Advanced seminar teaches the teachers about the Holocaust

The West Orange based Jewish Foundation for the Righteous recently had its annual Advanced Seminar at the Hilton Newark Airport.

The JFR selected 21 middle and high school teachers and Holocaust center staff from five states to participate in its 2025 Advanced Seminar—an intensive two-day academic program that explores several topics addressing the history of the Holocaust and past and current antisemitism.

The Advanced Seminar is an intensive graduate-level program in which a select group of educators who are already well versed in Holocaust history are given the opportunity to study more focused topics relating to the Holocaust and antisemitism from world-renowned lecturers.

This year’s program included an in-depth study of the reaction and role of the United States in the Holocaust. Lecturers focused on American business partnerships with Nazi corporations, the Jewish refugee crisis, the U.S. reaction to the Nazi’s “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” the intersection of the contemporary American pop culture and film to the Holocaust and antisemitism in the United States between 1933 and 1945.

Speakers included Professor Emeritus Peter Hayes of Northwestern University, Professor Daniel Greene of Northwestern University, and Professor Thomas Doherty of Brandeis University.

“The readings were excellent,” said Stanlee Stahl, executive vice president of JFR for more than 32 years and a West Orange resident.

Stahl felt that the intersection of Hollywood, the Nazis and antisemitism was one of the takeaways of the seminar.

“Many of the studios were founded by Jewish men,” she said. “However, the Hollywood Production Code board were men who were not Jewish. You couldn’t get a movie into the theaters unless you got a seal from the control board. The decision was that nobody should say anything bad about any country. In the 1930s it was not Hollywood’s responsibility. We will not do anything negative about another country. We do not get involved in country politics. When Hitler came to power there were very few movies that were anti-Hitler.”

Stahl said that the speakers went deeper into history and the reality of that time.

The JFR was founded around 1988, and she came onboard in 1992. They are a non-profit located in West Orange. The JFR provides monthly financial assistance to aged and needy Righteous Gentiles, non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

The majority of the 83 rescuers receiving financial support live in 10 Eastern Europe countries, with Poland having the largest number of rescuers. Since its founding, the JFR has provided more than $45 million to aged and needy rescuers.

Its Holocaust teacher education program has become a standard for teaching the history of the Holocaust and educating teachers and students about the significance of the Righteous as moral and ethical examples.

To learn more about the JRF, visit: https://www.jfr.org/.

  Advance Seminar, Holocaust, West Orange