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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 29, 2023—This week, the California Teachers Collaborative for Holocaust and Genocide Education held the State’s first ever Summer Institute for teachers at the USC Shoah Foundation in Los Angeles.

The California Teachers Collaborative is the first of its kind in the nation. Coordinated statewide by the Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) Holocaust Center in San Francisco and launched in 2021, it unites the State’s 14 leading Holocaust and genocide educational institutions as well as community leaders from all California ethnic groups. 

The shared goal is to create a robust series of new, standards-aligned lessons on topics of the Holocaust and genocide for all 6 – 12th grade students in California. The program combats rising antisemitism and hate and empowers teachers to create more unified, respectful, and tolerant next generations.

At the Summer Institute, led by the California Teachers Collaborative from June 25 – 28, 2023, teachers from across the state experienced:

• 18 professional development workshops, designed and facilitated by members of the California Teacher Collaborative. The sessions introduced teachers to new lessons, resources, and strategies to teach topics of the Holocaust; the Armenian, Bosnian, Indigenous American, Cambodian, and Uyghur genocides; and identifying and confronting antisemitism.
• On-site learning at the USC Shoah Foundation, the Holocaust Museum LA, and the Museum of Tolerance
• Powerful in-person Holocaust Survivor testimony
• An opportunity to design an implementation plan on how and when they will integrate the new lessons into their teaching in 2023 – 2024

State Senator Henry Stern gave the keynote address at the Institute’s opening program. Senator Stern serves on the Governor’s Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education alongside JFCS Executive Director, Dr. Anita Friedman.

“As the generation of survivors in many of our families pass on, it is essential we find alternative ways to express the impact of hate and bias to ensure atrocities like the Holocaust, Armenian and Rwandan genocides never happen again,” says Senator Stern. “Education is a key component of the puzzle to lift up the stories of our community long after they’re gone.”

Following the program, 90% of teacher attendees reported that the workshops would enhance their ability to teach Holocaust and/or genocide education. One teacher shared, “The most meaningful takeaway for me is how empathy is an important element to teaching the Holocaust. I also received excellent resources and strategies about discussing and examining the origins of antisemitism.”

The JFCS Holocaust Center established the California Teachers Collaborative with support from a $1.9 Million grant from the Marin County Office of Education and the State of California. The Collaborative also works in close partnership with the Governor’s Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education, reflecting a highly-focused statewide effort to elevate Holocaust and genocide education for the benefit of all California’s children and our society as a whole.

Next year, the California Teachers Collaborative will launch a pivotal new website that will hold a library of all best-practice curriculum material created by members of the collaborative for use in all California’s schools.

Members of the California Teachers Collaborative:

• Anti-Defamation League: Echoes and Reflections 
• Avenues for Change: Holocaust and Genocide Education 
• Cambodian Genocide Resource Center 
• Central Valley Holocaust Educators’ Network (CVHEN) 
• Facing History and Ourselves 
• Genocide Education Project 
• Holocaust Museum LA 
• Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation 
• Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center 
• Museum of Tolerance 
• Redbud Resource Group: Indigenous History and Education 
• TWIGE Project: Teaching about the Genocide in Rwanda and Guatemala
• USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education 
• Uyghur Genocide Online Resource Center

About the JFCS Holocaust Center:

As Northern California’s primary resource for education about the Holocaust and genocide, the
JFCS Holocaust Center works to increase awareness about Jewish history and the causes and
consequences of antisemitism, racism, and discrimination. Through a deeper understanding of
the Holocaust and patterns of genocide, our work inspires moral courage and social
responsibility in future generations. Each year, the JFCS Holocaust Center’s programming
reaches 30,000 students, teachers and community members and over 350 schools.

The Holocaust Center is a division of Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties.

Media Contact:
Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center
Angela Smalley, [email protected], 415-449-1284