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In Lawrenceville, educators create state’s first high school-based Holocaust study center by
Marilyn Silverstein
In the spacious loft overlooking the Lawrence High School library in Lawrenceville, history is not only being read and remembered, it is being made. The school is home to the new Center for Humanities and Affective Instruction — the first Holocaust/genocide educational resource center ever established at a New Jersey high school. The center, which opened in late March, is an initiative of school psychologist Nancy Hendrickson, who created it with the technical assistance of special-assignment teacher Debra Goldberg, the support of the NJ Commission on Holocaust Education, and a $3,500 grant from the Lawrence Township Educational Foundation. “I am so proud of what’s been done here — I really am,” Hendrickson said as she sat in the center’s comfortable reading area. “I’m just happy because Lawrence Township leads the way. Wouldn’t it be great if all the schools did this?” Hendrickson said she chose the distinctive name for the center because it is designed to be a place for teaching understanding and compassion on an affective level — and also because its acronym — CHAI — is Hebrew for “life.” That word is imprinted on every item in the center’s collection — books and films for children and adults on the Holocaust and genocide, curriculum guides for teachers, materials on prejudice-reduction, portfolios of photographs, and maps and posters on the walls. “Your Voice Is Important. Do Not Be Silent,” declares a poster from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum displayed on one wall. Another wall exhibits grainy black-and-white photographs from the Warsaw Ghetto. Nearby, a room divider is adorned with drawings by fifth-graders depicting scenes from Jacob’s Rescue: A Holocaust Story. The center had its seeds in Hendrickson’s experiences during the summer of 2004, when she was invited by the Holocaust education commission to participate in its summer seminar/study tour in Europe. The 12-day seminar, with Dutch Holocaust survivor Maud Dahme of Annandale as a guide, took Hendrickson and other participants to the Auschwitz, Terezin, and Madjanek concentration camps; to Wansee, where the Nazis formulated their “Final Solution”; to the Topography of Terror memorial in Berlin; and to Amsterdam, where Dahme was saved as a hidden child. “It was a whirlwind trip,” said Hendrickson, who is Jewish. “I really prepared myself very well by reading everything about resistance and rescue to remind myself that decency is everywhere. Hatred is everywhere, too, but so is decency, and you have to choose.” Hendrickson said she finds it difficult to convey the emotions that were aroused in her by the trip, because it was such a roller-coaster ride. “You learn about the most awful things you can imagine, and then you learn about people who risked their lives to rescue people,” she said. “One minute, you’re sitting by a pile of ashes; the next, you’re cruising down a canal in Amsterdam. So it’s a very tearful, joyful experience.” When Hendrickson returned from the summer seminar, she felt driven to share what she had learned — especially in light of New Jersey’s mandate that lessons on the Holocaust and genocide be included in the curriculum in the state’s elementary and secondary schools. “I want to have something to do with informing people that there is a way to be more humane,” she said. “I requested time in my Child Study Team position to work with staff and students and also to help the district to become more compliant with the state mandate. That really was the driving force.” Hendrickson’s first step, with the help of Goldberg, was to post a photo journal of her summer experiences on the school district’s Web site, under the Curriculum Corner. “I present this site to you,” Hendrickson wrote there, “with hope for a more peaceful world.” The next steps were to write the grant proposal and, once the grant was awarded, to begin assembling the center’s collection. Since the CHAI opened, Hendrickson has conducted four in-service trainings for teachers in the district, showing films and sharing curriculum guides. Several elementary and secondary classes have visited the center, and Hendrickson has taken her show on the road, visiting classes to present materials from the collection. In addition, the center sponsored trips to the exhibit of Anne Frank memorabilia on display at the Chestnut Tree Book Store in Princeton and to the “Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust” exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. And Hendrickson said she plans to invite both Dahme and Holocaust survivor Vera Goodkin of Lawrenceville, author of the recently published In Sunshine and In Shadow: We Remember Them, to make presentations to the district’s teachers and students. Paul Winkler, executive director of the Holocaust education commission, had nothing but praise for Hendrickson’s endeavor. “The Holocaust commission is very excited about the new Holocaust/genocide center that’s been established, because the teachers right in the district will have the opportunity to get materials immediately,” he said in a telephone interview. “We believe this model will be excellent for other schools to follow.” Hendrickson said she hopes to build on the center’s activities in the future, slowly but surely raising awareness throughout the district about Holocaust/genocide education. “I see this as sort of a lift-off point for that,” she said. “I see myself as a person who is available to help people. What I’m finding is, given the right taste, people will take bigger bites. “There’s a thirst for it,” she said, “and those people who are thirsty are knocking on my door all the time.” ©2006 New Jersey Jewish News. All rights reserved |
