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Education Matters

Now More Than Ever

TOLI concluded its 2024 seminar season earlier this month with sponsorship of a powerful program, Allyship and the Implications of Memory: Learning about the Holocaust and Japanese American Incarceration.

 

The seminar took place in Seattle at the Holocaust Center for Humanity and was developed and led by its Education Director, Paul Regelbrugge, a TOLI Teacher Leader, in partnership with Densho, an organization dedicated to preserving Japanese American history.

Lilly Kitamoto Kodama with teachers at the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial, which tells about the shameful period during WWII when 125,000 US citizens of Japanese descent were put in incarceration camps. Linda was seven when her family was forcibly removed from their home on Bainbridge Island, the site of this Memorial. 

Twenty-five middle and high school teachers, primarily from Washington State, explored the memorialization of the Holocaust and the Japanese American wartime incarceration; how and why different communities remember the past; how memory can contribute to individual and group identities; and the role of museums, memorials, and archives in preserving and transmitting memory.

TOLI Teacher Leader and Holocaust Center for Humanity Educator Director Paul Regelbrugge, Densho Executive Director Naomi Kawamura, and TOLI Executive Director Deborah Lauter.

“Our goal was to put together a program that explored the complexities and interconnectedness of shared histories, underlining the importance of allyship and solidarity, which are so desperately needed today,” said Mr. Regelbrugge. 

Teachers heard from experts on topics including the “Rationale for Teaching about the Holocaust Today” and “Why We Remember the Past.” Washington resident Josh Tuininga, author of “We Are Not Strangers,” discussed his graphic novel based on the true story of his grandfather, a Sephardic Jewish immigrant, who helped his Japanese American neighbors.

 

TOLI Executive Director Deborah Lauter attended the seminar and remarked, “It was powerful to have this experience just days after the US election took place. TOLI is committed to ensuring that teachers are equipped with a methodology to examine historical and contemporary human rights issues to help their students understand the consequences of discrimination and hate.”  

This graphic novel tells the fascinating story of a Jewish immigrant's support for his Japanese American neighbors in Seattle during WWII.

Hear from a TOLI Teacher Leader

As we look ahead to 2025,

we know that our mission is more important than ever:

Education Matters


Every teacher we support with Holocaust and human rights education makes a difference. Every student they impact helps build civil society.


We need your help.

Every gift counts.


It only takes 20 donations of $100 to sponsor a teacher's participation in a TOLI program.


It only takes 5 donations of $50 to underwrite a TOLI Impact Grant to fund a school project, a field trip to a local Holocaust or civil/human rights museum, or books and speakers.


TOLI is at the forefront of building a global network of teachers who are committed to confronting antisemitism and all forms of hate.


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The Olga Lengyel Institute, based in New York, is a recognized leader of professional development in Holocaust and human rights for teachers throughout the US and Europe. Inspired by the legacy and work of Olga Lengyel, author of “Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor’s True Story of Auschwitz,” TOLI provides educators with the knowledge and skills they need to make the Holocaust relevant for today’s students.

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