metro
Teaching Tolerance
HMC and EMU team to host
annual teachers' seminar.
Mike ingberg
Special to the Jewish News
I
n a society that guarantees free speech,
the door is wide open for various kinds
of extremism that, in turn, can breed
intolerance.
The Holocaust Memorial Center
Zekelman Family Campus in Farmington
Hills and Eastern Michigan University
showed 25 teachers how to identify and
confront these issues in their classrooms
during its third annual Teachers Seminar, a
professional development series for educa-
tors that was held in mid-August.
This year's event focused on "Children
and the Holocaust" and featured professors
from several universities, including EMU,
University of Michigan-Dearborn, Bowling
Green State and Grand Valley State. Topics
ranged from hate speech in cyberspace
to genocide and selecting literature about
the Holocaust for middle- and high-school
classrooms.
"The Holocaust provides the greatest test
case in which a majority population turned
on a vulnerable minority, to the point of
genocide," said Martin Shichtman, Ph.D.,
EMU's director of Jewish Studies, a co-orga-
nizer of the seminar. "These presentations
are designed to help teachers understand
when intolerance happens, learn how to
confront it and attempt to put the situation
right"
Participants gained access to the vast pri-
mary resources from the museum's library
and archive to aid them in the development
of their own classroom lessons. Perhaps the
most memorable, powerful and impact-
ful moments of the week came when
these teachers had the opportunity to hear
Holocaust experiences firsthand from local
survivors.
"In addition to the benefits of what these
teachers are learning and how to apply this
knowledge to their classroom, it is their
interaction and one-on-one discussions
with the survivors where they find them-
selves growing as people to gain an under-
standing of these issues," said Staunton, an
English professor at EMU.
While some attendees came many miles
to participate, Hungarian secondary school
teachers Vodli Zsolt and Istvan Banki made
Teachers at the seminar: (standing) Istvan Banki, Hungary; Altin Zaloshnja, Utica
Learning Academy; (seated) Vodli Zsolt, Hungary; Dawn Somerville, Macomb
Juvenile Center School; and Ben Crampton, Lakeville Community Schools.
the longest trek. The duo earned their way
to the seminar after winning a competition
judged by the U.S. Embassy and Hungary's
Education Ministry. Both found the experi-
ence interesting and useful, and enjoyed
having the opportunity to speak with pre-
senters, survivors and fellow teachers.
"This is our first time in the United
States, and we have never been to such a
seminar," said Zsolt. "I am learning a lot of
things I never knew befor'
Plans already are developing for the 2013
Teachers Seminar. In addition to develop-
ing the curriculum, there is talk about add-
ing a second session because of this year's
high demand.
"The fact we needed to add a waiting
list is proof of the growing success of this
event," said Rebecca Swindler, HMC direc-
tor of programs. "Adding a second session
is not out of the question, but we would
need assistance in the form of a sponsor
or grant.
"Hosting these summer Teacher
Seminars is a positive chapter in the
Holocaust Memorial Center's history. We
are changing quickly as we grow and con-
tinue to introduce new educational oppor-
tunities."
Terror-Free Investing
New investment tool available on most brokerage platforms.
E
interests.
mpowerment Financial, a
"Relying solely on politicians and the
Scottsdale, Ariz.-based investment
U.N. alone likely won't accomplish the
firm, has come up with a new
ultimate goal [of stopping Iran's nuclear
financial tool to fight terror: The Patriot
ambitions]," Langerman says. He believes
Fund, a terror-free mutual fund available
that an investor-driven movement can
now on most brokerage platforms.
encourage public firms to
"This gives us a different
freeze their activities and
platform to reach people,"
withdraw from sanctioned
said Mark Langerman of
countries until they cease sup-
Empowerment Financial,
porting terrorism and build-
whose previous terror-free
ing weapons of mass destruc-
fund was available only
tion, and damage the econo-
through his company.
mies of sanctioned countries
What terror-free means
in order to leverage behavioral
is that the fund does not
changes by their governments.
invest in any companies that
"Bottom-line: We believe
do business with nations
that Iran would not be as
identified by the U.S. State
far along in their nuclear
Department as state spon-
Mark Lange rman
program today had terror-
sors of terror, such as Iran,
free investing been a prior-
Syria and North Korea.
ity of investors years ago,"
Langerman thinks the
Langerman says. "If these objectives seem
fund will look especially attractive to the
familiar, it's probably because they are
Jewish community, which is increasingly
similar to the highly successful divest-
confronted by the fact that public corn-
ment campaign in South Africa in the
panies continue to do business with Iran
1980s. This is when millions of outraged
and other countries that threaten Israel's
Americans succeeded in bringing about a
and, indeed, America's own vital security
22
October 11 « 2012
singular achievement — ending the coun-
try's racist apartheid policy. There is little
debate as to how this was accomplished.
Where decades of international sanctions,
public condemnation and diplomacy fell
short, a nationwide American divestment
campaign triumphed."
The U.S. government has maintained
various sanctions involving Iran since as
early as 1984, when it was first designated
as a state sponsor of terror.
"These sanctions alone aren't enough.
In order to achieve the desired outcome,
we believe that government action must
be coupled with a divestment campaign
via terror-free investing;' he added. "That
is precisely why the Patriot Fund was
launched — to provide all investors the
ability to starve Iran and the terrorist
organizations it supports of funding and
resources."
As the movement progresses and inves-
tor assets in terror-free strategies increase,
Langerman explains, public companies
that are excluded from these terror-free
portfolios will lose access to a significant
amount of investor capital.
As of March 31, 2012, there were 657
companies globally that had active busi-
ness ties with Iran, Syria, Sudan or North
Korea — 11 percent of the S & P 500,
according to Langerman.
"The significance of that to me is that,
despite sanctions and all the rhetoric,
Iran's still getting what they need to build
a nuclear program and sponsor terror-
ism," he says.
The Patriot Fund, a terror-screened
mutual fund of large-cap U.S. equities,
enables individual investors to purge
their portfolios by removing companies
operating in nations designated as state
sponsors of terrorism and replacing them
with comparable companies/baskets of
companies offering similar or perhaps
greater potential.
According to Empowerment Financial,
a terror-free portfolio has outperformed
its non-terror-free counterpart five of the
last eight years.
"That's one of our strongest points
when talking to people about investing
terror-free, that they can make a differ-
ence and help fight terrorism while still
doing well financially for their families,"
Langerman says.