Today Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) hosted a group of Grade 10 English students from a high school in Brampton for a Roots of Hate and Intolerance workshop.  The students had all just finished reading Elie Wiesel’s Night. The students were all quite familiar with both the Holocaust and issues of racism and antisemitism in Canadian history, but the current day component is where they were able to offer commentary and opinions. FSWC Educator Daniella discussed the fact that most hate crimes go unreported, so the actual statistic of under 1,500 hate crimes for a country of 35 million is very misleading. When Daniella asked the students if based on percentage and statistics, it seemed that hate crimes were a problem, one student commented that, “Even one is too many and its always a problem” – which Daniella really appreciated. 

Additionally, during the “Stand Up” activity, students are forced to come to terms with the fact that their peers also face discrimination. One particular instance occurred during the question of “Stand up if you’ve ever been the target of racial discrimination” – and more than half the group stood up. During the debrief, when Daniella asked the class if anyone was surprised by the number of their classmates standing, the general consensus was, “no”. Even one of the teachers commented that this was “their reality”. Daniella suddenly found herself in the middle of an important teaching moment. She digressed from the planned workshop and had an in-depth discussion with the class on ways that they could change the conversation and stop discrimination from being part of their daily lives. Daniella felt like it was quite a meaningful day.  She was also thrilled to learn that the students had decided to pool their own money to make a donation, which will be mailed to FSWC later this week.   

Tour for Humanity continued its travels on the road in a small town near Windsor. Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) Educator Elena taught 4 workshops to Grade 12 students about the Holocaust and other genocides of the 20th century. It was another great day with very receptive students. The LaSalle area is very rural community with little of the racial and cultural diversity we typically see in Toronto-area schools.

Students in the social justice program were surprised to learn that the Holocaust had such a significant impact on our modern understanding of human rights. There were some questions about the life of Raphael Lemkin, the Polish-Jewish lawyer who coined the term "genocide" during the Holocaust. Although the student population was largely white, there were still some very interesting personal connections to some of the genocides we talked about over the course of the day. One of the teachers who came with students in the afternoon shared his own experience with the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s. He was a boy while this genocide was happening and his church sponsored a Cambodian family. He still remembers the harrowing story the family shared about fleeing through Cambodia and into Vietnam. From there, they took a 7-month boat ride across the Pacific Ocean to Canada, travelling only in the darkness of night. There was also a girl in the last group of the day that shared with us that her priest is a survivor of the Rwandan genocide.