The Auschwitz Jewish Center Faculty Development Seminar is a new ten-day/nine-night study trip to Poland for college and university faculty who teach the Holocaust in any discipline. It offers a unique educational opportunity to learn about the Holocaust in the context of Poland’s history and Jewish heritage, focusing on the legacy of the Holocaust in Poland; its effects on collective memory; and the complexities surrounding such categories as victim, bystander, and perpetrator. The program will provide an unparalleled opportunity for site visits, discussion, and enrichment for faculty who teach the Holocaust but have not made it their primary area of study.

The Program:

The Faculty Development Seminar will run from January 8 to January 17, 2013, beginning in Warsaw and concluding in Krakow. Together with the Director of the Auschwitz Jewish Center, Tomasz Kuncewicz, up to 16 participants will travel in Poland for ten days, during which time they will visit Krakow, Warsaw, Treblinka, and Oświęcim (Auschwitz). In each city, the group will have the opportunity for guided tours led by experts, individual exploration, and meetings with scholars. In Oświęcim, participants will attend an intensive program at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum where they will tour the camps and meet with a member of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum staff. While in Oświęcim, participants may have the opportunity to meet Polish teachers and observe educational workshops at the Auschwitz Jewish Center.

The cost of the program, not including airfare, is $2,750 per person, which includes all hotel rooms in same sex double accommodation, all meals (with the exception of one non-group dinner in Warsaw and one in Krakow), materials, internal travel, and entrance fees. Group airfare may be possible, organized by the Auschwitz Jewish Center, from New York.

The Faculty Development Seminar is open to professors of all faiths. The Seminar will be observant of the Jewish Sabbath (shomer Shabbat). All meals will be kosher style. Kosher meals and single accommodations will be available throughout the program at extra cost.

FAQs

To Apply:

To apply for the Seminar, please visit https://mjhnyc.wufoo.com/forms/ajc-faculty-development-seminar/.

The application process is rolling and applications may be submitted up to August 17, 2012. Applicants will be informed of the committee’s decision within a month of application submission.

The first iteration of the seminar took place on January 30-31, 2012 with 16 participants; the seminar has a waiting list of 15 additional participants. The next seminar is scheduled for March 17-18, 2012, with 16 participants from across Poland. The level of interest shown for The Holocaust and Tolerance evidences a high demand for this unique seminar, which combines Holocaust education with anti-discrimination education.

The Auschwitz Jewish Center pioneered the approach of combining visits to Auschwitz with discussions, lectures, and workshops on contemporary Polish issues of tolerance and human rights. Programs using this approach began at the AJC over three years ago with Why do We Need Tolerance? for high school students and teachers and its successor, the currently offered Oświęcim: A Different Perspective for high school students.

Feedback from participants from the January 30-31 The Holocaust and Tolerance seminar attests to the power of this method of tying the Holocaust to contemporary issues and the strength of the program itself. Below are selected responses from participants in the inaugural workshops:

Thank you! Meeting with you and others who respect human rights and are not indifferent to these issues was a valuable and wonderful experience.       
– Polish Police Officer

I must say that I am very impressed with this seminar. I’m exceedingly glad that I could be there. After the seminar, I now have a lot to think about, and still more to do.   
– High School Teacher

Thank you so much for these workshops – they were fantastic. The entire drive home we discussed what we had learned and how much we have to share with the other officers. We look forward to continuing to work together. 
– Human Rights Advisor to the Commander in Chief of the Polish Police

The Holocaust and Tolerance Program is made possible with the generous support of the United States Embassy in Warsaw.

Important notice: the previews will take place at 5 p.m. on four Wednesdays in February: 8th/15th/22th/29th.

The event is organized in cooperation with the Jewish Motifs Association.

Free admission. Foreign movies are shown with Polish subtitles.

The program combines high school study visits to the Auschwitz Museum and Memorial with educational workshops on the historical context of the Holocaust and the prewar history of the Jewish community of Oświęcim/Auschwitz. In addition, reflection discussions on contemporary instances of anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and other forms of prejudice today help students to make connections after their visit to Auschwitz.

The program includes:

• What was Oshpitzin? workshop in the town’s only preserved synagogue, the Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot, and a tour of the exhibits in the Jewish Museum at the AJC;
• Educational guided visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial;
• Lunch break;
• Anti-discrimination workshop at the AJC and closing discussion.

Oświęcim: A Different Perspective continues the work of the 2011 Why Do We Need Tolerance? program, the first project in Poland and one of the few initiatives in Europe to link the history of Auschwitz with education about ethical decisions today.

Oświęcim: A Different Perspective is made possible through a generous grant from the Civic Initiatives Fund (FIO).

The In-Service Teacher Training Center in Katowice is a recruiting partner for Oświęcim: A Different Perspective.

The awarding committee based their decision on the AJC’s educational programs that create a bridge between the difficult, painful past and the present; innovative and creative way of presenting Polish history and confronting prejudice; and promotion of sensitivity, respect, and tolerance among young people.

The initiative had three goals:

• To measure the level of xenophobia among residents of Oświęcim;
• To study the social memory of the residents of Oświęcim ie. find out which historical events are meaningful to their self-identity;
• And to create recommendations for the local administration and educational institutions based on the results of the study.

The project was made possible by the generous support of the Stefan Batory Foundation under the framework of the “Democracy in Action” program.

Tomasz Kuncewicz, AJC Director attended the meeting with Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland and representatives of regional administration and NGOs in Oświęcim.

Meeting with Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland. Second from right: Tomasz Kuncewicz, AJC Director.

Photo courtesy: Marcin Techmański

The Chairman of the Auschwitz Jewish Center (AJC), Simon Bergson, and the President of the AJC and Chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, Dr. David G. Marwell, were both awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland by the Polish President Bronisław Komorowski for their contribution to advancing Polish-Jewish dialogue.

This honor by the Polish state is an important recognition and acknowledgment of the AJC as a unique joint American-Polish project designed to keep alive the memory of the prewar Jewish community of Oświęcim/Auschwitz and teach about the need to overcome prejudice and intolerance today.

More on the event in Dr David G. Marwell’s blog: http://mjhblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/polish-medal.html