The Partnership 2000 communities of Louisville/Canton-Western Galilee, Boston-Haifa, Los Angeles-Tel Aviv, and Bergen-North Hudson, NJ-Naharyiah, are sponsoring several of their local schools in the International Book-Sharing Project, an educational program that pairs 50 public, Jewish and Catholic school classrooms with Israeli schools in the study and discussion of age-appropriate Holocaust literature over the Internet. More than 3,000 middle and high school students now participate in this multi-cultural study program, directed by The American Friends of the Ghetto Fighters' Museum, and entering its ninth year.

Alan Engel, Executive Director and P2K spokesman at the Louisville Federation, said, "The Project has had a tremendous impact on the students. It has served a real positive community relations component with the youth and they in turn have been able to communicate to their families what they have learned and what the Holocaust is about -- the whole issue of diversity has been served well."

The Project is coordinated by a team of American and Israeli educators who mentor teachers and oversee communications between students through the Project's "Virtual School," http://www.korczakschool.org . This website is named after the famed Polish Jewish educator, Janusz Korczak, who perished with 200 of his young wards in Treblinka.

Social Studies teacher Shannon Murphy, at Central High School in Louisville, KY, said, "The dialogue on the Korczak School Website has been great and the readings from the study of Elie Wiesel's book, 'Night,' have fostered many wonderful class discussions."

"One of the challenges for us is to find a common topic that students both here and in Haifa can discuss and share their own perspectives," Education Consultant for the Bureau of Jewish Education in Boston, Judy Avnery, Ed.D., commented. Avnery said that the Book-Sharing Project provides that and creates personal friendships that go way beyond the Project itself, along with helping to integrate Judaic and secular studies.

"The students enjoy going on-line to read the group letters of their partners in Israel," Project teacher at The Jewish Community Day School in Newton, MA, Shira Deener, said, "and to put a face to the words on a computer screen, we have sent digital pictures of my class to the Ahuza Zichron Yosef school in Haifa.

The International Book-Sharing Project has grown steadily since its inception in 1995. With the continued support of P2K communities, private donors and public foundations, this joint study by students from different cultures via the Internet promises to continue as a successful method to sensitively teach and learn the lessons of the Holocaust and the importance of tolerance. For more information, please contact Linda Ripps, Project Director, 201-833-5040, or linda@friendsofgfh.org .

Adar 5764 - March 2004