Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) hosted a group of 15 students from a local TDSB high school for an impromptu program today.  The students were in Grades 11 and 12 and looking at career options.  The students were attending a career fair later in the day, but stopped by FSWC to learn about the non-profit world. FSWC Director of Education, Melissa, divided the hour she had with them in half – the first half consisted of an introduction to Simon Wiesenthal, along with some activities that addressed racism and antisemitism in a Canadian context.  The second half of the program was speaking about FSWC and the non-profit sector as a career option:  different roles, academic requirements, etc.  

The students were engaged throughout the program – answering questions, asking questions and generally showing a keen interest in both the content as well as the non-profit world as a career choice.  Melissa saved 10 minutes at the end for the students to look around the centre and to ask questions one-on-one if they chose. Several students asked about books to read to build on their learning about the Holocaust.  Two of the students asked if they could speak to other staff members about their experiences at FSWC. One student voiced his interest in being a part of a non-profit as he believed in the importance of giving back.  He commended FSWC for the great work they were doing and stated, “I hope I can be a part of the ‘big picture’ creating good in this world.”

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The Tour for Humanity was also on the road today in North York. FSWC Educator Elena taught 4 workshops: 2 Simon's Story workshops and 2 workshops that took elements from both Simon's Story and the Canadian Experience for their gifted Grade 6 classes. Our 2-day visit (we are returning tomorrow), was made possible through the efforts of one parent who first heard about the program through the special presentation given by a student, Ariella, last spring for Project Give Back! The parent sat in on the first workshop of the day and was very pleased with the program she saw and the impact it had on the students.

The day was filled with interesting comments and questions. Many students were anxious to share the stories they had heard within their own family about the Holocaust and their Bubbes and Zaydes survival during World War II. There were also a lot of questions about World War II itself and how certain countries were able to stay "neutral" while all of the other countries in the surrounding area were occupied by the Nazis. One young man wanted to know why America stayed neutral for the first couple years of the war and rightfully pointed out that they only joined in because they were attacked by Japan (Elena explained the development of events in 1941-42). Another student asked about Ireland's neutrality during World War II which was a little trickier to explain. Elena told the group that Ireland felt like they were bullied by the English throughout their history so the Irish were resistant to getting involved because of this long-standing tension. Another very insightful question Elena had came from one of the gifted students in Grade 6 - he wanted to know where the concept of antisemitism came from. He saw it as a type of racism, but was curious as to why only Jewish people have a special word for hatred directed against them. Elena pointed out that Jewish identity is a complicated mix of religion, history and ethnicity which makes hatred of Jews a little different than racism. Elena also explained that antisemitism is actually a lot older than any other type of racism that exists today. One thousand years ago, racism as a concept didn't exist and people didn't talk about separate races of people based on Atlantic slavery and differences of skin colour, etc. The word antisemitism is a recent invention but the sentiment behind it is truly ancient.