Event honoring Holocaust educator reminds us how important it is to stand against hate | Opinion

Recently, I was invited to an event honoring Miriam K. Kassenoff, and the work that she does as director of the Holocaust Teacher Institute, School of Education at the University of Miami.

The event came at a time when many of us are praying for peace to come to Israel. And it also came at a time when it is more important now than ever to stand against hate in any form.

I first met Miriam Kassenoff a few years ago, when she invited me to one of her workshops. She is a Holocaust survivor, having escaped the horror in 1941, when she was just a child of 5, along with her father Rabbi Maurice Klein, her mother Sara and brother, Ted Klein, who later became a judge. Her younger brother Hank Klein, the only one of her immediate family to be born in America, was in the audience along with his wife Lisa.

As I sat there absorbing the words of Dr. Michael Berenbaum, the noted speaker who warned us of the perils of antisemitism in any form, so many thoughts ran through my mind. I thought of all the Holocaust survivors I have met since I became exposed to their plight after becoming a newspaper reporter.

(Since our American history books didn’t teach Black children very much about our own history back then, it was the same with the teaching of the Holocaust. I can’t remember being taught very much in my history classes about the Holocaust.)

It wasn’t until after a year or so, as a reporter at The Miami Herald, that I was assigned to the religion beat. That was in the early 1970’s. Writing about Jewish religion opened my eyes to the horrors of the Holocaust. And I became just as hungry for more knowledge about this time in Jewish history as I was about the history of my own people — African Americans.

I was still very much a rookie reporter on Oct. 6, 1973 — Yom Kippur — when the Arab Coalition declared war on Israel, catching the Israelites off guard on the high holy day. I remember attending a synagogue as the war raged in another part of the world and writing about the feelings of pain the Jews felt. It was then, I believe, that I realized that although we lived in different neighborhoods and held different traditions, I stood among people who literally were my neighbors. I learned so much that day because I was with my Jewish sisters and brothers in their house of worship, sharing their pain.

It is what Kassenoff has tried to teach ever since 1986, when she was chosen as the first public school teacher in Florida by the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors in New York City to go to Israel with 29 other teachers from across the county to study at Yad Vashem. Their topic of study was “How to teach the Holocaust through Jewish Resistance”.

“At the time,” Kassenoff said, “I was teaching English/language arts at Homestead High School. But for a month, I was able to sit in that institute in Israel at Yad Vashem and see the beautiful hills of Jerusalem, while hearing the powerful lectures on the history of the Holocaust from scholars and survivors.”

It was in that moment — the summer of 1986 — Kassenoff said that the Holocaust Teacher Education Institute was born “… up here in my head. It was a vision,” she said.

The vision became a reality. And since it opened, Kassenoff has helped many teachers understand the need to teach this world history to their students.

One of those teachers, David Reese, and two of his students were in the audience last Wednesday. So were several members of the 3-G Group (third generation of Holocaust survivors).

The evening was put together by Kassenoff’s friends Kristen Podack and Howard Herring.

“Howard and I were deeply touched by the community that came together in a shared effort to better understand humanity. We must know history before we can decide what we believe,” she said.

“I am a deep believer in lifelong learning, and certainly about the Holocaust, which is an unfathomable part of our world history,” Podack said. “For me, the only way to begin to comprehend is through learning and education. To understand [the plight of others], we must first learn history.”

“It is so important for our children to learn history and to be able to read whatever books that are available today. One of the first thing Hitler did was to ban books,” Podack said. “If we want to teach our children tolerance, they need to learn history and responsibility for one another. We must teach them that while others might think differently, and hold different traditions from them, they can learn to embrace those differences through understanding history and learning.”

Podack said Kassenoff’s work is “… extremely important. Educating teachers on how to responsibly, and sensitively teach about the Holocaust is no easy task. It is a difficult subject to teach. It must be taught with accuracy and sensitivity.”

Speaking with Podack reminded me of the work that one of my “community kids” Femi Folami-Browne, is doing in the community. A mother of three grown daughters and the grandmother of one, Folami-Browne is a part of a pilot project called Building Bridges Communications Initiative. The project aims to seek participation from such organizations as the Anti-Defamation League, Southern Poverty Law Center and other local agencies and schools to launch a campaign against hate of any kind.

Like Kassenoff’s program, Building Bridges Communications is a kind of “reach one, teach one” organization. And it is so needed in our society today.

For more information about Building Bridges Communications, and to get on its mailing list, send a request to BuildingBridgesMIA@gmail.com.

Bea Hines can be a reached at bea.hines@gmail.com