Yad Vashem, U. of Notre Dame to promote Holocaust education

The MoU will be signed personally by Yad Vashem director-general Dorit Novak and vice president and associate provost for internationalization at the University of Notre Dame Michael Pippenger.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
An exterior view of the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum (photo credit: TIMOTHY HURSLEY)
An exterior view of the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum
(photo credit: TIMOTHY HURSLEY)
Yad Vashem and the University of Notre Dame signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) set to promote Holocaust education and research among the "next generation of historians and researchers."
The agreement between the World Holocaust Remembrance Center and the South Bend, Indiana, university forwards Yad Vashem's vision to increase Holocaust education and research across the globe.
The MoU will be signed personally by Yad Vashem director-general Dorit Novak and vice president and associate provost for internationalization at the University of Notre Dame Michael Pippenger.
"It is with great satisfaction that Yad Vashem is signing this important agreement with the University of Notre Dame," Novak said in a statement. "Yad Vashem is committed to ensuring that the history of the Holocaust continues to be relevant today and for future generations, and is not relegated to yet another chapter in human history.
"Our efforts aim to equip students and teachers alike with the necessary tools and materials to address the topic of the Holocaust and engage young scholars in the need for further research into its multifaceted nature and relevance today," she said. "Yad Vashem hopes that this agreement will open opportunities at many more universities and college campuses across the United States and in the rest of the world."
In addition to the MoU, scholars from both institutions intend to make remarks that will explore how the Holocaust came to be – dehumanizing and murdering millions in the process – and the role "healing justice plays in our world today."
This specifically is the focus of Yad Vashem's new online educational tool, based on its Learning Center – Center for Major Questions Arising from the Holocaust – which is intended to induce thought and discussion.
"For decades, Yad Vashem's International School for Holocaust Studies [ISHS] has been training teachers from all faiths from across the globe, and it looks forward to embarking on this new partnership with Notre Dame's ACE [Alliance for Catholic Education] program," said ISHS director Dr. Eyal Kaminka, who holds the Lily Safra chair of Holocaust Studies.
The MoU hopes to create a "basis for ongoing fruitful cooperation" between the two recognized institutions. Staff members of the Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research and ISHS will shadow faculty, staff and students at the University of Notre Dame to forward the program. The MoU also extends to the development of a relationship between Yad Vashem and Notre Dame's ACE program, in the hopes of translating this type of education into Catholic schools worldwide.
“The University of Notre Dame is very proud to enter into this partnership with Yad Vashem," Pippenger said. "For our students who study abroad in Jerusalem, the collaboration will allow for greater access to Yad Vashem's extraordinary resources – both its world-renowned experts and its unparalleled archives – to pursue their research and become a part of the global conversation on Holocaust studies."

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The associate provost added that, “for our students on campus, we hope that the partnership will lead to a better understanding of the history and legacy of the Holocaust and what that understanding calls us to study and act on today.  We also look forward to our faculty members forging new connections with the excellent scholars at Yad Vashem to produce research and scholarly initiatives that enlighten, educate and heal our communities.”


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