by George J Elbaum

The Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) has organized an annual Day of Learning since 2003, inviting students and educators from schools throughout California to participate in numerous workshops to gain a deeper understanding of the Holocaust and patterns of genocide, and to inspire moral courage and social responsibility in the future. Each workshop includes a presentation of eyewitness testimony by a survivor of the Holocaust or genocide. This year’s Day of Learning was held at San Francisco’s Galileo High School, with more than 700 students and 140 educators from over 100 California schools participating in 18 workshops. My presentation to a workshop for educators entitled “New Perspectives in Thinking, Learning, and Teaching about the Holocaust” was arranged by JFCS’s Katie Cook, who was one of the organizers of the whole event, and it was augmented by Janine Okmin of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, her intern Chloe Knox, and Galileo teacher Joseph Taylor in whose classroom this workshop was held. JFCS volunteer Jamie Beck was my on-site guide, ensuring that I found the right room for my presentation and, afterwards, my car in a parking lot on the other side of Galileo’s tunnel 🙂

with Janine Okmin, Joseph Taylor and Chloe Knox