TOLI’s Transnational Conference for European Seminar Graduates Transnational Leadership Seminar (Offered in English)
Each year, TOLI’s International team organizes a transnational seminar that brings together TOLI alumni from across all European countries where our programs operate. To date, these seminars have been held in Poland, Romania, Croatia, Spain, Germany, and online in 2020.
The 7th Transnational Seminar will take place this year in Vilnius, in partnership with the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania. The seminar will convene 30 educators from 15 countries: TOLI alumni who have implemented Impact Grant projects in their communities.
The theme of the seminar this year is Women in Resistance and Rescue. Programming will include a visit to Ponary, guided by TOLI’s framework for visiting historical sites through the lens of human rights and human dignity, as well as a walking exploration of the former Vilna Ghetto focused on women’s roles in resistance and rescue efforts.
The seminar will feature local and international speakers, including second-generation survivors, offering diverse perspectives and lived experiences.
This seminar is organized with assistance from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and supported by the German Federal Ministry of Finance.
Last year’s transnational European Leadership Seminar, “Teaching the Holocaust and Human Rights at Historical Sites,” took place at Dachau in Germany on May 22-26, 2025.
30 dedicated educators from 13 European countries came together to explore how historical and memorial sites can be powerful spaces for teaching about the Holocaust, democracy, and human rights.
This seminar was held by TOLI in partnership with the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site and Max Mannheimer Studienzentrum.
Through interactive workshops, guided and self-guided visits, and powerful conversations, participants developed strategies to prepare, conduct, and reflect on site visits using TOLI’s interdisciplinary approach. We explored the layers of history, authenticity, memory, and education—grounded in the belief that respect for human dignity must be at the center of our work with students. The aim of the seminar is to create an environment for teachers in Europe to exchange experiences, discuss their common histories and common futures, and design effective ways of ensuring that the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity are taught in meaningful ways.
The teachers left the seminar with concrete ideas for cooperative projects—both across borders and within their own countries—strengthening TOLI’s international network of educators dedicated to remembrance and active citizenship.
Leaders
Oana Bajka
Oana Bajka is the Associate Director of International Programs at The Olga Lengyel Institute. She has over 10 years of experience working with teachers, young people and people from minority communities, especially migrants and Roma, in intercultural education and community development projects. She is in charge of the TOLI Impact Grants Program for European teachers, working with several hundred teachers who are graduates of TOLI seminars in Europe and qualify to apply for the annual impact grant program.
Tena Banjeglav
Tena Banjeglav is the Associate Director, Education and Development, International Program at The Olga Lengyel Institute. She is a historian and a history teacher. She mainly works on educational projects, both formal and non-formal, and has extensive experience in organizing and implementing summer schools, youth exchanges, workshops, seminars for teachers and youth workers, etc. She also works on research projects and deals with topics related to contemporary history, civic education, human rights education and peace education. She is the author of the historical guide Zagreb in war, resistance, creativity and memory. Zagreb in the Second World War. In addition to TOLI, Tena works at Documenta – Center for Dealing with the Past, as a coordinator of educational programs.
Oana Nestian-Sandu
Oana Nestian-Sandu is the International Program Director of The Olga Lengyel Institute. She has a Ph.D. in social psychology and a vast experience working as a teacher trainer in several European countries and in the United States. She is an international expert in intercultural education and human rights education, having worked as a trainer and researcher for the Intercultural Institute of Timisoara and as a consultant for the Council of Europe and for the United Nations. Oana developed TOLI’s programming in Europe since 2014, conducting training for teachers in multiple countries and supporting teachers in implementing local projects with their students.