Julianna Margulies Funds New Program at Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

In its 25th anniversary year, New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is deepening its commitment to Holocaust education with the launch of two new initiatives designed to engage teens and young adults as students, peer educators, and ambassadors for Holocaust education.

The Holocaust Educator School Partnership, made possible by a generous donation from the award-winning actress Julianna Margulies, is a paid internship in which undergraduate and graduate students are trained to teach the history of the Holocaust to middle and high school students. And the Estelle Lubliner Scholarship, created in memory of the Lubliner and Finer Families, will financially support the college education of graduating 12th graders from the New York City public school system.

"I thank Julianna Margulies and Estelle Lubliner for their support at this pivotal time in our country's history," said Jack Kliger, President and CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage. "Education must always be at the center of all our efforts to counter discrimination and intolerance, raise awareness, advance inclusion, and address the root causes of hate and antisemitism. It is essential that we reach our younger generations so they can develop awareness and skills that inevitably help to create a stronger society."

"It is our responsibility as educators to teach all of our kids about our full past and to make sure we always remember the Holocaust," said Schools Chancellor David C. Banks. "We are so grateful to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, actress Julianna Margulies, and Estelle Lubliner, for their generous support of these initiatives which will advance the teaching of the history of the Holocaust in our middle and high schools and The Estelle Lubliner Scholarship which will encourage Holocaust remembrance and inspire students to become forces for positive change as they enter the world as adults. Together, with the support of these great partners, we will preserve Holocaust memory and counter the contemporary rise in antisemitism through education in our public schools."

"Sadly, far too many young people are unaware of one of the most horrific periods in our world history, when millions were murdered during the Holocaust," Julianna Margulies said. "Throughout our history we have witnessed evil prevail in the face of silence and inaction, so it is vital that current and future generations understand our collective responsibility to combat antisemitism and hate in all forms, from words to actions. I am proud to support the Museum of Jewish Heritage's Holocaust Education School Partnership because it seeds hope and opportunity, where young adults are messengers and teachers. Through their commitment, we can create a better world for all of us."

The Holocaust Educator School Partnership (HESP) is a paid internship program for undergraduate and graduate students currently studying in the New York metropolitan area. HESP interns are trained on how to teach the history of the Holocaust and then work with local public middle and high school students to understand this history.

HESP interns attend intensive trainings at the Museum with staff, hear testimony from Holocaust survivors, and learn methods for teaching from the Museum's extensive collection of 40,000 artifacts and photographs. Following their training, HESP interns work in pairs, visiting local schools to teach an introductory classroom lesson and later give tours to these classes at the Museum.

HESP launched this semester with its first pair of interns: Rivkah Bryski, an undergraduate student at Brooklyn College, majoring in History and minoring in LGBTQ Studies and Museum Studies, and Phoebe Ellman, a Masters student in History at Fordham University with an academic focus on the Interwar/Second World War period, fascism, antisemitism, and post-war memory.

On November 11, 2022, Julianna Margulies met with the interns and Emily Szasz, the Museum's Internship Program Coordinator, to discuss the training and then visit the Museum's exhibitions, The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do, and Survivors: Faces of Life After the Holocaust, featuring photographer Martin Schoeller's portraits of Holocaust survivors.

With plans to serve more than 1,000 middle and high school students per semester, HESP will expand in Spring 2023. The program's goal is to preserve Holocaust memory and counter the contemporary rise in antisemitism through education, while cultivating the next generation of leaders, teachers, and scholars with professional ambitions for this work.

The Estelle Lubliner Scholarship will award $20,000 annually to at least one graduating 12th grader from the New York City public school system to support their college education. Scholarship applicants are asked to write an essay in response to a choice of prompts that explore Jewish life in Europe during the period of the Holocaust and to "consider how Jewish cultural identity and responsibility to the community affected their response to antisemitism and persecution." The deadline to apply is February 1, 2023.

The new scholarship program is made possible by the generosity of Estelle Lubliner, a second generation survivor, or 2G. Ms. Lubliner's parents were Moses (Moishe) "Max" Lubliner and Ida Lubliner (née Finer). Max and Ida met in the Łódź Ghetto during WWII, before emigrating to New York together.

Estelle Lubliner, a former educator and businesswoman, initiated this scholarship in her parents' memory. Horrified by the rise in antisemitism, racism, and hate in New York and across the world, she thought it was imperative students should learn about the Holocaust and the dangers of unchecked hate and bigotry. She hopes that the program will inspire students to become forces for positive change by learning about the past and taking those lessons with them into college and university.

"In a growing climate of antisemitism and bigotry, Never Again is now, and education must be our first line of defense. The Estelle Lubliner Scholarship offers the next generation of college students the opportunity to reflect on the timely lessons of the Holocaust and the dangers of where hate can lead. Created in memory of my parents, the Lubliner and Finer families, and the millions who experienced the Holocaust, this Scholarship encourages our future leaders to make important connections between the past, present, and future," says Estelle Lubliner.

About The Museum Of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2022, the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is New York's contribution to the global responsibility to always remember. The Museum is committed to the crucial mission of educating diverse visitors about Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust. The third-largest Holocaust museum in the world and the second-largest in North America, the Museum of Jewish Heritage anchors the southernmost tip of Manhattan, completing the cultural and educational landscape it shares with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage maintains a collection of almost 40,000 artifacts, photographs, documentary films, and survivor testimonies and contains classrooms, a 375-seat theater (Edmond J. Safra Hall), special exhibition galleries, a resource center for educators, and a memorial art installation, Garden of Stones, designed by internationally acclaimed sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. The Museum is the home of National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene and JewishGen.

The Museum's current offerings include The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do, a major new exhibition offering a timely and expansive presentation of Holocaust history, now on view in the main galleries. Also on view is Survivors: Faces of Life After the Holocaust, featuring photographer Martin Schoeller's portraits of Holocaust survivors on view through June 18, 2023.

Each year, the Museum presents over 60 public programs, connecting our community in person and virtually through lectures, book talks, concerts, and more. For more info visit: mjhnyc.org/events.

The Museum receives general operating support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.

For more information, visit mjhnyc.org.