The JFR is sending each JFR-supported rescuer a special award of $3,900 for the Christmas holiday. This is the largest, individual Christmas holiday award the JFR has sent to rescuers. More than $323,700 in Christmas awards will be sent to rescuers this year. Our JFR Christmas gifts are used by the rescuers for food, home heating fuel, and medicine. Funds are being sent the first two weeks in December. In addition to the special Christmas gift, each rescuer will receive their regular JFR award of $1,600, bringing to $5,500 the total amount being sent to each JFR-supported rescuer.

We want to thank you for your generous support of the work of the JFR and for helping to make the lives of the rescuers so much better and brighter!

The Advanced Seminar is set, we have 22 participants. The focus of this year’s program is America and the Holocaust. The following scholars will be presenting: Professors Thomas Doherty, Kirsten Fermaglich, Daniel Greene, and Peter Hayes. The assigned readings are excellent. If you would like to receive the reading list, please email Stanlee at [email protected].

The JFR is planning two separate European Study Programs for July 2025. Professor Robert Jan van Pelt will be the scholar accompanying both programs. We are in the process of pricing both European Study Programs. As soon as we receive pricing, a separate announcement will be sent to all Lerner Fellows. Prices in Europe for hotels, petrol, and meals have increased significantly. We have done our best to design each program to be as tight as possible with respect to days abroad while still including the key holocaust sites we want to have a first-hand experience at.

The first European Study Program will be to the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. Participants will leave the United States on Wednesday, July 2 arriving in Amsterdam on Thursday, July 3, 2025. We will spend two days in Amsterdam and then we will travel across the Netherlands to visit the National Hiding Museum and the Nussbaum Museum. We will visit Bergen-Belsen and then travel to Copenhagen, Denmark where we will spend four nights. While in Denmark, we will take a fishing boat to Sweden, where we will visit several memorial sites. Our last day in Denmark is July 10, 2025.

The second European Study Program is to Poland. Participants will leave the United States on July 10, 2025, arriving in Warsaw, Poland on July 11, 2025. Our last day in Poland will be July 19, 2025. Please email Stanlee at [email protected] for a copy of either itinerary.

As we end 2024, we would like to acknowledge and thank the people we have worked with over the past year.

Alfred Lerner Fellows – our wonderful teachers – a big THANK YOU for your commitment to addressing antisemitism and teaching the Holocaust

Paul Allman – our video editor for How Was It Possible? A Holocaust Curriculum For and By Teachers™

BorsaWallace – Frank Borsa and Jeff Wallace – our graphic design team

Merrill – Voja Andjelkovic and Stefano Fava – our financial advisors

Miles Technologies – Matthew Lancellotti – our IT person

Prospect Direct – Jill Cohen – our direct mail consultant

Schulman Lobel – Adam Reiss – our accountant

Steinreich Communications Group – Stan, Ariella, and Joshua Steinreich – our public relations team

Suits & Sandals – Nick Dank and Miles Roxas – our website team