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JANUARY 2008
Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding Hosts
Program for Teaching the Holocaust
The Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding welcomed more than a dozen of the nation's foremost Holocaust educators to lead a teacher education program for Sacred Heart University students and faculty on January 20-21, 2008. The Holocaust Education Consortium of the American Friends of the Ghetto Fighters Museum represents Catholic, Protestant and Jewish educators in parochial, private and public schools in the United States and Israel. "These leading practitioners have completed formal Holocaust studies at Yad Vashem, the Ghetto Fighters' Museum in Israel, and the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, and represent the best practices in the field," said Dr. Karen Shawn, director of the Holocaust Education Consortium. The program was cosponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Isabelle Farrington School of Education of Sacred Heart University.
Dr. Karen Shawn, director of the Holocaust Education Consortium, leads her “Teaching The Holocaust in Catholic Settings” workshop
Workshops led by the Consortium educators examined such topics as "Teaching the Holocaust in a Catholic Setting," and explored different contextual approaches to Holocaust education through the use of narrative, survivor testimony, and the history of Jewish resistance in the Holocaust. Presenters shared materials and methods for teaching about the Holocaust using a range of literacies including history, literature, and the arts.
Rabbi Eugene Korn, Ph.D., executive director of the Center, together with Dr. Shawn, developed the program for faculty and students in the fields of education, religious studies and history at Sacred Heart University to promote understanding and dialogue between Christians and Jews among educational leaders. While a number of states, including Connecticut, have mandates for Holocaust education as part of the overall school curriculum, there are no teacher education programs to prepare educators for the best practices in teaching about the Holocaust. The program also responded to the recent call from United States Bishops to Catholic dioceses for advancing education in Christian-Jewish dialogue and understanding at the local level. In a recent meeting with Vatican officials in Rome (September 2007), CCJU was asked to be a resource in the United States for ensuring that the significant developments in Christian-Jewish understanding since the Second Vatican Council 1965 declaration, Nostra Aetate, become more accessible to laypersons in Catholic communities.
Pope John Paul II called the entire Church to reflect on the tragedy of the Holocaust for the Jewish people in the 1988 Vatican document, "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah." It states: "We wish to build a new future in which there will be no more anti-Judaism among Christians or anti-Christian sentiment among Jews." This was followed in 2001 with the United States Bishops' publication, Catholic Teaching on the Holocaust, intended as a resource for Holocaust education on all levels of Catholic education. "It has been said of the Holocaust that memory is our best shield for the future, and the study of the Holocaust is critical both for preserving the close spiritual bond of faith that links Christians and Jews and for developing an understanding of the ramifications of prejudice, racism and stereotyping in any society," said Dr. Ann Morrow Heekin, CCJU director of programs and publications. The Center plans to sponsor the Holocaust Education Consortium again next year and expand the program to include Connecticut teacher participation.
Dr. Ann Heekin, CCJU director of Programs & Publications, and Josey Fisher, Holocaust educator, exchange notes.
CCJU Sponsors The Darfur Project
In Collaboration with the Jewish Community Center
The staff of the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding of Sacred Heart University and the Holocaust Education Consortium led a second day of programming on January 20, 2008, with a film viewing and discussion, "The Darfur Project" in collaboration with the Jewish Community Center of Bridgeport, CT. Two documentary films on the present genocide in Darfur produced by Sacred Heart University alum Tim Salem and his students at Danbury High School were shown to the general public, including The Promise and Child of Hope, Darfur Dreams of Peace. According to Salem, The Promise is a reminder of the 1945 pledge by the United Nations to hold people accountable for crimes against humanity. The student-produced video about the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, where over 400,000 people have been killed since 2003, views the genocide against the aftermath of the Holocaust when the world was promised "never again." The second and newly released film, Child of Hope, presents the Holocaust through the eyes of one brave child. Both documentaries are an effort by the students of Danbury High School to increase national and international awareness for the situation in Darfur and the urgent need for political, military and economic intervention. The film screening was followed by a presentation from Dr. Jerry Erlich, a New Jersey pediatrician and volunteer in Darfur with the international organization, Doctors Without Borders. While on mission to Darfur, where Dr. Erlich served as the primary medical doctor for the Darfur's largest refugee camp, he smuggled more than 150 pieces of artwork by Darfur children which tells the story of the war and carnage in the region which the Sudanese government continues to deny. "The Darfur Project uses the Holocaust as a backdrop in the film's narration, images and quotations to help viewers understand the dangers of remaining silent, apathetic, and indifferent to this 21st century genocide," said Dr. Heekin.
Sacred Heart University Press Publication
Examines Catholic-Jewish Relations in Our Time
A new book, Examining Nostra Aetate After 40 Years, Catholic-Jewish Relations in Our Time, from Sacred Heart University Press, explores Christian-Jewish relations, pre- and post-Nostra Aetate, through essays by prominent leaders in the field of interreligious studies. Dr. Anthony Cernera, president of Sacred Heart University, edited the collection of essays intended to be a testament of and contribution to the field of interfaith studies that has developed since the Second Vatican Council document, Nostra Aetate (1965). Nostra Aetate addressed the relationship of the Catholic Church to non-Christian religions, especially Jews, and encouraged dialogue and understanding between Christians and Jews by way of "biblical and theological enquiry and friendly discussion." The collection features leaders in the field of interfaith study including Rabbi Mordecai Waxman (deceased August 2002), Judith Hershcopf Banki, one of the pioneers of organized interreligious dialogue and John T. Pawlikowski, a Servite priest and director of Catholic-Jewish Studies at the Cardinal Bernadin Center at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. "The essays in this volume describe the past, present and future of the Nostra Aetate story. It calls attention to the pioneers and pivotal events that have paved the way, assessing from various points of view where we are now, and sketching in detail what needs to be done as we move ahead to turn the vision of Nostra Aetate into a lasting reality," said Dr. Cernera.
About the Book:
TITLE: Examining Nostra Aetate After 40 Years: Catholic-Jewish Relations in Our Time
EDITOR: Anthony J. Cernera, Ph.D.
PUB DATE: December 2007
PRICE: $24.95
PAGES: 224
ISBN: 978-888112-15-3
Copyright 2007 Sacred Heart University Press
CCJU Staff
Rabbi Joseph H. Ehrenkranz, Director Emeritus
Rabbi Eugene B. Korn, Ph.D., Executive Director
Ann Morrow Heekin, Ph.D., Director of Programs and Publications
Guillaine Dale, Assistant to the Directors
Joan Jackson, Office Secretary
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Monthly newsletter of the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding
The Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding of Sacred Heart University seeks to contribute to the creation of a world of greater respect, cooperation and peace by educating Christians and Jews for a dialogue that is based on knowledge and truth about God and one another. The Center promotes scholarship, trains future religious leaders, educates teachers and leaders of parishes and synagogues, and serves as a leader in promoting Christian-Jewish understanding in the United States and throughout the world. |
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