The OJMCHE Education team–April Slabosheski, Holocaust educator, and Cheyenne McClain, education assistant–have been fully engaged over the summer. April received a scholarship to attend the Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Conference: English Language Arts, at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Cheyenne is the recipient of the David Rubenstein Fellowship from Duke University where she will have access to do research with the Judaica materials held by the Rubenstein Library, the Duke Divinity School Library and Perkins Library.
At this summer’s conference, April was able to work closely with Museum staff, historians, and expert educators where she had exclusive access to Museum exhibitions when the Museum was closed to the public. The conference focused on teaching diverse audiences about the relevance of the Holocaust today while also providing the opportunity to network with educators from around the country.
April, whose previous areas of study included Jewish identity through art before and after the Holocaust, also spent a few days researching the USHMM archives and the collection of contemporary Jewish art. “It was great to meet other Holocaust educators, especially those from the East Coast area, and to learning more about how as educators we can develop new ways to approach the atrocities of the Holocaust in a way that has universal implications,” said April. “The flip side of that is deepening my understanding of the events of the Holocaust as specifically a Jewish experience.”
As the recipient of the David Rubenstein Fellowship from Duke University, Cheyenne will be doing research this fall at Duke University on Judica, which has been one of her areas of study. “This opportunity just resonated with my work at OJMCHE and my general interest in the role of Judica,” said Cheyenne. “This opportunity will allow me further research in the ways in which Judica can educate outside of the walls of the synagogue and within the walls of a museum.” Specifically, Cheyenne will be focused on researching Dr. Abram Kanof’s influence on Judaica and Jewish museums and his early career and as part of the Tobe Pascher Workshop; and how Judaica can be used as a teaching tool in Jewish education.