In Rwanda, where the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi remains a fresh wound, education is a critical piece of promoting lasting peace.

A group with Aegis’s education team in Rwanda has concluded a three-week visit with the Institute to develop expertise for accessing testimony in IWitness, create testimony-based educational content for local educators and establish plans and expectations for the next phases of our partnership.

Even absent this current era of “alternative facts” and “fake news,” the new Polish law making it a crime to point out Poland’s complicity in the Holocaust would be alarming. 

But that it is occurring in today’s climate of demagoguery, heightened nationalism and ethnic tension – an unholy trio that threatens to metastasize on a global scale – is a troubling development.

Poland’s effort has come under attack by Israel and stewards of Holocaust memory.

In this activity, students will examine the impact that personal stories can have in inspiring others to action. They will listen and reflect on genocide survivor testimonies, discuss the concept of leadership and form belief statements about how they can become leaders in their communities.

The future of Polish-Israeli relations can be driven by compassion and forgiveness, or a retreat behind walls of fossilized antisemitism, essentialist prejudice, nationalistic egotism, and fear.