2022 EDUCATION INITIATIVES
The Defiant Requiem Foundation had an exciting and productive year continuing to engage and support educators in teaching about cultural resistance during the Holocaust. We welcomed twelve of our Teaching Ambassadors from around the United States to the 20th Anniversary performance of Defiant Requiem at Strathmore. The following morning, we convened a special session to trade ideas about our education program and brainstorm future possibilities for expanding our network and developing new materials. In October, we hosted a virtual event titled, “CHRONICLERS AND SMUGGLERS: Documenting History and Preserving Culture as Resistance in the Warsaw and Vilna Ghettos” featuring eminent Holocaust historians Dr. Samuel Kassow, author of Who Will Write Our History: Rediscovering a Hidden Archive from the Warsaw Ghetto , and Dr. David Fishman, author of The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis . This event was moderated by our own Board Member and the American Jewish Committee’s Director of International Jewish Affairs, Rabbi Andrew Baker, who led an inspiring discussion about the meaning of cultural resistance and connections to the story of Defiant Requiem . In November we partnered with The Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to The Holocaust, in New York City, to lead a professional development program for New York educators to learn about Defiant Requiem and how to use our educational materials in their classroom. The program started off with a screening of our documentary film, followed by an online walk- through of our educational modules. The participating educators then broke into groups and, using questions from our education modules, discussed various forms of cultural resistance and how one might approach teaching the story of Defiant Requiem in their classrooms. In person, the event drew over 80 educators, as well as 140 participants over Zoom. One of The Foundation’s Rafael Schächter Teaching Ambassadors, Colleen Tambuscio, led the online session on our behalf.
In December, we attended and ran a booth at the National Council for the Social Studies, where we met and learned from other educators, instructional coaches, school administrators, and curriculum coordinators. Over the span of two days, the education team connected with hundreds of educators who were interested in learning more about the story of Defiant Requiem , using our education materials, and in many cases, partnering with us. All the while, we continued to develop new areas of outreach to increase our teacher corps, and to lay the foundation for partnerships with important cultural and educational institutions such as the Leo Baeck Institute, Centropa, and Echoes and Reflections.
FOUNDATION EDUCATION STAFF MEMBERS ALEXANDRA ZAPRUDER AND EMILY NATBONY MEET WITH VETERAN EDUCATORS COLLEEN TAMBUSCIO AND KATE ENGLISH AT THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES ANNUAL CONFERENCE.
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