EMSB gets a boost from Federation CJA for Holocaust Education Program

The English Montreal School Board, Quebec’s largest English public school board, will be able to continue and enhance its
Holocaust Education Program thanks to a generous contribution from Federation CJA.

In 2022-23, the EMSB introduced this program after receiving a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal. This enabled the EMSB to send many students to visit the Montreal Holocaust Museum, engage with survivors and have guest speakers come to their schools. Students have subsequently been sensitized to the true story of the Holocaust and the evils of antisemitism.

Last year the EMSB relied upon private donations to continue school visits, but most of this support was promised as one-time contributions only.  The EMSB Council of Commissioners also adopted resolutions calling for Holocaust and genocide education to become mandatory. EMSB Chair Joe Ortona and members of the Council followed this up with a visit and tour of the Montreal Holocaust Museum.

“Given the climate of antisemitism in the world and Montreal at this time, we believe this an opportune moment to ensure that high school students in particularly are properly educated about what happened in the Holocaust and the roots of antisemitism,” said Federation CJA President and CEO Yair Szlak.

Mr. Ortona said that the EMSB wishes to be proactive on this dossier. “While we certainly hope that Quebec will follow the lead of other provinces and make Holocaust education mandatory in our schools, we do not wish to wait,” he said. “The time for action is now. I have heard from many of the students and staff who have visited the Museum and spoken to survivors. Most of them are not Jewish and have not been exposed to this subject. It had a tremendous impact, and I know this will follow them after their high school days are behind them.

“As Holocaust survivors age and pass away,” added EMSB Director General Nick Katalifos, “it is more important than ever that the education system play an increasingly important role.”

The EMSB first received a small grant for Holocaust Education in 2004 from the JCF. Working with Personal Development and Community Involvement Service Animators, some programming was coordinated. In 2006, the EMSB engaged in a fundraising campaign to honour the memory of Giovanni Palatucci, an Italian policeman who was arrested and died in Dachau for his anti-Nazi activities.  Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial, had named him a Righteous Among the Nations, for rescuing Jews. The EMSB placed a plaque at the Wagar Adult Education Centre, as well as a large-scale ceremony/lecture and arranged exchanges between students at Bialik High School in Côte Saint-Luc and Laurier Macdonald High School in St. Leonard.

For several years the EMSB worked with the Riva and Thomas O. Hecht, Teaching of the Holocaust for Educators Programs, during which time teachers were awarded scholarships to study the Holocaust in Jerusalem and Washington and then integrate that experience into their classroom curriculums.

The EMSB has declared May as Jewish Heritage Month and works directly with the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program to also bring the topic of the Holocaust to classrooms across the network.

 About the English Montreal School Board
With a youth and adult sector population of more than 35,000 students, the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) is the largest English public school board in Quebec. Established on July 1, 1998, when the province created new boards along linguistic lines, the EMSB network consists of 73 schools and centres. For more details, visit the EMSB website at www.emsb.qc.ca

 About Federation CJA:
For more than one hundred years, Federation CJA has been at the heart of the organized Jewish community in Montreal. In partnership with a vast network of agencies and organizations locally, nationally, and internationally, Federation CJA builds and sustains this community by providing leadership and by supporting the delivery of services and programs to care for the vulnerable and those in need, to ensure a bright Jewish future, to represent communal interests, and to positively affect issues in the wider society.