Temple Judea hosts speaker on Holocaust education

The Island Now
Photo courtesy of Temple Judea

Temple Judea, as part of its Lifelong Learning Program, presented a program by a speaker, Rich Quinlan, who spoke on “Holocaust Studies and the Fight Against Hate: Using Education to Combat Rising Violence.” His program incorporated a video presentation of photos of Holocaust victims who, he said, poignantly showed the Holocaust to be “more than just numbers.”

Quinlan has always been interested in academia and has earned three master’s degrees in secondary English education, political science as well as history. He is has been teaching history for the past 23 years at the Green Vale School in Old Brookville. In addition, he is an adjunct professor both at Mercy College teaching American and modern European History, and at Suffolk Community College teaching political science.

Quinlan became an active participant of Jewish Resistance Teachers involvement when the group organized through the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, made a trip in the summer of 2015 to Auschwitz and other similar locations, bringing the horrors of the Holocaust into sharp focus. This was the inspiration for Quinlan to be enrolled in a new doctoral program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Gratz College.

It was clear that Quinlan is passionate in his involvement in areas of Holocaust and Genocide studies. He presented a dramatic and inspiring program. He showed graphics of maps where even today there are areas of genocide in the world. Quinlan also noted a troubling recent rise in anti-Semitism. In a 12-country survey of Jewish respondents last year by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 89 percent said anti-Semitism was on the rise. France reported a 74 percent surge in anti-Semitic acts last year, and President Emmanuel Macron said in February that anti-Semitism was at a postwar peak in 2018, up 16 percent from the year before, according to the Community Security Trust, an organization that monitors anti-Semitism in the country.

The participants at this Temple Judea event were inspired by Quinlan’s enthusiasm and commitment. They were encouraged to write letters, send emails and make phone calls to members of Congress reminding them to be aware of and ready to stand up to injustice and racism, the precursors of national tragedy such as was suffered in Europe in the 1930s – 1940s.

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