Through a partnership initiated by the Harris Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL), the Institute for Holocaust Education, and BLIXT ARTS LAB, the Nebraska Holocaust Education Inservice, a professional development event, will be offered to Nebraska and Iowa educators on June 3, 2024. Joining the partnership is the Nebraska Department of Education, History Nebraska, the Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and the College of Saint Mary.
This inservice will introduce educators to supplementary Holocaust education materials and programming offered in Nebraska through the partners. Resources presented will help educators build their students’ content knowledge, empathy, and critical thinking skills. Educators will become knowledgeable about opportunities that can be integrated into their curriculum and address the state’s Holocaust and genocide teaching mandate. Learning about primary sources related to the Holocaust will be a focus of this training. The program is open to all content areas that incorporate Holocaust and genocide education in their curriculum or those who seek to include these topics in their teaching in the future.
The morning sessions will be held at the Samuel Bak Museum, and afternoon sessions will be hosted at the College of Saint Mary. BLIXT ARTS LAB will present a special showing of their production, “Not Too Far Distant,” based on the collection of letters from Staff Seargent, Clarence Williams who wrote to his wife in Lincoln throughout his tour during WWII. Williams’ collection is featured in the Harris Center’s Nebraska Stories of Humanity website that features Nebraska Holocaust survivor and liberator stories. Participants interested will receive a stipend, mileage compensation, and one hotel overnight. Kosher breakfast and lunch will be provided.
The Holocaust Education Inservice is sponsored by the partner organizations, a grant awarded to the Harris Center for Judaic Studies by the Library of Congress (LOC) Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Midwest Region Program, and a Count on Me Community Club from the Jewish Federation of Omaha Foundation. TPS grants support the LOC’s mission to engage, inspire, and inform Congress and the American people with a universal and enduring source of knowledge and creativity. A second inservice will host facilitators from the Teaching with Primary Sources Teachers Network at UNL in the fall of 2024.
Contact Jane Nesbit, Education Director at the Institute for Holocaust Education, 402-334-6453, jnesbit@ihene.org. Registrations can be completed at www.ihene.org
