Holocaust educator to visit schools around Mahoning Valley

Staff report

Youngstown

Holocaust educator Lana Bernhardt, the U.S. coordinator of the International Book Sharing Project, will visit seven area schools engaged in a Holocaust literature project this week.

Students and teachers will participate in classroom projects and discussions related to their Holocaust curriculum during Bernhardt’s visits.

In addition to the school visits, Bernhardt will also conduct a Holocaust education training workshop for current and prospective IBSP teachers from 4:15 to 6 p.m. Thursday at the Jewish Community Center, 505 Gypsy Lane.

Area students are participating with their counterparts in Israel in the IBSP, a project-based Holocaust educational curriculum directed by the American Friends of the Ghetto Fighters’ Museum in the Western Galilee region of Israel.

The Ghetto Fighters’ Museum is one of the world’s largest teaching museums and documentation centers on the Jewish response and resistance to the Holocaust.

The Mahoning Valley’s participation in the IBSP, now in its eighth year, is sponsored by Youngstown Area Jewish Federation’s Partnership with Israel.

Teacher participants are Jesse McClain, a Holocaust educator who travels frequently to Europe and Israel, in Boardman; Michelle Best in Austintown; Gina Carbone in Liberty; Jennifer Roseck and Lauren Olson-Sadlak at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, Youngstown; Ira Pataki in Sharpsville; Melissa Ciminero in Niles; and Thom Williams in Howland.

IBSP was established internationally in 1995 and involves more than 3,000 middle- and high-school students.

Locally, the project links American and Israeli students in the reading, study and online discussion of Holocaust literature and history.

For more information, call Andrew Lipkin, assistant executive director at Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, 330-746-3251.