Judy Schancupp from the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust was selected as a 2024 Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR) Alfred Lerner Fellow.  

She participated in the JFR’s Summer Institute for Teachers, a five-day course that delved into the history of the Holocaust and discussed new teaching techniques for introducing the subject into their middle and high school classrooms, according to a press release.

“The three primary goals for the JFR’s Summer Institute, are to provide teachers with a graduate-level course on antisemitism and the Holocaust; to empower educators to develop pedagogical connections with other teachers; and to equip these teachers with additional resources to bring back to their classrooms,” said JFR Executive Vice President Stanlee Stahl.

 The conference took place in New Jersey from June 22 through June 26.   

The program is a high-level, intensive academic seminar in which participants were exposed to noted Holocaust scholars, including Doris Bergen of the University of Toronto; Volker Berghahn of Columbia University; Lawrence R. Douglas of Amherst College; Steven Field of New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine; Daniel Green of Northwestern University; Avinoam Patt of New York University; Richards Plavnieks of Florida Southern College; Robert Jan van Pelt of the University of Waterloo; Edward B. Westermann of Texas A&M University; renowned Holocaust historian and exhibition curator Paul Salmons; author Alexandra Zapruder and American Jewish Committee U.S. Director for Combatting Antisemitism Holly Huffnagle. 

The seminar allows participants to meet in small groups following each lecture, address the specific aspect of the Holocaust that is presented, share teaching concepts, and develop approaches for introducing the subject matter to their students, the press release said.

Teachers in the program must be English or social studies teachers at the middle or high school level, have taught for at least five years, are at least five years from retirement, and currently teach the Holocaust in their classroom.