By Debra Shein
During 2024, OJMCHE’s Education department has extended the museum’s presence far beyond the Portland metro area. OJMCHE now reaches students and teachers in 75% of the counties in the state, including many in rural areas who would have no other way of “visiting” the museum. Here are some of the many ways in which our educators have been making an impact throughout Oregon:
Heidi Kaufman, Regional Museum Educator, Takes the Museum to the Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon
Heidi Kaufman, who worked as a Professor of English with a focus on Jewish Studies at the University of Oregon from 2013-2023, began work with OJMCHE in 2023 in a two-year position as our first Regional Museum Educator. In this role she provides support and educational resources to K-12 teachers on Jewish culture, the Holocaust, and genocide studies. Until now, the mandate provided by SB 664 to require Holocaust education has been carried out mostly in social studies classes, and more students in higher grades have been reached than in lower ones. Heidi has been developing new programming in language arts and art classes, providing exciting new curricula on The Diary of Anne Frank and I Never Saw Another Butterfly, a collection of art and poetry produced by children interred at the Terezin concentration camp. In addition to teaching about the Holocaust and genocide, topics more appropriate for older groups, Heidi is helping younger elementary school students learn about Jewish holidays, food, and cultural traditions. She looks at this work as “planting seeds so that when younger students become old enough to tackle challenging Holocaust subjects, they will have already learned a few things about global Jewish culture.” Heidi recently piloted a lesson on Hanukkah with a second-grade class in Linn County. She reports that everyone had so much fun that three little girls threw their arms around her at the end of the session and said, “I love you!” Talking about the diverse ways Jewish people celebrate holidays and traditions around the world helps to lay important groundwork for later subjects covered in middle and high schools on the Holocaust or the dangers of dehumanizing stereotypes.
Heidi, who lives in Eugene, hopes that she’ll be able to expand available resources each year and reach even more Oregon teachers and students. She’s excited to work with the Education Department at OJMCHE to create professional development training for teachers and new workshops for students. “One of the things that’s interesting about OJMCHE,” Heidi notes, “is that it’s a museum that’s not exclusively situated in the museum; it’s an organization that’s also committed to developing relationships with the people in Oregon beyond the museum walls. Her outreach work and the connections she’s developing with Oregon communities is a fundamental part of the museum’s mission. “Because of the state’s geographic size, most students and teachers can’t reasonably come to us, so we bring the museum to them.”
Andrew Duden, Head of Student Programs, Visits Poland on an Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial (ABMF) Foundation Fellowship
Along with over 40 educators selected from cultural institutions and schools around the nation, Andrew Duden, OJMCHE Head of Student Programs, visited Poland during the last week of July as a part of a year-long fellowship designed to prepare participants to “bring the critical lessons of Auschwitz to non-Jewish American high school students.” After a six-month online training program, Andrew and the other educators took a fully funded, week-long educational trip to visit significant historical sites in Warsaw and Krakow and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial.
Andrew reports that he “found the trip transformative in his own journey with Holocaust history, and appreciated the opportunity to network with educators from around the nation and to explore a part of the world he had never visited.” Not only did he have the opportunity to tour the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, he also met with the archivists and conservationists who work behind the scenes to preserve valuable artifacts and archived documents. He says that he was particularly fascinated by his visit to the Ringelblum Archive at the Jewish Historical Institute, where documents are displayed from the Oneg Shabbat hidden archive of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Museum Educators Ariel Peasley and Emma Sharp Bring OJMCHE to Life for Diverse Audiences
In the last two years, OJMCHE has expanded its education staff to include two Museum Educators who work in the museum to develop and facilitate tours and workshops for educators and student groups.
Ariel Peasley started at the museum in the fall of 2022. After earning a BA in Anthropology from the University of Montana, Missoula, and an MA in Anthropology with a focus on Museum Studies from California State University, Chico, she was delighted to have the opportunity to return to her home state of Oregon. Ariel says that one of her favorite experiences has been “when students ask or answer a question with something I had never heard or thought of before. It is incredible to see how insightful, thoughtful, and compassionate students can be when considering tough questions and the hardships of others.” She’s looking forward to seeing many new faces this coming year as the museum’s programs continue to increase in demand and to “the fun and joy that comes with working with such a great education team, and from positive and heartwarming interactions and connections with students.”
Emma Sharp began her work at OJMCHE in October of 2023. Having earned a BA in Social Science and an MA in Teaching with a Social Studies endorsement, she was pleased to find a job that she finds to be “the best blend of my skills and strengths.” Emma reflects that “When touring the Holocaust: An Oregon Perspective with students, I am always sure to wrap it up with the love story of Holocaust survivors Eva and Les Aigner, who after the war found a home in Oregon. It is such a powerful story of love, hope, and resilience that I am honored I get to share it with the students and their chaperones. Occasionally I will see a chaperone clutch their heart with misty eyes as I share the story, and I know I have done right by Eva and Les. It is my favorite part of the job, to honor survivors and do my best to pass on their stories to the next generation of Oregonians. This year I am looking forward to more interactions with students. They say and do things that are thoughtful on the one hand and zany on the other, and that dichotomy keeps the work so fresh and rewarding.”