New Holocaust Educator School
Partnership and Estelle Lubliner Scholarship
In its 25th anniversary year, New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is deepening its commitment to Holocaust education with the launch of two new initiatives designed to engage teens and young adults as students, peer educators, and ambassadors for Holocaust education.
The Holocaust Educator School Partnership (HESP), made possible by a generous donation from the award-winning actress Julianna Margulies, is a paid internship in which undergraduate and graduate students are trained to teach the history of the Holocaust to middle and high school students. And the Estelle Lubliner Scholarship, created in memory of the Lubliner and Finer Families, will financially support the college education of graduating 12th graders from the New York City public school system.
“I thank Julianna Margulies and Estelle Lubliner for their support at this pivotal time in our country’s history,” said Jack Kliger, President and CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage. “Education must always be at the center of all our efforts to counter discrimination and intolerance, raise awareness, advance inclusion, and address the root causes of hate and antisemitism. It is essential that we reach our younger generations so they can develop awareness and skills that inevitably help to create a stronger society.”
“It is our responsibility as educators to teach all of our kids about our full past and to make sure we always remember the Holocaust,” said Schools Chancellor David C. Banks. “We are so grateful to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, actress Julianna Margulies, and Estelle Lubliner, for their generous support of these initiatives which will advance the teaching of the history of the Holocaust in our middle and high schools and The Estelle Lubliner Scholarship which will encourage Holocaust remembrance and inspire students to become forces for positive change as they enter the world as adults. Together, with the support of these great partners, we will preserve Holocaust memory and counter the contemporary rise in antisemitism through education in our public schools.”
“Sadly, far too many young people are unaware of one of the most horrific periods in our world history, when millions were murdered during the Holocaust,” Julianna Margulies said. “Throughout our history we have witnessed evil prevail in the face of silence and inaction, so it is vital that current and future generations understand our collective responsibility to combat antisemitism and hate in all forms, from words to actions. I am proud to support the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s Holocaust Education School Partnership because it seeds hope and opportunity, where young adults are messengers and teachers. Through their commitment, we can create a better world for all of us.”
The Holocaust Educator School Partnership (HESP) is a paid internship program for undergraduate and graduate students currently studying in the New York metropolitan area. HESP interns are trained on how to teach the history of the Holocaust and then work with local public middle and high school students to understand this history.
HESP interns attend intensive trainings at the Museum with staff, hear testimony from Holocaust survivors, and learn methods for teaching from the Museum’s extensive collection of 40,000 artifacts and photographs. Following their training, HESP interns work in pairs, visiting local schools to teach an introductory classroom lesson and later give tours to these classes at the Museum.
With plans to serve more than 1,000 middle and high school students per semester, HESP will expand in Spring 2023. The program’s goal is to preserve Holocaust memory and counter the contemporary rise in antisemitism through education, while cultivating the next generation of leaders, teachers, and scholars with professional ambitions for this work.
The Estelle Lubliner Scholarship will award $20,000 annually to at least one graduating 12th grader from the New York City public school system to support their college education. Scholarship applicants are asked to write an essay in response to a choice of prompts that explore Jewish life in Europe during the period of the Holocaust and to “consider how Jewish cultural identity and responsibility to the community affected their response to antisemitism and persecution.” The deadline to apply is February 1, 2023.
The new scholarship program is made possible by the generosity of Estelle Lubliner, a second generation survivor, or 2G. Ms. Lubliner’s parents were Moses (Moishe) “Max” Lubliner and Ida Lubliner (née Finer). Max and Ida met in the Łódź Ghetto during WWII, before emigrating to New York together.
For more information, visit mjhnyc.org.