ADL’s award-winning Bearing Witness™ Institute is a unique 4 day intensive professional development workshop for Catholic school educators at the secondary level.
Through Bearing Witness, participants explore the history of anti-Semitism, from biblical times to modern day, as well as Catholic teachings about Jews and Judaism. Bearing Witness also educates Catholic school teachers about the vibrant history and culture of the Jewish people and is designed with the following goals in mind:
- To examine some of the more sensitive, complex and painful issues in Jewish experience, Catholic-Jewish relations and modern history.
- To consider sensitive topics such as anti-Semitism, the role of the Church in the Holocaust and current expressions of hatred towards Jews and Judaism
- To provide Catholic school educators with strategies and resources necessary to implement and teach their students about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.
- To foster a partnership, a sense of understanding, and a connectedness between the Jewish and Catholic communities that had previously not been known.
- To appreciate the connectedness between the Jewish people and the land of Israel and to understand the land of Israel.
The Bearing Witness™ Program was recognized by NCEA as a SPICE program (Selected Programs for Improving Catholic Education). The New York Regional Institute is open to teachers from New York State, Connecticut, and northern New Jersey and is undertaken in partnership with the New York archdiocese and the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Funding for this program is generously provided by Erwin and Sandra Pearl.
Applications for the Bearing Witness Institute are available every spring; contact us to learn more and receive an application.
“Every teacher who participates in this program, I am confident, will bring back to his/her school a wealth of insight and will, as well, be ready to help deepen the friendship that continues to grow between Catholics and Jews everywhere, one that has been particularly radiant here in the archdiocese for years.”
–Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York