The Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County Inc

I am a School Social Worker in an elementary school and the Center's volunteers came to run two programs for my 4th and 5th graders. The program was very beneficial to our 4th and 5th graders to learn about bullying and to see the connection to the Holocaust. The most important piece is to change the bystander into an upstander!!!

As Vice Chair of the HMTC, I am very proud to recommend a visit to our center and a visit our website to learn about us and our important mission.

In volunteering at the Holocaust Memorial, I was able to observe and take part in some of the most altruistic work I had yet seen. The commitment of those who work there towards the education of young people about discrimination and injustice is paralleled only by their kindness and openness towards newcomers. They take their positions very seriously-- with enthusiasm and dedication to they work. I truly believe this is a wonderful organization.

I bring classes of college student to HMTC for a required visit to a Holocaust museum or memorial. The tours that have been led by Dr. Sarah Cushman are EXCELLENT and highly appropriate for my students. I have had very unpleasant experiences at larger museums where the docents are more familiar with younger students. I always receive positive feedback from my students who are further enlightened even after the mid-point of the semester studying the Holocaust.

I have also personally benefited by attending excellent educator and special event programs at the HMTC.

Because of this wonderful institution, I have learned so much about the struggles faced by so many innocent people during this horrific time of history. When I say that is changed my life, I am not exaggerating at all. Walking through its halls, listening to the survivors tell their inspiring stories, and feeling the presence of the spirits of those who perished so needlessly has made me even more sensitive to bias, racism, and intolerance. The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center has inspired me to share their message of peace and tolerance with my students.

Volunteering at the Center for the last three years has been an incredible experience of community, education and personal growth. I have had the great pleasure of working with and learning from volunteers, professional staff, visitors and students. There has never been a day spent there that has not exposed me to a new experience, relationship or learning.

Being a part of this organization has been so gratifying. The work of educating students about the Holocaust as it relates to their world; seeing them respond to the testimony of Survivors, hearing their comments about how they relate the lessons of the Holocaust to the occurrence of bullying in their schools, is a powerful experience for everyone involved.

I am a Holocaust survivor and volunteer sharing my experiences via video conferences to students of all ages to all parts of the country, as well as canada and even overseas. The Glen Cove Holocaust Museum and Tolerance Center, carefully plans and coordinates thes events so that everything runs smoothly. The adminstrators-Drs. sarah cushman and Beth Lilach and other staff members as well as volunteers make it happen so that everything is running smoothly and successfully. The feed back from students and teachers is very appreciative. Everyone works tirelessly and with a great deal of devotion and enthusiasm. I LOVE being a volunteer there!

I have been an educator for 30 years. The Nassau County Holocaust and Tolerance Center has been a part of my life for at least 15 years. I have been a part of the center's educational programs and have brought my classes there as well as participated in their literary competitions. I am now in retirement an active member of the Educaional advisory committee and my husband and I both volunteer for all programs at the center. When I am at the center I feel terrific about the mission and dedication of this wonderful center. It is imperative in our world of intolerance today to honor the center.

I have been working at The Holocaust and Tolerance Center of Nassau County for the past three years. It has been an extremely rewarding experience. I take children from fifth grade to high school as well as adults through the museum to teach them about The Holocaust. I also teach anti bullying classes to grades four through high school which has been a very rewarding experience for me. I have had the privilege of meeting and listening to the testimony of survivors of The Holocaust as well. Doing this has made me a better person.

I have been involved with the HMTC for over 10 years and the work that is done there is amazing. I am a child of Holocaust survivors and the Center makes it possible for me to carry on my parents' stories to help promote tolerance and acceptance of all people. The students learn how little acts of prejudice and bullying can mushroom into something as horrific as the Holocaust. The students really respond to all of the survivors' testimonies and the museum tours and it makes it real to them. I have had students tell me that they were going to try to be upstanders when faced with a choice of doing the right thing when someone else is in trouble. It is extremely rewarding work.

An organization that is defined by it's name. The preeminent resource and research institution on Long Island for Holocaust education is more importantly a place where children can learn to become better human beings. What more contribution can a learning institution claim?

The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center promotes tolerance and acceptance by reminding us to "never forget" the lessons of the Holocaust. Its exhibits serve as a powerful testimony to the fact that bullying is on the same "spectrum of intolerance" as genocide. The Center's staff, as well as its devoted group of volunteers, works tirelessly to educate the public about the necessity of standing up to injustice. Not only that, the Holocaust Center allows the public to experience firsthand the stories of those who survived the Holocaust. This will be the last generation to be able to listen to these stories directly from those who tell them, and the Holocaust Center is doing a fabulous job of recording those stories for posterity. I strongly urge all who are fortunate enough to live locally to visit this outstanding center to do so.

i have worked as an educator at the center for 16 years. visitors of all ages, from middle school students to senior citizens, are inspired by our museum. the exhibits are community based. they tell the stories of families who built new lives for themselves on long island after the holocaust. we use pictures and video testimony to establish personal connections between our survivors, their families, and our guests. all walk away with an emotional experience that inspires them to fight intolerance in their communities. our family of volunteers takes pride in our work.

I will never forget the first day I walked into the center. I was asked to sit in on a class of 9th graders. A rowdy group of kids file in. In walks and old man who introduces himself by name, age, and then states "I am a Holocaust survivor of Auschwitz" as he walks, he pull up his sleeve, showing his Numbered tattoo. He continued "I lost my mother, my father, all my sisters and brothers." He had there attention. For the next 2 hours, This survivor went on two tracks back and forth. He went over point by point each act of discrimination, leading to each act of crime against humanity. He went on to explain how how each Nazi action dehumanized there victims. At the same time, he explained what happened to his family step by step chronologically, thru his liberation. As may be expected. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. It was the next part of his presentation that blew me away. He said "now if all i accomplished today was to tell you how rough it was for me growing up, I wasted your time." You see my goal is to prevent this horror from ever happening again. To do this, you need to understand how this happened. Not everyone in Germany bought into the Nazi propaganda, There was 5% of the German population that were firm in there Nazi beliefs. They hated me for who i was. And I'm sure just like then, there could be 5% of you here today that hate me purely out of pregidous. For you, my story meant nothing, and im sure your ready to come at me again. All you need to know is that this time I'm ready. Also in Germany, there was 5% of the population that fought the Nazis. That tried to save us. But they simply couldn't overcome the Nazi hate. I am sure that there are 5% of you here, that before you came in today would always stand up for whats right. You didn't need to hear my talk today, but I'm Glad you did. Then came the people that let it happen. The 90% of the German population that stood by and did nothing while all these atrocities took place. They were bystanders to the worst crime in human history. Today, I'm here to talk to you. If you learned anything today Don't be a bystander. Don't let people bully your classmates in front of you. Don't let people make racial comments in front of you. Don't let someone be left out of the group in front of you. Don't let people go hungry in front of you. Don't be a bystander to the ways of the world. Be an upstander. Stand up for whats right. Stand up for those that can not stand alone by themselves. For that 90% I am here to educate you. That day the center changed many lives. And its done the same thing for thousands of kids each year since. Teaching people to stand up and make the world better. i cant think of a more important cause.

A place to remember and chronicle history, educate and teach, and most importantly for me to contemplate and come to terms with intolerance and tolerance. Staffed by caring, accepting, and proactive survivors, volunteers, and staff the Center exudes a determined purpose and mission in teaching the lessons of the Holocaust. What a special place to visit, immerse yourself in, and be a part of.

I am a survivor and volunteer at The Hlocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County. I find this an amazing place because they reach so many different kind of audiences--students of all denominations and from various locations and even all around the U.S. and even the world via video conferences, which I especially enjoy paricipating in because we reach so many students this way. The center has many interesting and various activitiies in teaching not only about the Holocaust but also about bullying and discrimination. The staff consists of people who set an example for understanding and tolerance. They are a most dedicated group of people I have ever encountered. They are certainly worthy of the highest recognition and honour for theirwork! Lily perry

I have been with this center as a volunteer about 10 years. It is simply a wonderful interactive engaging museum withe latest technology. It reminds people of all backgrounds about the horrors of the Holocaust and then helps people to understand about bullying particularly children but also adults .They have many different programs for the general public with excellently trained docents. It is a museum with a heart and soul. I don,t think anyone who enters its doors walks out without feeling tremendous emotion and many ideas to provoke their feelings and attitudes about treating people kindly instead of perhaps negative comments or actions. I highly recommend seeing this museum. It is no other. I have seen this museum grow into a top rated scholarly institution and it is an honor to have it on Long Island. It is run very professionally by noted scholars of the Holocaust and genocide. I give it an APlus. Louise Bobrow

A unique institution of memory and education dedicated to teaching the lessons of the Holocaust. With survivors and their descendants as speakers, a superb educational staff, state of the art exhibits, and hands on workshops, the work of promoting tolerance for all and combatting indifference continues daily for thousands of children and adults. Don't miss it!

The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center uses the lessons of the Holocaust to teach the importance of being vigilant.to acts of intolerance, hatred, and bullying. The Center's remarkable Holocaust and Tolerance workshops educate middle and high school students to become "up standees" rather than bystanders when they witness acts of bullying and intolerance. The Center also works with law enforcement t personnel in Nassau and Suffolk counties to demonstrate how intolerant behavior can impact the communities they serve. Workshops with employees of the.North Shore/Long Island Jewish Health System create an awareness of behaviors that could impede the proper care of patients while encouraging a more productive and harmonious workplace environment. The Center offers videoconferencing workshops which reach students all over the United States. Curriculum trunks are leant to schools to enhance lessons. I am endlessly inspired by hearing the stories of Holocaust survivors, and hope that I can carry their messages of tolerance as I go about my daily activities.

Thousands of young people are exposed to the importance of diversity and acceptance of others' values and validity. The Center gives students hands-on activities in tolerating and accepting others. It also hs a superb museum which educated visitors about the horrors of the Holocaust - it rejects any notion of holocaust denial. Law enforcement and hospital personnel are also exposed to programs which are directed at improving their relationships with increasingly divers communities and cultures. it is the only holistic diversity education center on Long Island, a community which contains millions of people, with varying degrees of knowledge about their neighboring comminities.

This Center not only focuses on making sure the Holocaust is never forgotten but goes a step further to teach tolerance in the schools so that bullying and anger can be avoided. The Center is constantly providing opportunities for learning and growth, everyone there works so hard. The administrators are extremely learned and open-minded. It's a fantastic facility!

Let me first start out by saying that the wonderful thing about the HMTC is that they always stay in constant contact with me, year to year. In the beginning, I assumed I'd get the "freebie" offer, and then never hear from them again. Like clockwork, every year they extend an invite, with a seamless reservation process. The accommodate larger group sizes just to make sure we are able to attend. They even send us buses because we are the New York City and they are in Nassau County. It's a dream come true for teachers and students here at the Louis Armstrong Middle School. Now on to the actual day of the trip. Every year I bring my sixth graders. They enter the grounds as one type of child and leave a completely new one. The amount and the depth of knowledge, history, and overall humanitarian awareness is so precise and well thought out, it would take days, if not weeks, to get all of that in a classroom. Yet the staff and the volunteers (some are survivors as well) are able to convey such a powerful message in a full days workshop. The amount of empathy, sympathy, and acceptance for the people and the world around them skyrockets in just a few hours. The content is depressing, and uplifting and motivational at the same time. It puts perspective into every student's lives. And the teachers are at no loss either. Add on our WWII content, as well as survivor/author visits that have throughout the year, and this trip fits in perfectly. It has to be my favorite trip. I look forward to this trip every single year. Here's hoping that the HMTC is around for many years to come.

The Tolerance Center is a meaningful addition to museums in Nassau County.It provides programs and lectures that are relevant to the youth of today and to remind us of the atrocities of the past. What is also extremely important to me as an educator, are the lectures and discussions made available. I take advantage of the wonderful speakers that are always willing to provide.

The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County is a most unique place that is truly defined by its name. The Center is a world class museum that is dedicated to preserving the memories of those who perished during the abysmal chapter of world history and to the teaching of the horrific events of that period. It is also a place where the survivors and their stories and their successes are honored. But a most important and vital function of the Center is through its education department, reaching out to school-age children on many levels and to various service groups within the community. Original workshops and educational programs are created incorporating the lessons gleaned from the Holocaust and applying them to the unbridled prejudices facing society today. Each of these programs have a goal of teaching tolerance. The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County is an impressive and outstanding forum for teaching respect, remembrance and tolerance!

I am a social studies teacher and I really appreciate that the Holocaust museuem gives free tours with highly knoweldgable staff. You can meet with a staff member and create your visit (lesson) to enhance the learning objectives for students.

This is a wonderful organization that provides students with the opportunity to hear first hand accounts of the terrible events of the Holocaust. It is extremely important as this is the last generation that will be able to hear these amazing stories first hand!

The Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center uses the lessons of the Holocaust to combat intolerance, hatred, and bullying. It is a wonderful organization that teaches young people, especially, to become "up standers" rather than bystanders when they witness acts of bullying. They learn valuable strategies by participating in the Center's Tolerance Workshops which are offered to schools free of charge! It is extremely rewarding for me as a volunteer to see the impact that these lessons have.