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Italy

Participants discuss new learnings during the 2021 Italy Seminar.

TOLI has organized seminars for teachers on Holocaust and human rights education in Italy since 2018, in partnership with CDEC – Foundation Jewish Contemporary Documentation Center.

TOLI’s Italy seminar brings together 30 educators from across the country to learn the importance of Holocaust and human rights. Through interdisciplinary methodology, teachers will learn how to use the lens of human rights to help their students understand how atrocities, like the Holocaust, are possible. The seminar starts with lessons on the role of identity and propaganda in shaping identities and intercultural relations – and the crucial role they played in making the Holocaust possible. Through site visits including synagogues and cemeteries, teachers learn about antisemitism in Italy, past and present, and Jewish life before and after the Holocaust. The seminar also includes presentations by leading experts on recent studies of antisemitism, hatred, intolerance, xenophobia, and racism. Participants will engage in workshops about teaching the Holocaust through the use of photographs, digital testimony, and other online resources. They reflect together on ways to teach their students to become active citizens who stand up to injustices. Every year, the seminar takes place in a different part of Italy and is organized in partnership with the local Jewish community, universities, and other stakeholders. Participants leave the seminar with concrete action plans for putting their new knowledge into practice and for maintaining a network for sharing resources and support for initiatives on teaching the Holocaust, human rights, and social justice.

The objectives of the seminar are to:

• Develop teachers’ awareness of historical and current dialectical discussions concerning the Holocaust and other instances of social injustice
• Increase teachers’ knowledge of the historical debate on fascist anti-Jewish segregation planning and enable them to participate in today’s debate on hate speech in Italy
• Develop teachers’ understanding of the impact of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination at individual, group and social levels
• Deepen teachers’ knowledge of antisemitism in the contemporary age, on anti-Jewish fascist legislation, and on teaching with historiographical sources
• Promote innovative teaching methods through the use of web resources, didactic drama, and visits to sites of Jewish memory

Impact Grants

Graduates of the seminar have the opportunity to apply for an impact grant to support a project related
to Holocaust education and social justice. The grant consists of financial support and continuous
mentorship throughout the school year. Every year, about 10 educators from Italy use a impact grant to
implement local projects with their students.