Bringing the Unsilence Project into the Classroom
recipients: Michelle Best, Austintown Middle School, Austintown, Ohio
date: 2017

As conference chair and incoming President of the statewide Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts, Michelle Best wanted to provide a dynamic and meaningful experience for teachers as they learned about the Holocaust and the social justice opportunities available to them. For these reasons, she invited author Dr. Danny M. Cohen to speak about his well-regarded book Train and his nonprofit organization, The Unsilence Project.

The goals of The Unsilence Project are closely aligned with the spirit of tzedakah, while Danny Cohen’s message and teaching methods are engaging and profound. As part of his presentation, Dr. Cohen requested that all participants receive a complimentary copy of his book to use in classrooms across the state. TOLI’s support covered a large part of this expense, and helped to provide copies of his book to many of the more than 400 educators who attended the conference.