Why Holocaust Education Matters

  • December 3, 2015

This article by ADL Regional Director Amanda Susskind appeared in the regional print newsletter.

ADL’s Holocaust education programs have been a top priority in the Los Angeles region since I came to ADL over 13 years ago.  It’s personal.  My dad escaped Europe on the Kindertransport and his mom survived Auschwitz.  I am in awe of the work of my colleagues and our partners in the community who fashion the Holocaust education curricula of our various programs.  For many decades, this region has offered classes to help teachers of middle and high school students approach this topic.

In recent years, we’ve added programs in partnership with Yad Vashem and USC Shoah Foundation, and we’ve created collaborations with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Museum of Tolerance and Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.   We provide events, resources and several full-day classes throughout the school year for teachers, including a special session for Catholic school teachers.

This summer, we launched a program started in our DC office in partnership with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  This program uses the Holocaust as a case study to help law enforcement engage in dialogue about core values and democratic ideals.  It’s highly relevant given recent events.

I am so proud to see these programs and partnerships expand and evolve over the course of the years and now reach a variety of audiences.  Our curricula explore the dangers of silence, the consequences of indifference and the responsibility to speak out against discrimination, racism and injustice.

Sadly, the need for these programs grows as time passes and actual witnesses – survivors in particular – pass away.  World awareness of the Holocaust is alarmingly low as our global studies on anti-Semitism have shown.  And on top of that, schools have fewer funds to pay for professional development and teachers have less free time to attend classes such as ours.   We’ve responded to these new challenges by adding a budget to cover teacher stipends and substitute teacher pay for many of our programs.

So it is especially touching to me that long-time ADL supporters Suzanne and Harvey Prince have created an endowment fund to support, in perpetuity, the Michael LaPrade Institute for Holocaust Education, named after their beloved grandson Michael who died in a tragic accident four years ago.

The Michael LaPrade Institute for Holocaust Education will ensure the strength and continuity of ADL’s fight against anti-Semitism, and enable the region to continue to provide Holocaust education workshops.  If you are interested in joining in the Princes in this endeavor, please contact Francine Lis at flis@adl.org or (310) 446-4268.  This is a work in progress. But the goal is to create a fund that will enable this region to continue to provide Holocaust education – to teachers, students, law enforcement and the community – in perpetuity.

My grandmother and my dad aren’t here to thank the Princes and all of you who join in their efforts.  But I am and I do.

 

Amanda Susskind
Regional Director