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Teaching the lessons of the Holocaust through storytelling, not allegory
Stories are the bounty of Jewish culture. The Torah builds from our origin with history and lessons for living and dying. If the Torah is a tree of life, then storytelling is its roots. We teach our values to our children through the stories of our ancestors. What, then, do we do when we need to tell stories that are difficult to hear? How do we apply our tradition of storytelling to the story of the Holocaust? [Redirects to the Times of Israel]
Lessons of the Holocaust: Lock the door or welcome the stranger?
“Why do we need to teach the Holocaust?” This week, as we mark the first yahrzeit of the eleven people murdered at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, I want to explore this question from a different angle, an angle of hopeful action. [Redirects to the Times of Israel]
Can we just color camels? Do we need to teach the hard stuff?
Can’t religious school be just about coloring camels from Torah portions? Do we have to teach the hard stuff? Many religious school education directors have fielded questions along these lines from concerned parents.
In classic Jewish fashion, the best answer is another question: How do we want our children to learn about the Holocaust? [redirects to the Times of Israel]
Teaching the lessons of the Holocaust through storytelling, not allegory
Stories are the bounty of Jewish culture. The Torah builds from our origin with history and lessons for living and dying. If the Torah is a tree of life, then storytelling is its roots. We teach our values to our children through the stories of our ancestors. What, then, do we do when we need to tell stories that are difficult to hear? How do we apply our tradition of storytelling to the story of the Holocaust? [Redirects to the Times of Israel]
Lessons of the Holocaust: Lock the door or welcome the stranger?
“Why do we need to teach the Holocaust?” This week, as we mark the first yahrzeit of the eleven people murdered at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, I want to explore this question from a different angle, an angle of hopeful action. [Redirects to the Times of Israel]
Can we just color camels? Do we need to teach the hard stuff?
Can’t religious school be just about coloring camels from Torah portions? Do we have to teach the hard stuff? Many religious school education directors have fielded questions along these lines from concerned parents.
In classic Jewish fashion, the best answer is another question: How do we want our children to learn about the Holocaust? [redirects to the Times of Israel]
Using Storytelling to Personalize Holocaust Education in the Classroom
Learning to be a Holocaust storyteller means learning to take a primary source such as testimony, memoir, or diary, and to retell the story told in that testimony in a compelling way. [Originally published in the Jewish Educator.]
Candle & Chronicle Newsletter September 2023
Teach the Shoah has been growing by leaps and bounds. We are excited to announce a major milestone in that growth: Teach the Shoah has convened its first official Board of Directors.
The fragile window is closing: Now WE must tell their stories
“Why do we need to teach this at all?” The Holocaust, she meant. Why do we need to teach the Holocaust in our religious school? [Redirects to the Times of Israel.]
‘Never Again’ means ‘Not Now!’
Have we built concentration camps on our border? As a Holocaust educator, I get asked this question a lot. It’s the wrong question. Asking whether they are concentration camps pushes us into extreme language that blocks conversation. [Redirects to the Times of Israel]
When you meet a Nazi at a gas station
“I’ve got a Nazi Iron Cross tattooed on my chest.”
We were chatting with a stranger across an unmanned gas pump, along an isolated road in rural east Texas. He had asked us, conversationally, what church we attended. This is a common conversation starter in this part of the world and did not surprise us. We’re Jewish so we attend synagogue, we replied, equally casually. That was when he told us that he had a swastika on his chest. He said it matter-of-factly, but there was a challenge in his eyes.
[Redirects to the Times of Israel]
Candle & Chronicle Newsletter September 2023
Teach the Shoah has been growing by leaps and bounds. We are excited to announce a major milestone in that growth: Teach the Shoah has convened its first official Board of Directors.
Candle & Chronicle Newsletter May 2023
We are in the season of remembrance. From Passover to Yom HaShoah to Yom HaZikaron, we consider our history. As we reflect, we must also give thought to how that history is being taught in our schools.
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