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Holocaust Program Finalizes Program For The Year

The Holocaust and Social Justice Program of Chautauqua County has finalized its program for the year.

The program has evolved over the last decade and a half and is supported and funded by the Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua County and its generous donors.

Every fall teachers and administrators from throughout the county are invited to attend a conference surrounded by relevant and deeply impactful issues of the time. This year’s conference is presented through partnership with Facing History and Ourselves, and focuses on an essential and timely topic: Confronting Contemporary Antisemitism and Prejudice. The workshop will provide resources and strategies to address critical issues, fostering a more inclusive and informed learning environment for all students, and is generously funded by the Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua and sponsored by the Chautauqua Institution so educators are able to attend free of charge.

The Holocaust and Social Justice program also heavily funds an opportunity for local students from schools throughout Chautauqua County to travel to Washington, D.C., in March each year. The program gives students the ability to visit multiple cultural and historic sites as well as to experience and witness the importance of being an upstander. The focal point of the trip is a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The museum shows the start of early antisemitism and how it evolves over time into an ideological and racial extermination of European Jews and so many others. The museum provides eyewitness accounts and survivor testimonies, documents, photographs and videos of the atrocities committed. The trip also provides opportunity for other important sites including both the Capitol building and Library of Congress, has brought students and faculty to Arlington National Cemetery, a walking tour of national monuments, meetings with renowned authors and local congressional leaders and even tours of the White House. The end of the trip takes travelers to the National Museum of African American History where they are able to visit and analyze pieces of American history and experience important aspects of social justice and the civil rights movement including the casket of Emmett Till and hands on exhibits including a counter designed like those of the Greensboro ‘sit-ins.’ The students spend time reflecting on their visit, speakers they have heard from and the immersive experience they have been a part of and bring back a sense of hope for the difference they can make in the world.

In May, students have the opportunity to attend a leadership symposium often built based off of the advice from students who have experienced the program. Students and faculty have had the opportunity to hear from war crimes prosecutors, leaders in advocacy, State and local representatives and have had the opportunity to partake in service within the community and putting the ideas they have taken from their learning experiences into practice. This year the students have asked for a lesson in advocacy and allyship with final details still to come.

The Holocaust and Social Justice program also offers local students the opportunity to enter into the Katz-Hirschberg families essay contest in honor of program director Leigh-Anne Hendrick, and supported by the Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua, discussing the impact of Holocaust education and its lasting impact. Winners have the chance to earn six different monetary prizes acting as a scholarship to use towards a post-secondary education need that may arise.

Along with the essay contest, the program also offers the opportunity for educators to honor students who are making a significant impact on their school and community culture through the Anne Frank Humanitarian Award. Educators can nominate their students for their service in their schools, community, and church who extend far beyond the minimum. Winners in the past have created fundraisers and projects working with refugees, contributing needs to classrooms and the community and are young people who possess impeccable character and are leaders in society. Grade point averages and classes play no role in this award as it is character and willingness to advocate for others that make it such an important award for our young people.

Both awards will once again be presented in Spring 2025.

This year, the Holocaust and Social Justice program will be supporting a new fellowship program that will support teachers through experiential learning about the Civil Rights movement in the South.

For more information, visit chqsocialjustice.org.

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