CHARLOTTE MASSEY
in
jews
the d
on the cover
Meeting
the
Challenge
Ruth Bergman heads HMC’s
educational efforts to reach
more students and teachers.
KERI GUTEN COHEN STORY DEVELOPMENT EDITOR
F
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER
or the first time in its 36-year history, the
Holocaust Memorial Center (HMC) in
Farmington Hills has a full-time director of edu-
cation.
Ruth Bergman, a well-respected local educator and
daughter of Holocaust survivors, came on board June
18 and has been building upon educa-
tional changes started two years ago when
Gov. Rick Synder approved Public Act
170, which requires a total of six hours of
instruction about genocide, including the
Holocaust and Armenian genocide, for
every Michigan public school student in
Ruth Bergman
grades 8-12.
The state’s educational requirement dovetails perfect-
ly with the HMC’s succinct mission: to engage, educate
and empower by remembering the Holocaust. It also
means that school tours to the HMC will
increase and that thousands of social
studies or history teachers statewide will
need to be trained to teach Holocaust and
genocide units to their students.
“We want to be seen as the nexus of
PA 170,” said Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld, HMC
executive director. “We are trying to part-
Rabbi Eli
ner with educators and we want this to be
Mayerfeld
ongoing relations.”
Consultant Robin Axelrod of Ann Arbor was hired
five years ago when the HMC received one of the
saplings from the original Anne Frank tree. After that
“year of Anne Frank,” she stayed on as part-time direc-
tor of education tasked with building an education
department, which has grown to 10 full- and part-time
employees.
When PA 170 was approved, the team worked on
meeting this challenge by examining how tours are con-
continued on page 16
14
November 8 • 2018
jn
Docent Michael Leibson leads a tour with Temple Israel students.