Phase 4: JHF University of Kentucky Holocaust Education Initiative

The University of Kentucky - Jewish Heritage Fund Holocaust Education Initiative, established in 2021, was created to fill the gap in teacher preparation left between state-legislated mandatory Holocaust Education for middle and high school students in KY (first required in 2018 with the passage of the Ann Klein and Fred Gross Holocaust Education Act and the unfunded mandate it puts in place) and the minimal training and preparation most teachers receive to implement it. Most urgently, teaching about the Holocaust is complex - pedagogically, contextually, and emotionally. We want to ensure Kentucky educators have the support and resources they need to be effective in their work. Our initiative collaborates with teachers across the Commonwealth to create workshops and curriculum to increase teacher confidence and efficacy. Using a teachers-teaching-teachers model to empower educators to teach about the Holocaust with empathy, to date, we have worked with two cohorts of twenty and then twenty-one teacher leaders selected from a competitive pool. Teachers create original resources and integrate existing resources to implement high-quality curricula grounded in state-based standards and to lead their colleagues in their use. We also strive to ensure that Holocaust education is not the only opportunity for Kentucky students to learn about Jewish people, history, heritage, and culture. The collaborative model creates two very important aspects of Holocaust education–a network of highly trained educators equipped to be leaders within their geographic region and exemplary teaching materials that are mapped to state standards, accessible on our website, and tied to KY examples.