Program to focus on the roots of antisemitism and the impact of state and federal policy on Indigenous Peoples.
On July 11-17, seventeen educators from Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Mississippi will gather in St. Cloud to participate in a week-long seminar focused on teaching the Holocaust and Dakota Exile. Teachers will explore the parallels between the Holocaust and the treatment of Indigenous Peoples in Minnesota, examining thematic connections that link these past events to the present, as a way of teaching social justice to their students.
The seminar takes place as hate-fueled extremism and attacks on minorities have reached alarming levels in the US.
Honoring Resilience: Learning from the Holocaust and Dakota Exile focuses on the resilience of Jewish and Indigenous peoples despite government policy intended to dehumanize them. Sponsored annually by The Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights, the program enables teachers to present the Holocaust as a watershed event in history, to examine its causes and consequences, and apply its lessons to today’s world and issues of local concern.
The program will include field experiences to Mt. Zion Temple in St. Paul and to significant Dakota sites in Minneapolis. In these day trips, participants engage with Holocaust survivor Fred Amram and Dakota descendant Iyekiyapiwiƞ Darlene St. Clair. The seminar is led by educators Merry Meltz, Kathy Robinson, and Anne McCarney.