Finding methods to fight intolerance

As the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles each year, educators are now looking for methods other than first-hand accounts to relate the mass genocide to future generations. One such educator, Eastern Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rhonda Barad, discussed the importance of film in capturing the horrors of the Holocaust before a crowd of about 25 Penn students on Monday. Barad offered students participating in the "Future of Holocaust Commemoration in the New Millennium" lecture series an insight into a modern group striving to stamp out the sentiments of intolerance. Founded in 1977, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is an organization designed to combat hatred and anti-Semitism internationally. The group has produced many acclaimed documentaries and has received two Academy Awards in the past 20 years -- one for the 1981 movie Genocide and another one just two years ago for The Long Way Home. During the lecture, Barad showed clips from this most recent production, which is an account of the formation of the state of Israel in the aftermath of World War II. However, the Wiesenthal Center's campaign against hatred extends much farther than the cinema. One of its most recent concerns, in fact, is the growth of hate-related sites on the Internet. "When the Oklahoma City bombing happened, there wasn't one hate site on the Internet," Barad said. "Today, there are over 2,400." Another project of the Wiesenthal Center has been the construction of the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. The museum is divided into two parts, one which explores the Holocaust and the other which focuses on other issues of hate and intolerance in the 20th century. Furthermore, the museum helps educate groups ranging from law enforcement officials to educators on issues pertaining to racism, hatred and intolerance. Even the federal government has turned to them for help educating their employees. "The military has just requested that we do workshops for them every six weeks," Barad said. Barad discussed the continuing importance of the memory of the Holocaust in fighting the forces of hate. "Every Jew, every person, should see Auschwitz," she said. Seymour Mayer, who is originally from Transylvania and is a survivor of the Nazi death camps, was the sole Holocaust survivor in attendance. "It's beautiful to see young men and women listening to you," he told Barad. Then, turning to address the students, Mayer offered words of encouragement to the audience members -- almost all who are several generations removed from the Holocaust. "As young Americans, you should be very proud of your parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, because without them I would not be here?. You have the opportunity like it's never been to make the world better," Mayer said. The lecture series, sponsored by the Jewish Renaissance Project and coordinated by College juniors Cory Perlstein and Ariel Groveman, examines the ways in which the issues of the Holocaust can be taught and remembered in the coming years. Speaking of Barad's lecture, Groveman said, "She presented us with what Simon Wiesenthal is involved in, focusing in on film, and this group left with a much greater understanding of the role of film and documentary in Holocaust commemoration."