Over 500 teachers will attend professional development seminars in the US and Europe during the next four months, learning about the Holocaust, bringing its lessons to their classrooms and communities to confront rising intolerance and extremism.  The seminars, 20 altogether, range from Billings, Montana to Warsaw, Poland. They are sponsored and organized by the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights (TOLI).

The first seminar gets underway this week in Jackson, Mississippi, comparing the exclusionary policies of Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow laws operating during the same time period in the United States.  This will be soon followed by a seminar in Billings, Montana, with the participation of Native American educators. It will draw from the past to consider roles today – perpetuator, ally, bystander – in the face of prejudice and discrimination in and outside schools.

Other seminars in the US, each with its own theme, will be conducted in Albuquerque, NM, Amherst, MA, Charlotte, NC, Eugene, OR, Farmington Hills, MI, Milwaukee, WI, Sacramento, CA, Salisbury, MD, San Diego, CA, and St. Paul, MN.

The TOLI flagship seminar will take place in New York City this month, bringing educators from around the US for an intensive 12-day program.

Internationally, TOLI will hold its first seminar in Warsaw, Poland, in cooperation with the Museum of Polish Jewish History.  The program, in the country where the Nazi death camps massacred millions of Jews, will be conducted in frank and free discussion about Nazi genocide, notwithstanding the recent controversy over Poland’s “Holocaust law.”

Other European seminars will take place in Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Italy and Portugal. Each European program will enable teachers, often for the first time, to delve into how the Holocaust impacted their own countries and to help address the disturbing rise of anti-Semitism, racism and ultra-nationalism.

“We are delighted by the unprecedented participation of teachers this year and the expansion of our programs in the US and Europe,” said TOLI Chairman David Field. TOLI President Mark Berez added “Our goal is to provide educators with the resources to teach the Holocaust and become advocates for social change in their classrooms and communities.”

The Olga Lengyel Institute was established to educate students in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world about human rights and social justice through the lens of the Holocaust and other genocides so that such atrocities may never again take place. To accomplish its mission, TOLI provides professional development seminars for educators in the US and abroad that link the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides to current world events, thereby working with teachers to promote a human rights and social justice agenda in their classrooms.

For more information contact:

Carole Berez, cberez@tolinstitute.org

Harry Wall, harrydwall@gmail.com

Website: www.TOLInstitute.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theolgalengyelinstitute

Twitter: https://twitter.com/olgas_table/