Dale Daniels, executive director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education Center at Brookdale Community College, attended the biannual Yad Vashem Conference in Jerusalem.
Photo by Jill Huber
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August 12, 2008
Dale Daniels — executive director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education Center at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft — attended the sixth biannual Yad Vashem Conference in Jerusalem and returned with ideas and concepts that will be incorporated into the programming at the BCC center.
The theme of the conference, which ran July 7-10, was Teaching the Shoah: Fighting Racism and Prejudice. More than 750 people from 52 countries attended the conference; most of the attendees were Holocaust educators, Daniels said.
The conference consisted of a series of lectures and workshops at the International School of Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem and the Jerusalem International Convention Center.
“Despite their great knowledge of the Holocaust, every speaker was filled with passion and they all recognized the value of Holocaust education in the classroom,” Daniels said. “One of the discussion groups I attended included a filmmaker from Greece and people from the U.S., the Philippines, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Germany, England, Finland, Israel, Lichtenstein, Canada, Sweden, and Croatia. This proves that a diverse international group recognizes the importance of teaching about the Holocaust.”
Daniels, a Holmdel resident, was impressed with many of the discussion leaders and said she would like to invite some of them to make presentations at Brookdale. They included Omer Bartov of Brown University, who discussed Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and Reinterpretations of National Socialism, and the artist Samuel Bak of Boston, who presented Icons of Loss — The Image of the Warsaw Boy in the Art of Samuel Bak.
“Bartov focused on how we use language to describe the Holocaust,” said Daniels. “He said we need to develop a universal language so everyone can learn about this subject. I’d love to have him speak at Brookdale.
“And Bak’s art is magnificent. I’d like to find a way to bring him and his art to the center.”
Daniels also attended workshops on Holocaust denial on the Internet and “cyberhate.”
“We’re going to receive materials from these workshops so that teachers can show their students how to recognize websites that are revisionist sites with inaccurate historical information,” she said. “The cyberhate workshop presented how prolific hate sites are. We must address and fight this form of racism, which is gaining ground on the Internet.”
Daniels will receive a list of these revisionist sites, which she will disperse to teachers and other interested individuals.
Conference attendees also recognized the importance of sharing resources, Daniels said. Many were aware of the BCC center’s work and were particularly interested in its student leadership program. The annual program for middle-school students teaches them to recognize anti-Semitism and how to diffuse it.
She also touted her center’s juvenile bias crime program and law enforcement program.
The conference inspired Daniels to continue the BCC center’s efforts to combat racism and anti-Semitism.
“The conference was really about growing my own knowledge, so that I’m up to date on the latest Holocaust research,” Daniels said. “When I work with teachers in Monmouth County and elsewhere, I can share this information with them, and it will have an impact on how they teach their students about the Holocaust.”
The things they carried
The Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education Center at Brookdale Community College is planning “The Exhibit: A Journey to Life,” which will run from March 15 to May 15 at Monmouth Museum on the Brookdale campus in Lincroft.
The exhibit’s centerpiece, compiled by center staff and volunteers, will be 12 suitcases that represent the personal stories and life experiences of 12 survivors. Each suitcase will have an album that contains photographs, letters, and other documents, along with maps of the journeys, timelines, and artifacts related to each individual’s personal experience.
The suitcases will represent testimonials that will enable students, teachers, and the general public to see the lives of those who experienced, witnessed, and survived the Holocaust. The project will be digitized, so that educators in the United States and abroad will be able to use it as a teaching tool, said center executive director Dale Daniels.
“The suitcase project will show the rich, vibrant Jewish life that existed before the Holocaust,” she said. “It will also show the strength of the survivors, who had to return and recover from this terrible trauma and move forward. They found a way to lead successful lives.”
— JILL HUBER
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