Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation

Last updated
Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation
Founded2000
FounderMitch Braff
TypeNon-profit organization
FocusEducational (Holocaust Resistance)
Location
  • San Francisco, CA
Area served
Worldwide
Board President: Elliott Felson
Website jewishpartisans.org

The Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation (JPEF) is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California, that produces short films and other educational materials on the history and life lessons of the Jewish partisans. [1] [2] During World War II, approximately 30,000 Jewish men and women fought back against the Germans and their collaborators as partisans (armed resistance fighters behind enemy lines). [3] [4]

Contents

JPEF provides free educational resources for public, Jewish and other parochial and private schools, including short documentary films, lesson plans, study guides, and online teacher-training. The materials are primarily based on oral history interviews, conducted between 2001 and 2015, 54 Jewish partisans. [5] The Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation partners with nearly every Holocaust organization in the world who relies on its resources and expertise about the Jewish partisan history throughout Europe.

All of JPEF's curriculum materials are free to educators and students and can be downloaded from its website at www.jewishpartisans.org. A second website, Jewish Partisan Community page, launched in 2017, hosts an additional 70 Jewish partisans biographies, many of them of women at www.jewishpartisancommunity.org.

History

Filmmaker Mitch Braff founded JPEF in 2000 after meeting former Jewish partisan Murray Gordon - the first time Braff had heard about organized, armed Jewish resistance during the Holocaust. Discovering that this piece of history was largely unknown in the U.S., even among American Jews, Braff founded JPEF to interview many more partisans, archive their testimonies, and create films, curricula and a website dedicated to their history. [6] [7] Founding Board President, Paul Orbuch, the son of Jewish partisan Sonia Orbuch, helped Braff launch the organization. [8]

In 2003 JPEF produced its first film, "Introduction to the Jewish Partisans", narrated by the late actor Ed Asner (cousin of Jewish partisan Abe Asner). [9] [10]

In 2008 JPEF developed "Pictures of Resistance", a traveling exhibit of photographs taken by the only known Jewish partisan photographer, Faye Schulman. [11] That same year, JPEF consulted for director Edward Zwick on the production of the motion picture Defiance, which portrays the story of the Bielski partisans, starring Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber star as Jewish partisan commanders Tuvia and Zus Bielski. [12] [13]

According to JPEF, as of 2022 their educational materials, films and teacher training institutes and online professional development courses have reached over tens of thousands of educators and millions of students worldwide. The history and lessons of the Jewish partisans empower young people to speak out against antisemitism and hate in their own lives and become tomorrows upstanders . [14]

Program Offerings

Website

Online resources include maps, archival photographs, and online profiles with video testimonies for over 54 Jewish partisans including Tuvia Bielski, Frank Blaichman, Vitka Kempner, Abba Kovner, Faye Schulman, and Shalom Yoran. [15]

Curricula

Lesson plans and study guides use the experiences of the Jewish partisans to teach history, leadership, ethics, women's studies, and Jewish values. The curricula, for 6th-12th grade and college, are edited by Holocaust scholar Dr. Michael Berenbaum. More than 60 Holocaust organizations incorporate JPEF's materials into their programs, including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Facing History and Ourselves, the Association of Holocaust Organizations, and the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education. [13] [16] [17] JPEF is also a contributor/publishing partner to the Encyclopædia Britannica's Holocaust history project. [18] [19]

Teacher Training

Online professional development courses on Jewish armed resistance during the Holocaust are offered on JPEF's website, with continuing education units awarded through Touro College. [20] JPEF also conducts in-service workshops [21] in the U.S. and internationally.

Photography Exhibit

Pictures of Resistance: The Wartime Photography of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman, is a traveling exhibit of historical photos by the only known Jewish partisan photographer. The exhibit, curated by Jill Vexler, has been displayed in more than 30 cities in the United States, Canada, Israel, Poland, South Africa, Australia and Switzerland. [22] [23] [24]

Films

JPEF has produced 12 short documentaries directed by Braff, and narrated by Ed Asner, Larry King, Liev Schreiber, and Tovah Feldshuh. [9] In chronological order:

Related Research Articles

The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews is a non-fiction book by Peter Duffy, which was published in 2003. It tells the story of Tuvia Bielski, Alexander Zeisal Bielski (Zus), Aharon Bielski, and Asael Bielski, four Jewish brothers who established a large partisan camp in the forests of Belarus during World War II which participated in resistance activities against the Nazi occupation of the country, and so saved 1,200 Jews from the Nazis. The book describes how, in 1941, three brothers witnessed their parents and two other siblings being led away to their eventual murders. The brothers fought back against Germans and collaborators, waging guerrilla warfare in the forests of Belarus. By using their intimate knowledge of the dense forests surrounding the towns of Lida and Novogrudek, the Bielskis evaded the Nazis and established a hidden base camp, then set about convincing other Jews to join their ranks. The Germans came upon them once but were unable to get rid of them. As more Jews arrived each day, a robust community began to emerge; a "Jerusalem in the woods". In July 1944, after some 30 months in the woods, the Bielskis learned that the Germans, overrun by the Red Army, were retreating back toward Berlin.

<i>Everything Is Illuminated</i> (film) 2005 American film

Everything Is Illuminated is a 2005 American biographical comedy-drama film, written and directed by Liev Schreiber and starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer, and was the debut film of Liev Schreiber both as a director and as a screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bielski partisans</span> Jewish partisan unit during World War II

The Bielski partisans were a unit of Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought the German occupiers and their collaborators around Novogrudok and Lida in German-occupied Poland. The partisan unit was named after the Bielskis, a family of Polish Jews who organized and led the community.

The history of the Jews during World War II is almost synonymous with the persecution and murder of Jews which was committed on an unprecedented scale in Europe and European North Africa. The massive scale of the Holocaust which happened during World War II greatly affected the Jewish people and world public opinion, which only understood the dimensions of the Final Solution after the war. The genocide, known as HaShoah in Hebrew, aimed at the elimination of the Jewish people on the European continent. It was a broadly organized operation led by Nazi Germany, in which approximately six million Jews were murdered methodically and with horrifying cruelty. Although the Holocaust was organized by the highest levels of the Nazi German government, the vast majority of Jews murdered were not German, but were instead residents of countries invaded by the Nazis after 1938. Of the approximately 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis, approximately 160,000 to 180,000 were German Jews. During the Holocaust in occupied Poland, more than one million Jews were murdered in gas chambers of the Auschwitz concentration camp alone. The murder of the Jews of Europe affected Jewish communities in Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Channel Islands, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish resistance in German-occupied Europe</span> Various forms of resistance conducted by Jews against Nazi occupation regimes

Jewish resistance under Nazi rule took various forms of organized underground activities conducted against German occupation regimes in Europe by Jews during World War II. According to historian Yehuda Bauer, Jewish resistance was defined as actions that were taken against all laws and actions acted by Germans. The term is particularly connected with the Holocaust and includes a multitude of different social responses by those oppressed, as well as both passive and armed resistance conducted by Jews themselves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish partisans</span> Anti-Nazi and anti-German fighting groups of Jews in World War II

Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II.

Shalom Yoran was a survivor of the Holocaust and a former Jewish partisan. His World War II memoir, The Defiant. A True Story of Jewish Vengeance and Survival, was first published in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dzyatlava Ghetto</span> Nazi ghetto in occupied Belarus

The Dzyatlava Ghetto, Zdzięcioł Ghetto, or Zhetel Ghetto was a Nazi ghetto in the town of Dzyatlava, Western Belarus during World War II. After several months of Nazi ad-hoc persecution that began after the launch of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, the new German authorities officially created a ghetto for all local Jews on 22 February 1942. Prior to 1939, the town (Zdzięcioł) was part of Nowogródek Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic.

<i>Defiance</i> (2008 film) 2008 film directed by Edward Zwick

Defiance is a 2008 American war film directed by Edward Zwick, and starring Daniel Craig as Tuvia Bielski, Liev Schreiber as Zus Bielski, Jamie Bell as Asael Bielski, and George MacKay as Aron Bielski. Set during the occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany, the film's screenplay by Clayton Frohman and Zwick was based on Nechama Tec's 1993 book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, an account of the eponymous group led by Polish Jewish brothers who saved and recruited Jews in Belarus during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuvia Bielski</span> Polish leader of the Bielski group, Jewish partisans

Tuvia Bielski was a Polish Jewish militant who was leader of the Bielski group, a group of Jewish partisans who set up refugee camps for Jews fleeing the Holocaust during World War II. Their camp was situated in the Naliboki forest, which was part of Poland between World War I and World War II, and which is now in western Belarus.

Nechama Tec was a Polish-American historian who was Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. She received her Ph.D. in sociology at Columbia University, where she studied and worked with the sociologist Daniel Bell, and was a Holocaust scholar. Her book When Light Pierced the Darkness (1986) and her memoir Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood (1984) both received the Merit of Distinction Award from the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. She is also the author of the book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans on which the film Defiance (2008) is based, as well as a study of women in the Holocaust. She was awarded the 1994 International Anne Frank Special Recognition prize for it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aron Bielski</span> Former member of the Bielski partisans group

Aron Bielski, later changed to Aron Bell, is a Polish-American Jew and former member of the Bielski partisans, the largest group of Jewish armed rescuers of Jews during World War II. He was also known as Arczyk Bielski. The youngest of the four Bielski brothers, he is the only one still living.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naliboki forest</span> Forest in Belarus

Naliboki Forest ) is a large forest complex in northwestern Belarus, on the right bank of the Neman River, on the Belarusian Ridge. Much of the area is occupied by pine forests and swamps, and some parts of the Naliboki are rather hilly. Rich fauna include deer, wild boars, elks, beavers, bears, bison, wood grouses, heath cocks, snipes etc. The forest is named after a small town of Naliboki situated in the middle of it, although the title of "informal capital of the forest" belongs rather to the town of Ivyanets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Zeisal Bielski</span> Leader of the Bielski partisans (1912–1995)

Alexander Zeisal "Zus" Bielski was a leader of the Bielski partisans who rescued approximately 1,200 Jews fleeing from the Nazi Holocaust during World War II.

The Soap Myth is a play by American playwright Jeff Cohen. It dramatizes the conflict between Holocaust scholars and historians who require documentary proof when determining the history of the Holocaust and survivors of the Holocaust who were eyewitnesses to the horrors and atrocities. The play tackles the larger question of who has the right to determine the truth, who has the right to write history. The play also grapples with antisemitism and Holocaust denial.

Koldichevo (Kaldyčava/Koldychevo/Kołdyczewo) was the site of a Nazi concentration camp 16 kilometres (10 mi) north of Baranovichi, Belarus. About 22,000 people, mostly Jews, were killed in the camp between 1942 and 1944. The murders in the camp were done as part of The Holocaust in the Baranavichy District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oregon Jewish Museum</span> Museum of the history of the Jews of Oregon

The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is the largest museum dedicated to the documented and visual history of the Jews of Oregon, United States. The Museum is dedicated to the preservation, research, and exhibition of art, archival materials, and artifacts of the Jews and Judaism in Oregon.

Of the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust, two million were women. Between 1941 and 1945, Jewish women were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps or hiding to avoid capture by the Nazis under Adolf Hitler's regime in Germany. They were also sexually harassed, raped, verbally abused, beaten, and used for Nazi human experimentation. Jewish women had a sizable and distinct role in the resistance and partisan groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faye Schulman</span> Polish Holocaust survivor (1919–2021)

Faye Schulman was a Jewish partisan photographer, and the only such photographer to photograph their struggle in Eastern Europe during World War II. Her full name was Faigel "Faye" Lazebnik Schulman.

Mira Shelub was a Polish Jewish resistance fighter. She fought against German forces on the eastern front of the second World War as part of a partisan group led by her husband. She also co-wrote a memoir about her experience in the resistance titled Never the Last Road (2015).

References

  1. ↑ "Over 1,000 NJ Public Schools Receive New Holocaust Curriculum" (PDF). National Jewish News. August 22, 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 7, 2019. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  2. ↑ "Larry King, Liev Schreiber and Ed Zwick Join Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation to Honor America's Last Surviving Partisans with Launch of New PSA Campaign". Red Orbit. 2011.
  3. ↑ "Jewish Partisans". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
  4. ↑ "Partisan Groups in the Parczew Forests". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
  5. ↑ "JPEF Partisans [index]". Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation website.
  6. ↑ Palmer, Joanne (2002). "Notes From the Polish Underground: Fort Lee Woman Recalls Her Partisan Past" (PDF). New Jersey Jewish Standard.
  7. ↑ "Hidden heroes / Filmmaker puts spotlight on Jewish partisans who fought Nazis". SFGate. March 2002. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
  8. ↑ Weingarten, Woody (2013). "Two Local Women Who Resisted the Nazis Can't Forget". For All Events.
  9. 1 2 "Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation - Films". www.jewishpartisans.org. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
  10. ↑ Weisburg, Sherri (1982). "Asner, Abe [interviewer summary]". Holocaust Memorial Center, Zekelman Family Campus. Archived from the original on 2016-04-17. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
  11. ↑ Palevski, Stacey (2009). "Rare Photos Show Hidden Life of Partisans Who Fought Nazis". "j." the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California.
  12. ↑ palevsky, stacey (9 January 2009). "S.F. nonprofit plays role in movie | j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California". www.jweekly.com. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
  13. 1 2 "Hollywood Drama About Jewish Resistance Hits the Classroom". The Forward. 22 January 2009. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
  14. ↑ "JPEF 2013 Annual Report". Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation. 2014.
  15. ↑ "Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation and very handy instructional resources". Social Studies Central. 2014-02-07. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
  16. ↑ "Resistance During the Holocaust: An Exploration of the Jewish Partisans". Facing History and Ourselves. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
  17. ↑ "AHO, Members Directory". www.ahoinfo.org. Archived from the original on 2016-05-29. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
  18. ↑ "The Holocaust Project | Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Corporate Site". corporate.britannica.com. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
  19. ↑ "Jewish partisan | World War II". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2016-06-03.
  20. ↑ Totten, Samuel; Feinberg, Stephen (2016-03-17). Essentials of Holocaust Education: Fundamental Issues and Approaches. Routledge. ISBN   9781317648079.
  21. ↑ Henry, Patrick (2014-04-20). Jewish Resistance Against the Nazis. CUA Press. ISBN   9780813225890.
  22. ↑ "Temporary Exhibitions | Sarah and Chaim Neuberger - Holocaust Education Centre - UJA Federation of Greater Toronto". holocaustcentre.com. Archived from the original on 2016-06-13. Retrieved 2016-05-25.
  23. ↑ "PICTURES OF RESISTANCE TOUR - Galicja". www.en.galiciajewishmuseum.org. Archived from the original on 2012-04-13. Retrieved 2016-05-25.
  24. ↑ "The South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation Annual Review 2011" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-05-08. Retrieved 2016-05-25.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.