2007 Summer Institute for Echoes and Reflections Scholars

ADL Education staff and eighteen public and private school teachers and university faculty representing fourteen states recently traveled to Israel as part of the 2007 Summer Institute for Echoes and Reflections Scholars. Also attending were two staff members from the USC Shoah Foundation Institute and financial supporters of Echoes and Reflections, Nancy and Larry Glick. The goals of the weeklong Institute were to enhance and supplement staff and educators’ understanding of key content in the curriculum; to understand Israel and the post-Holocaust experience; and to create an action plan to promote and teach Echoes and Reflections in the coming year.

Upon arriving in Jerusalem, participants attended an opening ceremony at Yad Vashem’s Valley of the Communities to hear welcoming remarks from leaders of the three partnering organizations—ADL, USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, and Yad Vashem—as well as Echoes and Reflections benefactor, Yossie Hollander.

The remainder of the weeklong seminar included tours of the Yad Vashem campus and historical museum and learning from Yad Vashem’s experts, including Professor Yehuda Bauer. In addition, Abraham Foxman shared his experience as a hidden child with participants and Holocaust survivor Ruth Brand told the group about her experiences in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Walking tours of Jerusalem in the evening and a study tour of the Galilee on the final day of the Institute helped participants better understand the history, culture, and topography of the State of Israel.