Educating Educators and Saying Thanks

We are wrapping up a very exciting and educational week at the Museum. On Tuesday, we welcomed more than 200 educators for an annual Professional Development Day. Those gathered watched A Film Unfinished, a documentary that examines a film made in 1942 in the Warsaw Ghetto by the Nazis as well as footage discovered later that showed how the propaganda was staged. MJH archivist and curator Bonnie Gurewitsch led the post-film discussion.

That afternoon Judith Cohen, Director, Photographic Reference Collection at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, led a discussion of work by Jewish photographers, revealing how important these pictures are when teaching about Holocaust history. The perspective captured by Jews with cameras is far different than the story told by Nazi photographers, she explained. A quiet but important addition to the audience was two people signing, provided by the NYC Department of Education’s Office of Sign Language Interpreting Services.

The day’s instruction was made possible, in part, by a generous gift from the Young Friends of the Museum.

And on Wednesday night we hosted our annual Volunteer Recognition Dinner, honoring our more than 250 volunteers who donate at a minimum, 45,000 hours annually. We don’t say it enough, but we could not do the work we do without our volunteers. The dinner was preceded by a book fair featuring authors from our Speakers Bureau and Gallery Educator corps. It was such a success, we want to plan a larger one in the future that will enable visitors to meet our Museum family and learn about their stories. Stay tuned.

Photo: Surveying curriculum between speakers. Photo by Caroline Earp.