The Blogs: Mexico hosts a TOLI seminar, marking Latin America’s first

MEXICO CITY—With 45,000 Jews, Mexico boasts the third-largest Jewish community in Latin America after Argentina and Brazil. Like elsewhere across the region, anti-Jewish stereotypes and prejudices are ubiquitious.

That’s why for Mexico’s Jews, Latin America’s first-ever Shoah education seminar sponsored by The Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies (TOLI) was a much-welcomed development.

The Aug. 21-25 event attracted 36 high-school teachers—none of them Jews—from across the country. It took place at Mexico City’s Museum of Tolerance and Memory, and received warm words of praise from educators and Mexico’s top Jewish institution, the Comite Central de la Comunidad Judía.

“The TOLI seminar deeply moved and inspired me,” said Brenda Flores, a high-school teacher in León, capital of the central Mexican state of Guerrero. “It provided a thoughtful and respectful approach to teaching the Holocaust. It also enabled me to develop understanding and strategies for teaching about Jewish heritage and culture.”

Attending TOLI’s first Mexico seminar, from left: Linda Atach, director of temporary exhibitions at the Museum of Memory and Tolerance; Christina Zametzer, Germany’s deputy ambassador to Mexico; Einat Krantz-Neiger, Israeli ambassador to Mexico; and TOLI President Mark Berez.

During the Museum-TOLI program, teachers over a five-day period attended an intensive training program that combined historical study of the Shoah with innovative pedagogical tools to address modern-day antisemitism, Holocaust distortion and human rights in the classroom.

Oana Nestian-Sandu, TOLI’s international director, led the program along with TOLI faculty advisor and facilitator Corey Harbaugh.

The seminar included lectures by Mexican and foreign specialists, presentations on the history of Mexico’s Jewish community and tours of the museum, as well as a visit to Congregación Bet-El—a Conservative synagogue in the city’s Polanco district—and an inspiring talk by its rabbi, Diego Edelberg.

At a welcome reception attended by diplomats, Jewish leaders, educators and others, speakers noted the timeliness of TOLI’s efforts.

Teachers attend a workshop during TOLI’s five-day seminar on Holocaust education in Mexico City.

“Combating antisemitism is not only a fight for the Jewish people,” said Einat Krantz-Neiger, Israel’s ambassador to Mexico. “It is a struggle for every society that wants to live in peace, with justice, with respect.”

Alberto Romano, representing the Mexican Jewish community, said “the course TOLI is leading in Mexico embodies precisely that spirit: transforming memory through education into reflection and action. You, the teachers, will be carriers of this history, multipliers of awareness, and defenders of human rights from your classrooms and communities.”

Since its first seminar in New York in 2006, TOLI has expanded to offer seminars across the United States—11 this year alone—and now offers programs in 18 countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania and Poland.

Brenda Flores, a high-school teacher from León, Mexico, was among 36 participants in TOLI’s recent seminar on Holocaust education.

“We are very pleased to welcome Mexico into the international TOLI network of teachers, now numbering about 6,000 educators worldwide,” said TOLI President Mark Berez, a frequent visitor to Mexico who has presided over the nonprofit’s global expansion. “This is a landmark event, which we hope to expand in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Education is the most effective path to combat intolerance and antisemitism, and to build a more just society.”

Mily Cohen, co-founder and vice-president of the Museum of Tolerance, noted the significance of hosting the program at her institution, which has received more than five million visitors since it opened 15 years ago. The museum has a permanent section on the Holocaust, along with other sections on genocide and human rights, and an extensive educational network.

More than 95% of Mexico’s Jews live in the capital city of this predominantly Catholic country, meaning the vast majority of Mexicans have never met a Jew. Likewise, few Mexicans have a real understanding of Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jews during World War II.

Irvin Moreno-Rodríguez, director of Stockton University’s Holocaust Resource Center in Galloway, New Jersey, speaks at the TOLI conference in Mexico City.

Irvin Moreno-Rodríguez, director of the Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton University in Galloway, New Jersey, said the seminar would have an impact far beyond those in the inaugural program.

“It was always a dream to bring Holocaust studies—the TOLI way—into Latin America. I have no doubt that thousands of students in Mexico will be impacted by the work TOLI has started there,” said Moreno-Rodríguez, whose family immigrated to the United States from Mexico. “This seminar serves as a bridge to bring teachers and the Jewish community together here in Mexico City, and to create a more just and peaceful world.”

Added Christian Mireles, a high-school teacher from Ciudad Juarez: “My experience with the TOLI seminar has been amazing. It gave me the opportunity to interact with other teachers, hear from experts and to provide the resources to teach my students. I will highly recommend to my colleagues for future seminars.”