Stay Tuned...

Exciting things have been happening at the MCHGRC.

On March 28 we hosted over 15 educators from Mercer County and northern New Jersey at our Echoes and Reflections Workshop.  Hosted by Jerry Clark, this seminar on the 21st Century Holocaust curriculum developed by the ADL, in conjunction with Yad Vashem and the Shoah Foundation, reinvigorated our attendees with fresh material and insightful perspectives.  If you are an educator seeking a strong multimedia resource to bring Holocaust-related education into your classroom, you need Echoes & Reflections.  Check it out online today!

Just this week we hosted educators from across the state at our War Horse workshop.  This multifaceted interactive experience included a series of presentation by MCCC education majors who tackled the book for audiences grades K-4 as well as insights from our own Co-Director/MCCC Education Professor Elizabeth DeGiorgio and Advisory Commission member/High School Guidance Counselor & Peer Leader Lisa O'Neill.  Stay tuned to the blog for resources, including lesson plans, discussed at the workshop!

Upcoming Events  

Wednesday, April 18 @ 7 pm -- ONLY A NUMBER 

Mercer County honors Yom HaShoah with a free screening of this amazing Holocaust biopic made by local documentary filmmaker and second-generation survivor, Steve Besserman.  Come for the film, stay for the Q&A with the filmmaker!  Held at Congregation Beth Chaim, 329 Village Road East, Princeton Junction, NJ.  No reservations required!

Tuesday, May 15 8:30 am - 1:30 pm -- TEACHER WORKSHOP

"The Joy of Teaching Critical Thinking through Primary Sources." This K-12 workshop for educators at all levels and subjects is designed to demonstrate how to combine teaching critical thinking and the content of the Holocaust  and genocide through primary sources.  Presentation by Christopher Zarr – Education Specialist, National Archives at New York City.  Free workshop!  Meals provided!

Register today at http://education.state.nj.us/events/

Sunday, June 3 - Join the Kidsbridge Tolerance Museum 

Walk2Stop Bullying!

KIDSBRIDGE is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing imaginative, hands-on exhibits in the Kidsbridge Tolerance Museum, generously housed on the campus of The College of New Jersey in Ewing. These programs focus on: anti-bullying and anti-cyberbullying; tolerance; diversity appreciation and respect for all persons; victim empowerment and positive self-esteem; conflict resolution and empathy; sensitivity to persons with disabilities; understanding of LGBT persons and grassroots youth activism.  Join Kidsbridge on the campus of TCNJ as we walk to send a message: Stop Bullying Today!  Register online now!

The Story in History is What Counts

War Horse author Michael Morpugo has an awesome article in the UK Daily Mail titled: When I wrote War Horse, I didn't hide the horror of battle. If children are to love history, we must tell them the brutal truth.  


Morpugo argues against the education system removing the "story" from History, instead "...judg[ing] success solely on whether children can pass exams, with little time to ensure they leave school with a passion for learning that will remain with them for life."


Technological and political advancements mean that today's generation of students are, by and large, less directly impacted by war than their predecessors.  To put it in plain terms: If the Cold War seemed unreal to Generation X, what must World War II seem like to today's high school students?


When the realities of war become nothing more than facts on a page to be memorized, tested on, and all too quickly forgotten...what is the point of teaching about the war in the first place?


And if human experience can be so easily boiled down into a trivial pursuit, what lesson does that teach our students about the weight of their own lives and actions on the world scale?


History matters because people matter.  When we forget the importance of history we forget one of history's greatest lessons: That lives are meant to be lived, not lost and valued as gifts to the world, not by the blood they shed on battlefields or in death camps.


Read Morpugo's article in the UK Daily Mail.


Then, join the MCHGRC as we discuss War Horse: How One Book, One Play, One Movie can teach peace.

Awesome Free Workshop on 3/28!

For the deets (aka "details") click here.

Or, just go ahead and sign up while you still have the chance.

Seats are going FAST!

"Don't Be a Bystander" - Eugenie Mukeshimana, Rwandan Genocide Survivor

Over 20 guests filled our Center last Wednesday as the MCHGRC welcomed Eugenie Mukeshimana, founder of Genocide Survivors Support Network, to speak about surviving the Rwandan genocide.

Before the genocide, Rwanda was a beautiful country and Eugenie's was what Americans would most likely term an "average, middle class" lifestyle.  The dark underbelly of racism, however, took hold during her young adult years.  Despite generations of intermarriage with the Hutu population, Tutsis became defined in aesthetic terms similar to those used to stereotype Jews in Germany in the years leading up to the Holocaust: large noses and horns.  In fact, the similarities between Eugenie's experiences and those of Holocaust survivors is a lesson in itself:  Prejudicial language and attitudes had come and gone in waves in the past; Tutsi parents instructed their children to keep their heads down until attitudes changed.  However, this time, the stereotyping became so commonplace in Rwanda that when it came time for the killing to begin, the majority of Hutus that had been friends and neighbors for years did nothing to stop the madness.  In fact, many participated in the killings, while still more turned their backs to the horror.

While Eugenie highlighted the failures of the United Nations in responding to the Rwandan crisis that Dallaire wrote about in Shake Hands with the Devil, her feelings of abandonment were not solely the cause of other nations.  For Eugenie, one of the greatest disappointments that remain is that the church did nothing to forewarn the Tutsis of the impending crisis.  Mission organizations were pulling their representatives out of the country while many church leaders said nothing about the growing threats.  "We had passports," Eugenie said, "if we had felt there was any real threat, my family and I would have left.  But they said nothing."

What is the one lesson Eugenie wants everyone to take away from her autobiography?  "Do not be a bystander."  We must realize that we are all links in a chain and what is done to one person will inevitably affect us all.

To learn more about Eugenie and how you can support genocide survivors living in America, visit www.genocidesurvivorssupportnetwork.org.  

Genocide is a Living Reality

To learn more about the Shaar Menashe Mental Health Center for Holocaust survivors in Pardes Hanna, Israel, check out the article on YNetNews.com.

Next Wednesday, Shake Hands with the Devil

Wednesday, February 29 @ 4:30 pm, Leap into the pool of knowledge about the Rwandan Genocide as Eugenie Mukeshimana of the Genocide Survivors Support Network discusses Romeo Dallaire's book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda.

To brush up on the latest in Rwandan genocide current events, check out MCHGRC's Scoop.it page.

For more information on this event, including the link to register, check out the event page.

Be there, or be square.

Star Trek's George Takei on being a Non-Alien

This is an amazing first-hand account of the psychology behind the Japanese-American internment camps of World War Two.  Takei's experiences illustrate the stereotypical thinking that motivated the creation of the camps, an act that was later defined by a postwar Congressional committee as being "...motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership."

For more on the internment camps, including the original text of Executive Order 9066 that overrode "the Constitutional safeguards of American citizens in the name of national defense" check out PBS: Children of the Camps.