Teacher’s Anti-Gay Facebook Posts Brings Response

The Holocaust Center has released a response to the recent controversy over a Mt. Dora teacher who posted strong anti-gay opinions on his Facebook page. The teacher, Jerry Buell, posted that he “almost threw up” when he heard about New York’s decision to allow same-sex marriage. After being criticized for the comment, he suggested that “if one doesn’t like the most recently posted opinion, based on Biblical principals (sic) and God’s law, then go ahead and un-friend me.”

 The letter below is the response from the Center’s Executive Director Pam Kancher:

October 3, 2011

TO: Dr. Susan Moxley – Superintendent,  Lake County Public Schools

Dear Dr. Moxley:

I have followed the story of Lake County social-studies teacher Jerry Buell with great interest. As the Executive Director of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida, I’m not sure which of his actions were more offensive to my sensitivities – his anti-gay Facebook posts that fostered disrespect and potential bullying or the divisive religious language that he regularly uses in his classroom.

I am writing to you today for two purposes. First, I want to urge you to expand your anti-bullying and non-discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity. I am sure that you already know that Orange County and several other public school districts across Florida have already passed such policies protecting their students.

Secondly, I would like to offer the Holocaust Center’s educator Mitch Bloomer as a resource for Lake County Public Schools. The Holocaust Center’s mission is dedicated to combating anti-Semitism, racism and all forms of prejudice with the ultimate goal of developing a moral and just community through its extensive outreach of educational and cultural programs. Using the lessons of the Holocaust as a tool, the Center teaches the principles of civil discourse and respect to over 16,000 students of all ages, religions and backgrounds each year. The Center’s most recent initiative is a multi-phased program on bullying.

Mitch developed a new curriculum that connects the lessons of the Holocaust and bullying. It is a powerful tool that encourage students (and teachers) to protect the rights of others and fervently as they protect their own. He has presented this compelling program during teacher in-service days as well as for student classes. He can be contacted at Mitchell@holocaustedu.org or at 407.628.0555 x283. 

Thank you for your attention in this matter and for forwarding Mitch’s contact information to your teachers and supervisors.

Sincerely,

Pam Kancher,  Executive Director

 

Remembering 9/11 and Other Tragedies

This week Americans are  remembering the victims, first responders, emotions, circumstances and plethora of other factors surrounding the events of Sept. 11, 2001.  WE REMEMBER!  It is important to remember and honor all of those lost in this and the other senseless tragedies endured by our country and others.

Ms. Renata Sivacolundhu

Below is a guest blog post from Renata Sivacolundhu, a UN Information Officer specializing in Human Rights.  She will be visiting the Holocaust Center for a special program at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 20.  Her discussion will include information about the Rwandan genocide of 1994, reconciliation efforts there and mass atrocity prevention.

Here in New York, as in other places, we are commemorating the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Two things have struck me this week leading up to the anniversary:

This morning, at a solemn ceremony at the United Nations to mark the anniversary, the President of the UN General Assembly, Joseph Deiss, noted that “11 September will mark our collective memory forever. We all remember what we were doing when we heard what was happening. Our shock and disbelief at this horror are indescribable.”

This made me think about the Rwanda genocide, which lasted a mere 100 days, during which more than 800,000 people were killed. Do we all remember what we were doing and where we were during those 100 days?

Listening to stories of people who lost family and friends in the attacks as they play on the radio this week, it really brings home the enormity of the event. Hearing a widow or a mother or a young son or daughter explain how their lives were permanently changed on that day makes it more “real” to those who were not directly touched by it. Each life lost is its own tragedy and within just one tragedy there may be many more.

Racism, discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance are present in all our societies. Reading the testimonies of survivors and paying tribute to innocent victims in attacks such as those on September 11, 2001 can help us all understand that we must be vigilant in our own lives to do what we can to promote respect and understanding. 

I’m looking forward to a great discussion on this and related issues with staff, members and friends of the Holocaust Center on September 20.

We hope you will join us for Renata’s presentation on Tuesday, Sept. 20.  The event is open to the public; there is no cost to attend.

Holocaust Center Hosts Anti-Bullying Summit

Last week the Holocaust Center hosted 20+ representatives from community organizations throughout Metro Orlando to talk about bullying in Central Florida.  As a component of the Center’s UpStanders: Stand Up to Bullying initiative, this meeting was held with one goal in mind: to bring together stakeholders in the area to share ideas and identify potential collaborations.

L-R: Barbara Thompson & Hali Poteshman, UpStanders Committee Chair

Facilitated by Barbara Thompson, Asst. Director of Diversity Education and Faculty Engagement at UCF, the group first discussed why they and their organization were concerned about bullying.  A significant number of those present were bullied as children, or have children that were/are being bullied, and shared personal stories about the ramifications.  Other responses included:

• “I’m concerned because it affects the entire family…not just the person being bullied.”
• “I’m concerned because LGBTQ youth are at the highest risk of being bullied and youth suicide.”
• “I’m concerned because bullying is a precursor for dating abuse and domestic violence.”
• “I’m concerned because I was bullied and know that it can escalate into adulthood.”
• “I’m concerned because bullying has long-term effects and can destroy community and culture.”

Participants getting to know one another with an ice-breaker.

This “meeting of the minds” was a great way to find out who is doing what in Central Florida, and was successful in developing thoughts about potential partnerships and resource sharing.   “By all accounts the Summit was a huge success.  We have definitely created a solid foundation to combat bullying working as a community v. individually,” said Carol Dierksen, project coordinator of the Holocaust Center’s UpStanders initiative.  “Bullying is a community issue.  It happens everywhere – not just in schools.  By working together and sharing resources with one another we’ll have a stronger and more comprehensive approach to stop bullying.”

Representatives from the following entities are motivated to take action as a community to Stand Up to Bullying in Central Florida:

• City of Orlando
• Equality Florida
• Eripio
• Girl Scouts of Citrus Council
• Harbor House of Central Florida
• MicheLee Puppets
• Orange County Library System
• Orange County Public Schools
• Orlando Police Dept.
• Seminole County Public Schools
• University of Central Florida
• Zebra Coalition
• Brenda Faiber MS LMFT, UpStanders Committee Member & Family Therapist
• Dr. Karen Wolman, UpStanders Committee Member & Psychologist
• Hali Poteshman, UpStanders Committee Chair

If your organization would like to participate in future meetings contact Carol Dierksen (cdierksen@holocaustedu.org / 407-628-0555) for details about the next meeting scheduled for Thursday, October 27.

Are you concerned about bullying in Central Florida?  Tell us why in the comments section below.

Local Teacher Reflects on Teachers Institute

Today we received a letter in the mail from one of the teachers that participated in the 2011 Teachers Institute on Holocaust Studies last week.  It warms our hearts to read letters like this, and of course the whole staff read it…four times!

With the teacher’s consent, we’re posting the letter here to share it with you.

Dear staff and volunteers of the Holocaust Center,

I don’t think that there is any way that I can appropriately put into words the gratitude I feel toward all of you for the amazing experience that you provided for me and several other teachers last week. Last week is one that I will remember for a lifetime, and I can honestly tell you that I have never felt that way about any other trainingthat I have received/ endured throughout my years of training and teaching.

Not only was my week at the Teachers Institute memorable, it was, in fact, life-changing. I have always had a passion for teaching about the Holocaust, and I feel that I have done so very well. However, following last weeks intensive training, I now plan to find ways to take that passion and turn it into a mission. I want to devote more of my life to teaching Holocaust studies.

Currentlly, I teach a Holocaust unit to my eighth grade students each year, but I am also a college instructor. As such, I teach English courses as an adjunct instructor as I finish my dissertation for my Doctorate degree.  Upon completing the Doctorate, it has been my dream to teach literature at the university level. Now, however, I have decided that I would like to focus some of that literature on Holocaust studies. My Masters degree and Doctoral work are in the field of Education. Therefore, I have decided to combined those areas of expertise and try to find ways to teach Holocaust studies to educators, while incorporating literature.

Your week-long institute on Holocaust studies showed me that while, I am very familiar with many things related to the Holocaust and World War II, I was lacking in many areas. I learned so much through your intensive program that I feel like my knowledge base has at least doubled, my reading list has grown exponentially, and my hunger to learn more is now insatiable. I am currently looking into taking online classes through Yad Vashem, and trying to find ways to get the training I need to make this my life’s work.

The institute you provide is so invaluable. I am so honored to have met all of you, and I truly feel that as I left, I was not only enriched professionally, but personally as well.. By the time I left, I felt that I had mad new friends. I will definitely be recommending this training to my coworkers and other teachers with interest in this area.

Thank you for helping me clarify my professional goals and personal focus. It could have only been better if I could have received college credits for it, rather than MIP points.

Middle School Teacher

Many thanks to the teacher for allowing us to share this letter with you!  It was truly a pleasure to meet some many wonderful teachers this year during the Institute.  We are already looking forward to next year’s event – June 18-22, 2012!  Check our website for updates in the coming months.

Photos from the 2011 Institute are now posted on our Facebook page – feel free to share any you have with us, too!  Just post them on our wall!

Did you attend this year’s Institute?  If so, leave a comment below and let us know how you felt about it!

Goodbye Teachers! (We miss you already)

We are now celebrating the end of an incredible week of the Teachers Institute! It was five days, forty hours of learning, growing, weeping, celebrating, and – above all – becoming a broader community of people resolved to make a difference in the classroom and in the world.

Over the coming week we’ll share the highlights (as well as personal stories and a ton of great pictures!) on our website, this blog, and our Facebook page.  In the meantime, thank you to all the participants, presenters and staff for making our Institute an outstanding experience.

Teachers Institute: Half-Way Point

We’ve passed the half-way point of the Teachers Institute… our favorite, most exhausting time of year. This is probably the most attentive group of learners in America – 40 teachers sitting patiently as we present hour after hour of information on teaching about the Holocaust. And at every break, at least a few of them tell staff members how glad they are to be attending.

Greg Dawson

This morning’s presentation by local journalist Greg Dawson was riveting.  He shared with the teachers his mother Zhanna’s story, which he described in his book Hiding in the Spotlight. As a talented and well-trained 14-year-old musician, along with her equally-talented  12-year-old sister Frina, she escaped at the very last minute from a death march which killed nearly every Jew in their small Ukrainian community. They were given shelter by neighbors, and were eventually invited to join a group of entertainers who frequently played for the Nazis.

Dawson began with a brief film created by his wife Candy – a former teacher – that documents their trip to the Ukraine and elsewhere to trace his mother’s remarkable story. There were several heart-stopping moments in the film, particularly the view of Greg at the moment he learned that his mother’s and aunt’s names were mistakenly included among the dead at the monument at Drobitsky Yar. His mother’s salvation was a series of miracles; had any one of them not occurred, she would have been just another one of the Six Million whose lives were lost.

As part of a question and answer period, Greg shared with the teachers two very important observations. First, that teaching the Holocaust is a difficult, challenging task, but one that is so important in helping students deal with the world they face. Second, he reminded them of the power that one teacher and one assignment can have. It was a homework project for Greg‘s daughter Aimee, assigning her to ask a grandparent what he or she was doing in their early teens, that started the process of disclosing the full story about how Zhanna and Frina survived.

The end of the day was also a real high point. Michael Freeman, whose formal credentials include his position as Assistant Director of Diversity Education and Student Engagement at U.C.F., announced that his most obvious credential was RWG… a Regular White Guy. He created a broad, fast-paced, and totally engaging dialogue on Privilege and Power:  how much of what we take for granted (like mobility, or safety, or credibility) is really granted by our position within any group. Whether that position was earned or not, it greatly influences the roles we are expected to play and impacts our ability to see human capacity in ourselves as well as in others.  It deepens our understanding about how the dominant few – whether they are the leaders of a genocidal government of a small bunch of bullies on the internet – continue to have the power to devastate with impunity.

Teachers Institute begins

The Sixteenth Annual Teachers Institute on Holocaust Studies is now officially underway! Forty-two teachers from seven counties are participating, learning the most effective ways to teach their students about this watershed event in human history.

Although state law requires that all students be taught about the Holocaust – with an emphasis on understanding the costs of prejudice and the need to be a responsible, respectful member of the community – there is no requirement that teachers be trained on how to approach such a difficult subject. Our Center is one of only a half-dozen sites in the state that helps prepare teachers by providing educators with materials, information, and strategies for every age.

Monday’s program started with the most important lesson of all. The Center’s Resource Teacher, Mitch Bloomer, reminded participants that what we think of as the Holocaust – the enslavement and murder of Jews and others – is not the whole story, but only the end of the story. It began decades earlier with the marginalization and dehumanization of Jews in a nation that wanted to celebrate the exceptionality of what they perceived as their own master race.

As we look at the prejudices and group conflicts in our communities today, that’s certainly a lesson to ponder.

Vote For Us!

We NEED two minutes of your time!  The Holocaust Center can win $5,000 from United Arts of Central Florida through a quick and easy voting campaign called: The Arts Matter!  Your Vote Matters! 

To vote for the Holocaust Center:

1. Click on this link: www.TheArtsMatter.com between 8 a.m. on Wednesday, June 1, and 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, June 14, 2011
2. Then click on the icon for The Arts Matter. Your Vote Matters!  You will see a list of eligible organizations…
3. Click on the link for the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center and it will open a new page that takes you directly to our portrait on the Community Foundation’s Knowledge Base

Your vote will automatically be documented once you click through.    Easy, right!  The organization with the most click-through’s by the end of the campaign (June 14) wins the cash prize!

Please encourage your friends, family members and colleagues to vote for us in this campaign, too!  Simply forward this information or share it via Facebook.

Dinner of Tribute – An Event to Remember

It’s been several weeks since our annual Dinner of Tribute, and there are two things I am still mulling over.  The first is the brilliant exercise led by Bob Kodzis  (the mad genius of Flight of Ideas) who had us standing or raising hands about things that create our unique identity. Some were easy (are you vegetarian?) and some were just plain fun (scared of spiders?); others challenged our honesty as we sat with friends, family, employers and strangers.

Almost immediately, you felt a distinct sense of unity with the group, large or small, who stood or raised hands when you did. Oddly, there wasn’t a sense of us-vs.-them when you sat out a round and noticed that most of your friends, including your spouse, were part of a group that excluded you. Instead, it was a quintessential “ah-ha!”  moment, realizing that it is often our differences, rather than our sameness, that hold us together.

A friend of the Holocaust Center. He stands for family!

The other great part of the event was a made-on-the-spot slide show, the brainstorm of Center’s Treasurer, Mark Freid. As the co-chair of the Dinner Committee (along with Ellen Lang) as well as the founder and imaginative leader of Th!nkCreative advertising agency, Mark produced one of the most heart-warming activities I’ve ever seen. Guests at the dinner were encouraged to write on cards a word or two about what they stand for, then to hold that card for a quick photograph. The results were amazing – at the end of the dinner there was a lovely video, complete with sound track, of our friends and neighbors pledging to stand up for family, for love, for children, for the right to marry, for the right to adopt, for so many things that really matter in life.  I must admit, I’ve clicked on the link to the video several times (often with family and friends leaning over my shoulder) just to bask in the beauty of all those wonderful people who stand up for the things that I also care about.

Susan Arkin presents Ron Blocker with the White Rose

I should mention, of course, that the food at the Rosen Plaza was absolutely amazing. (How they feed 600 people so well and so swiftly seems contrary to the laws of physics.) Our dear friend Al Harveymanaged all the details of lights, sound, décor,timing, and a thousand other things without missing a beat. Our honoree, OCPS Superintendent Ron Blocker, was so gracious and kind. He was presented with a crystal rose, which the Center uses to symbolize the organization of White Rose in Germany – a group of fearless young people who lost their lives by defying Nazi rule.  During his acceptance speech, it was clear why the Center chose to honor him as he spoke of the need for us to work collaboratively for a better future.   There were many warm hearts and very few dry eyes.

Still, what I remember about the event, and likely will remember for a long time, is how blessed I was to be in a room with so many people who understand why the Holocaust Center exists. They share our hope that we can all become better neighbors to people what are different than we are in fundamental ways. They share our determination to work diligently together so that the past is remembered and the future is more hopeful. They are with us as we stand up to whatever challenges tomorrow may bring.

It was simply a wonderful, wonderful evening. I can hardly wait until next year.

Talk About Bullying! Stand Up to Bullying!

A HuffingtonPost.com article posted yesterday by Marlo Thomas does a great job of explaining just how serious bullying is for the children of today.  The effects on a bullying victim can range from low self-esteem to depression to death – serious stuff!

Marlo relays some current stats in her article:

• 1 out of every 4 teenagers across America is bullied in their neighborhoods and schools
• 160,000 students stay home from school every day because of their fear of being bullied
• each month, nearly 300,000 students are physically attacked inside their secondary schools
• 43 % of kids are cyber-bullied
• 53 % admit to having said something mean and hurtful to another kid online

To help combat bullying in Central Florida, the Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center has launched UpStanders: Stand Up to Bullying initiative.  This new project addresses bullying in a useful way. It is based on solid research that tells us that both victims and bullies suffer lifelong consequences for their actions, and that the single most effective intervention to interrupt bullying behavior is peer pressure from other students.

UpStanders began last December with a series of in-school presentations by John Halligan, a man whose son Ryan committed suicide after years of intense bullying. Other presentations were made to community groups, emphasizing the need for each of us to be an “UpStander” rather than a bystander in order to protect the rights and safety of others.

Students in 10 Orange County middle schools are now involved with the project, and are learning how to be an UpStander. During future school presentations students will develop the skills and confidence they need to take the UpStander pledge:

I will STAND UP to bullying

I won’t be a bully

I won’t let anyone bully me

I won’t let anyone bully someone else

During the Holocaust, a few brave UpStanders took risks to protect others. We are encouraging young people today to follow their example. Each student can take responsibility for stopping bullying in their own school and community, and will gain a deeper appreciation of their power to make a difference.

To reiterate one of Marlo’s key messages  – talk about bullying!  Talk about it with your children, friends, family, neighbors, school teachers & administrators, and anyone else you think should be concerned about this matter impacting our youth.  Conversation is a powerful tool – let’s use it as best we know how to begin to Stand Up to Bullying!

For more information on the Holocaust Center’s UpStander initiative, contact Carol Dierksen (cdierksen@holocaustedu.org) and visit the UpStanders Facebook page.