UNION, NJ — Holocaust Learning Experience is now being implemented in the Union school system.
HLE is a nonprofit developed by MorseLife Health System in West Palm Beach and will implement HLE’s age-appropriate Holocaust education model for students in grades five through 12 in the Union School District. The mission is to educate and transform generations to end antisemitism and combat hate, bigotry and prejudice. This curriculum also fills a critical gap acting as a resource for teachers who have never been trained in Holocaust studies.
Michelle Foligno works as a program director with HLE. She started working with them while she lived in Florida and now works remotely from Cedar Knolls. Recently, she conducted a district training for grades five through 12 at Union High School. Foligno grew up in Union and said it was great to go to the high school and show the teachers a few lessons. “They had a professional development day,” she said. “We were one of the seminars. The teachers were very interested. I got to show them the whole program. There were middle school and high school teachers there.”
Working with HLE is an amazing opportunity for Foligno. “I can’t say enough good things about it,” she said. “It’s just incredible. It’s an incredible resource for teachers. It’s an incredible learning experience for students. The program can be used any way a teacher finds appropriate for his or her classroom.”
Pre-recorded lessons and Holocaust survivor testimonials bring history to life, helping students connect personally through inspirational stories of courage, resilience and compassion.
“The survivor testimonies are so impactful,” said Foligno.
For students in grades five through 12, Foligno feels the program really resonates with – and raises – their empathy level. “The footage that is in the lesson is footage that the Nazis filmed and it’s diabolical,” said Foligno. “The survivor testimonial, it’s an incredible experience for students to learn. You can teach it, but to actually see original footage that was filmed during the Holocaust is different. You can tell them about the Holocaust verbally, but without the visuals it lands differently.”
When the HLE program just started, they would send out surveys to students who saw the film footage and got 1,000 back. “An incredible percentage of students said they now gained more empathy for people in general,” said Foligno. “It hits home on every level. It also teaches bullying, how bullying and hate is.”
Foligno went to Union High School and doesn’t remember learning about the Holocaust. “Whatever was taught to me wasn’t very impactful,” she said. “That was many years ago. This is such an impactful package.”
The HLE program helps teachers put all the Holocaust information in one place. “They don’t have to go on the internet and piecemeal things together,” said Foligno. “As a whole, as a plug and play program; or they can show part of the lessons and the whole survivor testimony. Or they can show it all as one unit. They can show it all in one week or they can take the time and fully digest it with their students afterward. It’s not about Holocaust Remembrance Week. They can spread it across their curriculum.”
Holocaust Learning Experience is located on MorseLife’s Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Seniors Campus in West Palm Beach, Florida. To learn more, visit: holocaustlearningexperience.com.
Photo Courtesy of Kristen Evans