All 40 members of the French-speaking teachers’ delegation to Israel attended the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum visit including those that had been many times before. They all knew again, as happened daily on their weeklong tour of Israel, they would be provided with important information, and rich tools, for teaching Holocaust studies in the future.
Yad Vashem pedagogical guide Yoni Berus met the delegation. He spoke to them in a classroom for an hour and a half about the current challenges facing Holocaust education. The thrust of his address concerned methods of transmitting material to children and others in the face of the increasing abuse of Holocaust memory. “The Shoa has not been forgotten, but when people relate to it, it is often in a distorted and banal way. In this atmosphere, teachers must lead their students back to the core text of what actually happened. At the same time, we must remember that all this is happening in a world of growing anti-Semitism often taking place in places where the Holocaust erupted. It is vital that these teachers be provided with the tools to recognize the challenges and enable them to move forward.” Berus later led them on a guided tour through the museum.
Delegation participant Helene Zrihen of the FSJU Campus in Paris which is a Jewish teacher training seminary, said that she has long recognized the difficulties associated with Holocaust education today. “I have been involved in creating seminars for our teachers in conjunction with Yad Vashem. It is important to understand the Holocaust and everything connected and to understand current anti-Semitism. Jewish hate is never the same. Each generation of anti-Semites knows how to create something different.”
Laurenz Kiman of KKL Paris said that she feels that much effort in Holocaust education should be delivered to non-Jews because she believes that Jews have a basic understanding of anti-Semitism through their DNA. “It’s those non-Jews who have to realize that their thinking is distorted. We as educators also need to remember that we are not just teaching Holocaust studies to the next generation but that we are leaving a legacy for the next two thousand years so that the Holocaust should never be forgotten.”
Rabbi Chai Belinson, the coordinator of all the Jewish communities in Paris, said that the Jewish community in Paris is facing challenges due to the various recent waves of anti-Semitism. “A lot of people have left, many to Israel, but the size of the community has not shrunk because Jews who were on the periphery are now taking a stronger role and rediscovering their Judaism. We as educators are also reaching out.” He praised KKL-JNF for organizing the teachers’ enrichment tours to Israel. “This is the third time that I am taking part in a KKL-JNF Educators trip. Each one is completely different from the last and just as full of rich content. The organizers can be proud of the service they provide to communities around the world.”
From Yad Vashem the tour participants traveled to Mahane Yehuda to experience Friday afternoon in the open-air market. En route, they were instructed to later make their own way back to their hotel in time to get ready for Shabbat. The hotel was in easy walking distance from Mahane Yehuda. After disembarking from the bus, the participants walked into the market and disappeared into a wall of people who were there for last minute-shopping and recreation.