How JPEF is Sharing Jewish Partisan Lessons Virtually During this Time

While we all have practicing Social Distancing, JPEF has been busy finding new and innovative ways to reach more educators and students than ever. Here are some of our recent accomplishments and the impacts we are making.

Allen Small

More than 1,000 people joined us for our live virtual Yom HaShoah V'HaGevurah commemoration in April, featuring a keynote address delivered by Dr. Michael Berenbaum, a Q & A with Jewish partisan Allen Small, and the beautiful singing of Cantor Shira Ginsburg. Hundreds more from throughout North America, Israel, South Africa, and Europe watched the 30-minute broadcast available here.

Daniel Branstetter, a 12th grade student at Pittsburgh's Winchester Thurston School was impressed by the message of religious tolerance that Jewish partisan Allen Small delivered. "This meant so much coming from a man of such moral clarity; particularly since he had to endure such difficult circumstances in his youth." 

Last month, we trained more than 148 classroom teachers using JPEF's educational materials during online seminars. Ninety-nine percent of these educators stated that they will teach about the Jewish partisans using JPEF resources. Together, they will reach more than 32,000 students over the next 3 years. We will train another 100+ teachers in May and June.

In April, we also introduced JPEF's curricula to teachers in Kamloops, British Columbia during an educator in-service day, and brought our nine E-Learning professional development courses to the Canadian eLearning Network (CANeLearn).

"JPEF presented an amazing professional development session and gave me materials that I can immediately use in the classroom. Teaching my students about the Jewish partisans will be inspirational. Learning that so many Jewish partisans were teens will show my students they have the power to make change at any age,"  raved Christine Yamaoka, a teacher at Valleyview School, Kamloops, British Columbia.

During this time we have visited virtual classrooms and engaged students in a more comprehensive study of the Holocaust — one that includes remarkable examples of Jewish resistance. We are devoting time to enhancing our Jewish Partisan Community website with new biographies of Jewish partisans. (Note: Please share your family's story today.)  And, we are excited about developing a new classroom study guide for our film Survival in the Forest: Isidore Karten and the Partisans, which will be available this summer.

All of JPEF's online resources, films, lesson plans and study guides are all available for free download here. Please share them with the students and educators in your life.

Our ability to continue pursuing our mission under new circumstances has been made possible through the dedication of JPEF's board of directors, staff, partner organizations, educators, donors, and champions.

We thank everyone for their ongoing support and for helping JPEF continue to empower young people through the legacies of the Jewish partisans, encouraging them to speak out early, and to stand up against antisemitism and oppression in all its forms. We could not achieve our incredible impacts without this help.

Donation to the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation can be made online here.