HMTC, the leading Holocaust education center on Long Island, has created the Irving Roth Professional Development Center as a way to honor the memory of Holocaust Survivor Irving Roth and to sustain his efforts to help teachers improve Holocaust education in public school classrooms across Long Island and the nation.

HMTC’s Irving Roth Professional Development Center offers CTLE accredited trainings for middle and high school teachers and librarians with the aim of improving Holocaust education, combatting racism and prejudice, and providing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training. 

The professional development center provides:

• Multi-day educational conferences and meetings both in-person and virtually, structured with workshops, lectures, museum exploration, and survivor testimony

• Mentoring for new and seasoned teachers of Holocaust history, genocide prevention, and DEI topics, providing ongoing educational opportunities to hone their teaching and broaden their network of educators

• A central hub for HMTC’s Long Island Holocaust Teachers Network which connects and supports local teachers as they provide Holocaust education to their students across Long Island and further afield

Save the Date – June 27- 29, 2022

HMTC is opening the Irving Roth Professional Development Center with a three-day teacher training in June 2022 called “Through the Eyes of Survivors” that includes 12 hours of CTLE credits.

• Work with scholars to deepen your knowledge of Holocaust history

• Explore objects and images from HMTC’s collection

• Get resources and tools to integrate Survivor stories into your classroom

• Meet with other Long Island teachers who teach the Holocaust

• Join HMTC’s Long Island Holocaust Teachers Network

Fee for the three-day program: $75.00
Application Deadline: March 1, 2022

The Need for Teacher Training

The need for improved Holocaust education has never been greater. A recent study found that:

• 63% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 39 did not know that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, and over half of those thought the death toll was fewer than two million. 

• Nearly half of U.S. respondents could not name a single one of the more than 40,000 Nazi concentration camps. 

• Half of those surveyed had seen Holocaust denial or distortion posts on social media or elsewhere online.

Although New York and many other states mandate that some sort of Holocaust education is included in the school curriculum, there is little in the way of guidance. Teachers need more tools and resources to teach this powerful history. HMTC’s Irving Roth Professional Development Center fills this void, drawing from Irving Roth’s approach to give teachers primary sources, lesson plans, historical context, and an educational network to ensure they have the support they need to teach this history in an era of rising antisemitism. 

With your help, this new Professional Development Center will both honor Irving Roth and sustain his educational mission for generations to come.