At the initiative of the Claims Conference, a conference on
teaching Holocaust studies at chareidi institutions—the
first of its kind—was held in Jerusalem recently.
Hundreds of educators, researchers and other professionals
took part in the displays, the written material and the
workshops on teaching Holocaust studies, as well as
researching and memorializing the Holocaust.
The Claims Conference is providing grants for various
Holocaust education and memorial projects. The initiative
stemmed from a need to combine resources and forge
cooperation among chareidi figures involved in the Holocaust
in order to form a larger pool of resources.
Claims Conference Allocations Senior Advisor Tzvi Inbar, who
initiated the conference, expressed hopes that the ties
created would continue and develop in order to channel as
much material as possible into the arena of Holocaust
instruction.
Participants included the Mercaz Bais Yaakov, the Bais Yaakov
Institute, Yad Vashem, Ginzach Kiddush Hashem, the Chinuch
Atzmai Pedagogical Center, the Shem Olom Institute and Bais
Yaakov of Tel Aviv.
The six-hour program brought out over 600 participants for
the eight workshops, in which pedagogic material for the
teaching of the Holocaust was presented.
Each of the eight institutions leading workshops also
exhibited their materials, using professionally prepared
exhibition panels, computers and computer projectors. One of
the exhibiting teachers colleges set up a booth in three
sections representing European Jewry in its flowering before
the Holocaust, the suffering of the Holocaust experience and
the rebuilding of Jewish life after the Shoah, particularly
in Israel.
The event surpassed expectations by bringing together
hundreds of educators, and a profusion of materials in
various media, including videos, CDs, books and pamphlets,
teachers guides and student workbooks, and computerized
research and personal interview materials.
A key approach seen in most, if not all the presentations, is
that of making the past come to life for the students by
transmitting the stories of individuals: video interviews of
survivors, official documentation and photographs of
Holocaust victims of all ages and backgrounds, individual
diaries and writings of victims that are accompanied by
student workbooks, and even an educational board game to
"recreate" the experience of partisans in the forests
fighting German army and SS units.
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany
(Claims Conference) represents Jews in Eretz Yisroel and in
the Diaspora in negotiations to receive monetary compensation
for Holocaust victims, Holocaust survivors and their
descendants. The committee manages compensation monies,
locates unclaimed Jewish property and transfers funds to
welfare institutions and health care services for Holocaust
survivors, as well as Holocaust remembrance activities at
educational institutions.
