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

  • February 21, 2014
Pictured: Father Alexei and Rabbi Dorff provide a joint reading of a passage of the New Testament from Jewish and Catholic perspectives

 

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 10. The program, ADL’s award-winning Bearing Witness™, was presented at Bishop Conaty – Our Lady of Loretto High School.

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.

Dr. Michael Berenbaum discussed historical anti-Semitism with the group.

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 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 tenth year, ADL’s Bearing Witness has reached more than 1,600 Catholic school teachers across the country, including over 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.

This year’s participants praised Bearing Witness for the depth and breadth of knowledge offered to them. One Bearing Witness participant remarked, “the materials provided will give my students relevant things to reference for the Holocaust and the connection with the Catholic Church.”  Another wrote that the presenters were “very respectful, informative and just.”

Visit the ADL’s Holocaust Education Institute for more information, contact us or call 310-446-8000.