and in conveying the contemporary relevance of the Holocaust to their students. [...learn more]
-
Austria
In spring 2016, the Bundesrealgymnasium in der Au and the Memorial Library offered a six-day seminar for teachers of middle and high schools focusing on issues of historical-political education and Holocaust education. This seminar brought together teachers from Austria and the United States to explore each others’ narratives about the history of National Socialism and the Holocaust, to exchange approaches and methods derived from their classrooms, and to discuss current challenges in education in both countries. Participants worked in curriculum groups to create teaching units reflecting current issues of Holocaust education collaboratively and to engage in discussions about the question of transnational normative values.The seminar took place at the Bundesrealgymnasium in der Au in Innsbruck. [...learn more]