The 2025 Advanced Seminar will be held on Saturday and Sunday, January 18 and 19, 2025. We are changing the format of the program to a two-day program that starts with breakfast on Saturday, January 18, 2025, ends on Sunday, January 19, 2025 at 4:30 p.m. Previously the Advanced Seminar started at noon on Saturday and ended on Monday with a working lunch.

The Advanced Seminar will be held at the Hilton Newark Airport. The following scholars will be presenting, Professors Thomas Doherty from Brandeis, Kirsten Fermaglich from Michigan State, Daniel Greene, and Peter Hayes from Northwestern. The focus of the 2025 Advanced Seminar will be “America and the Holocaust.” The 2025 Advanced Seminar will be limited to 22 participants. Completed applications are due Thursday, October 31, 2024. The participant fee is $425. A shared hotel room for Friday and Saturday nights is included in the participant fee. If you want a single room, the additional cost is $150 per night. We will not be accepting commuter applications this year.

Here is a link to the 2025 Advanced Seminar application.

If you are interested in attending, please let Stanlee know at sstahl@org. Remember, letting Stanlee know you are interested does not reserve your spot in the program.

In July, Stanlee attended Yad Vashem’s International Conference for Educators. The theme of the first full day was “The Kehilah (Jewish Community) in a World of Crisis.” The focus of the second day was “The Holocaust in a Global Context.” The last day was “When Antisemitism Challenges Holocaust Education.” It was an excellent conference – well planned. Yad Vashem staff, including Sheryl Ochayon and Dorit Raviv and their respective staffs, did an outstanding job! Dani Dayan, Chairman of Yad Vashem, opened the conference. His closing presentation, “Revealing the Masks of Hatred: Facing Antisemitism Today” was outstanding.

There were a number of JFR Alfred Lerner Fellows at the conference. Wendy Warren, Amy Frake, and Ingrid Patino represented Holocaust Museum Houston.  Urszula Szczepinska and Erin Blankenship represented the Florida Holocaust Museum. From Stockton University were Irvin Moreno-Rodriquez and Professor Michael Hayse (while Professor Hayse is not a Lerner Fellow, he has presented at the JFR’s Summer Institute for Teachers). Debi Maller, a high school teacher from Rahway High School in New Jersey, also attended. Paul Salmons from the United Kingdom, who lectured at the JFR’s Summer Institute from Teachers this past June also attended and presented. It was great to connect with everyone.

I want to share a link that Lori Gerson, from Yad Vashem, presented in her session, “Teaching about Current Antisemitism.” It is a short animation from Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks on “The Mutation of Antisemitism.” I urge you to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UAcYn4uUbs

We have been speaking with Lerner Fellows throughout the summer to learn what their plans are for their Holocaust unit. As expected, plans are varied. A key factor is the length of time each teacher has to spend on the Holocaust. Some have a yearlong elective; others teach the Holocaust for five days. Please let us know your plans for your Holocaust unit.

If you change names, home address, telephone numbers, schools, and emails – please do let us know so we can keep your record current.