News from the 19th Floor – Alfred Lerner Fellows – January 2018
News from the 19th Floor
2018 Advanced Seminar
The 2018 Advanced Seminar will be held January 13-15, 2018. We have 25 Alfred Lerner Fellows participating in the program. The reading assignment this year is quite interesting. If you are not attending the program but would like to have a copy of the assigned readings, please email me at [email protected].
We just received notification that the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (the Claims Conference) has awarded the JFR a grant that will partially support the 2018 Advanced Seminar. The JFR so appreciates and values the support of the Claims Conference.
JFR Holocaust Centers of Excellence Program
In 2000, the JFR established the JFR Holocaust Centers of Excellence Program. Currently we are partnered with fifteen centers across the United States. These centers nominate educators to attend the JFR’s Summer Institute for Teachers at Columbia University and sign-off on applications for Lerner Fellows to attend other JFR teacher training programs such as the Advanced Seminar and the European Study Program. For a listing of the centers currently in the JFR Holocaust Centers of Excellence, please click here.
This year we are modifying how we accept applications for the Summer Institute for Teachers (SIT). If you know of a teacher who meets our eligibility requirements to attend the SIT (please see below) and you believe this educator might want to be considered for the Alfred Lerner Fellowship, please reach out to the teacher to explore this learning opportunity. Also speak with your local center and to me. If your nominating center is no longer in the JFR program, just contact me.
Eligibility to Attend the JFR Summer Institute for Teachers
To be eligible to participate in the Summer Institute for Teachers, participants must teach language arts, English, social studies, or history at the middle or high school level. We will also accept theology/religion teachers from parochial and Jewish day schools. We consider middle school to start at 6th grade. As a general rule, we do not accept math, science, or foreign language teachers into the program. Teachers must have taught at least five years, be at least five years from retirement, and currently teach the Holocaust in their classrooms. Candidates should have attended at least one Holocaust teacher training workshop/seminar.
2018 European Study Program to Germany and the Netherlands
Professor Peter Hayes will be our scholar for the 2018 European Study Program. The itinerary has been finalized and an announcement will go out in early January. The study program will be going to Dora-Mittelbau. We are going to limit the group to 16, this number includes Professor Hayes, Dr. Steven Field, a new JFR Board member, and myself. While we do not have a grant for this program, the JFR will underwrite a portion of the Study Program. I have a list of interesting Lerner Fellows. To participate in the Study Program, one must be teaching full-time.
Artifact Box
Several weeks ago I meet with Dr. Christine Schmidt (JFR’s former Direct of Education) from the Wiener Library and Paul Salmons from University College London. We had a terrific meeting and we reached agreement on which artifacts should be included in the box. I will be going to the State Museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau probably in February to work with museum staff to arrange for the fabrication of the artifacts. We are all very excited about this joint partnership.
Keeping your Contact Information Current
If you change names, home address, place of employment, telephone numbers, emails – please do let us know so we can keep your record current.
As we start a new year, I wish everyone only good things! Please do stay in touch.
