Bearing Fruit 2015: Catholic School Teachers Learn about Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust

  • February 12, 2015
Presenters (L-R): Rabbi Elliot Dorff, Father Alexei Smith, Dr. Michael Berenbaum

Educators from Catholic schools from throughout Southern California participated in a day-long training on anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and Jewish-Catholic relations on February 6. The program, Bearing Fruit: Exploring the Roots of Catholic-Jewish Relations from the Past to the Present (formerly known as Bearing Witness™), was presented at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust in Pan-Pacific Park.

The program is part of ADL’s Holocaust Education Institute, which began in late October with a full-day conference at the University of Southern California and includes other sessions for teachers throughout the school year.

Rabbi Elliot Dorff demonstrates wearing a tallis during a joint reading of a passage from the New Testament with Father Alexei Smith

Lectures and discussions were led by Father Alexei Smith, a renowned leader in interreligious dialogue, as well as Rabbi Elliot Dorff and Dr. Michael Berenbaum of  American Jewish University, who provided training on how to bring the lessons of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and modern-day prejudice to Catholic school communities.

Nationally, ADL’s Bearing Witness™ program has reached more than 1,600 Catholic school teachers across the country, including over 300 in the Los Angeles area. Bearing Fruit is held in cooperation with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and is made possible largely by the generosity of the Freshman Family Foundation and friends of the Freshman Family.

This year’s participants praised Bearing Fruit for the depth and breadth of knowledge offered to them. One Bearing Fruit participant remarked that the program was “absolutely one of the most productive single day seminars I have ever attended.”

Visit the ADL’s Holocaust Education Institute for more information or reach us at LA@adl.org or call 310-446-8000.

 

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