Ten educators from Arizona will gather virtually this week and next for a Holocaust education program. The seminar takes place when anti-Semitic attacks in the US have reached an unprecedented high level. Earlier this month, a synagogue was desecrated with swastikas  in Tucson, while in other parts of the US, several violent attacks against Jews were reported. 

The virtual seminar for teachers,  Flipping the Script: How Narrative Acts of Resistance during the Holocaust Can Teach Us To Tell Our Own True Stories  draws upon experiences from the Holocaust and connects to regional and historical issues of social justice in Arizona. These include Native American persecution, racism, and religious intolerance. 

The program takes place as the Arizona legislature is considering passage of the Holocaust Education mandate bill, HB2241. To date, nineteen states in the US have mandated the teaching of Holocaust as part of secondary school curricula. 

The program will include a virtual tour of Auschwitz followed by an in-person tour of the “Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories” at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. 

It is sponsored by the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights, www.TOLI.us.