June 21-25, seventeen educators from Virginia and Maryland will gather virtually, with in-person field trips to DC and Leesburg, VA, for a program on teaching the Holocaust. The seminar takes place when extremism and attacks on minorities have reached alarming levels in the US.

The seminar, Bringing Human Rights into the Classroom through Exploration of the Holocaust and Virginia’s History of Racial Injustice, focuses on the complexities of the Holocaust and Virginia’s history of racial injustice.

The seminar, annually organized by the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Education and Human Rights and supported by Loudoun County Public Schools, 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 when extremism – fed by conspiracy theories, stereotypes and hate-mongering – is on the rise.

To date, nineteen states have passed legislation specifically mandating the teaching of the Holocaust, Virginia is not among them. Following the first year of the implementation of a major Equity initiative in the Loudoun County Public Schools, this seminar will further empower teachers to facilitate thoughtful exploration of discussion of human rights issues in their classrooms.

The program will include two field trips: one to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in DC, and an exploration of historical sites significant to African-American history in downtown Leesburg, including a briefing from Loudoun NAACP President Pastor Michelle Thomas.