New Webinar Series to Train Educators to Recognize, Respond to Antisemitism

A partnership including USC Shoah Foundation next week holds its first professional development webinar to train teachers to recognize and respond to antisemitism with their students.

The Recognizing and Responding to Antisemitism in Schools webinar series, which begins Monday at 1pm PST, is aimed at schoolteachers, principals and superintendents who can earn credits for taking each of six modules.

The webinar is the first in a slate of new professional development opportunities created by USC Shoah Foundation in partnership with UNESCO, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Jewish Committee and Shine a Light.

Educators will have the opportunity to learn from international and U.S. experts on antisemitism, as well as the pedagogies and learning approaches from human rights and global citizenship education. Course material will include resources developed from USC Shoah Foundation’s 55,000-strong Visual History Archive and learning activities from its award-winning IWitness program.

As part of the series, educators will learn about strategies to address to antisemitic incidents in schools and to help “inoculate” learners against thinking, including Holocaust denial and distortion.

Participants who engage in the activities can earn Shine A Light Educator Countering Antisemitism certification conferred by the partners.  

Lesly Culp, Interim Director of Education and Outreach, said the series fills a gap in professional development (PD) for in-service educators around issues of antisemitism and its various impacts.

“Providing effective PD opportunities for teachers to expand their knowledge and perspective of the topic will actively improve their practice in ways that counter antisemitism and other forms of hate,” Culp said.

“We are proud to partner with such like-minded and renowned organizations and will leverage their expertise and our testimony-based resources to provide new effective educational strategies to combat antisemitism.”

Learn more about the training and register at https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/4057419/B74B395C281695DE74E8811F14670924?partnerref=SFIStory