2 Area Holocaust Educators, along with 19 others, from 12 U.S. States receive coveted Lerner Fellowships
Published: July 10, 2021
The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR) has selected 21 middle and high school teachers from 12 states and four educators at U.S.-based Holocaust centers, as 2021 Alfred Lerner Fellows to delve into the complex history of the Holocaust as well as discuss new teaching techniques for introducing the subject into their classrooms. Two were selected from the Birmingham, Alabama area. The JFR’s Summer Institute, the Fellowship’s intensive five-day course, was held virtually from June 27 through July 1.
The program is a high-level, intensive academic seminar in which participants attended lectures given by noted Holocaust scholars including Doris Bergen, Jeffrey Burds, Benjamin Carter Hett, Lawrence Douglas, Steven Field, Daniel Greene, Peter Hayes, Samuel Kassow, Paul Salmons, Stanlee Stahl, Robert Jan van Pelt, Edward Westermann, and Alexandra Zapruder. The event is designed to allow participants to meet in small groups following each lecture, address the specific aspect of the Holocaust that is presented, and share teaching concepts and develop approaches to introducing the subject matter to their students.
Teachers selected for the program must be English or social studies teachers at the middle or high school level, have taught at least five years, are at least five years from retirement and currently teach the Holocaust in their classroom.
Each participant comes from a region of the country where the JFR operates Holocaust Centers of Excellence in conjunction with a local Holocaust museum or center.
“There are three main goals of our program, which include: providing teachers with graduate-level courses on the Holocaust; pedagogical connections with other teachers and their curriculum so they learn what’s worked and what hasn’t, and to give them resources for the classroom,” says JFR Executive Vice President Stanlee Stahl.
The 2021 Lerner Fellows from Alabama are:
- Zoe Weil from the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center in Birmingham, AL
- Haley Walker from Irondale Middle School in Irondale, AL
The JFR continues its work of providing monthly financial assistance to more than 170 aged and needy Righteous Gentiles, living in 16 countries. Since its founding, the JFR has provided more than $42 million to aged and needy rescuers – helping to repay a debt of gratitude on behalf of the Jewish people to these noble men and women. Its Holocaust teacher education program has become a standard for teaching the history of the Holocaust and educating teachers and students about the significance of the Righteous as moral and ethical exemplars. For more information, visit https://jfr.org/.