Centropa seminar in Houston, Texas

Houston and Galveston teachers were invited to join us at our teachers' seminar on Saturday, February 10, 2018, 8:00am-4:00 pm, for a Centropa seminar that gave them new lesson ideas, a wealth of free new resources about 20th century Central and Eastern European Jewish life for teaching social studies, history, civics, character education, foreign language (Spanish), art, photography, and filmmaking, and an opportunity to create a lesson that works for students. Topics included: an introduction to Centropa’s photograph and interview database and short, multimedia films; the Spanish roots of Southeast Europe - stories of Sephardic Jewish life in the Balkans, and the model of civic engagement that happened in the synagogue of Sarajevo during the 1990s Bosnian war when the Jews opened their synagogue to Muslims, Croats, and Serbs as they worked together to survive; and stories of when friends, neighbors, teachers, and other community members turned against our interviewees - and stories of when they were helped by friends, neighbors and complete strangers. We also had a District Coordinator’s seminar the day before, Friday, Feb 9.