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

  • February 6, 2013

Over 20 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 1.  The program, ADL’s award-winning Bearing Witness™ , was presented at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

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

Lectures and discussions were led by Father Dennis McManus, a nationally renowned scholar in Catholic-Jewish relations, as well as Rabbi Elliot Dorff and Dr. Michael Berenbaum of LA’s own 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.

Now in its ninth year, ADL’s Bearing Witness has reached more than 1,600 Catholic school teachers across the country, including nearly 300 in the Los Angeles area.  Bearing Witness has been cited by the Holy See as among the most important initiatives designed to improve Catholic-Jewish relations.  It has also been recognized by the National Catholic Educational Association as a Selected Program for Improving Catholic Education, a designation conferred upon only a handful of exemplary programs each year and, in 2008, Bearing Witness received the NCEA’s President’s Award.  It is held in cooperation with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Bearing Witness in Los Angeles is made possible largely by the generosity of the Freshman Family Foundation and friends of the Freshman Family.

Participants praised Bearing Witness for the depth and breadth of knowledge offered to them.  One Bearing Witness participant remarked, “My brain and my heart are full…I am so grateful for the good work you are doing at the ADL and with our Catholic communities.  I think every Catholic school teacher would benefit from a day like we had.  I feel privileged to have been a part of the day with such great teachers.”

For more information, visit ADL’s Holocaust Education Institute, contact us or call 310-446-8000.