Bringing the Holocaust closer to students

“My job is to help students make meaning of the past,” high school history teacher Kerry Verrone said.

Ms. Verrone has worked at Montclair Kimberley Academy in Montclair for 21 years; she is now dean of student life in the upper school and teaches two alternating classes: sophomore modern world history, which includes a Holocaust unit she created, and a senior elective titled “The Holocaust, Genocide, and the Pursuit of Justice.”

She’s also completed a year of a two-year post-baccalaureate certificate in Holocaust education at Kean University. Through that program, she was nominated as a 2025 Alfred Lerner Fellow, a program of the Elizabeth-based Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. She was then selected, along with 24 other middle- and high-school teachers and Holocaust center staff from 10 states and Poland to participate as fellows in the JFR’s Summer Institute for Teachers.

Held at the Hilton Newark Airport from June 21-25, the course delved into the complex history of the Holocaust and presented novel teaching techniques.

Get New Jersey Jewish News's Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Ms. Verrone said the course will change the way she teaches.

“Overall, it was a transformative experience for me as a learner and as a teacher,” she said. “I’ve engaged in lots of Holocaust education opportunities, but this was the most immersive experience I’ve ever had in the scholarship of the Holocaust. And that was something I was really looking for. I was able to hear from, and ask questions of, top experts in the field and to learn from these scholars how to bring this topic into the classroom.”

The faculty included Sheryl Silver Ochayon of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem; Doris Bergen of the University of Toronto; Benjamin Carter Hett of Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center; Lawrence R. Douglas of Amherst College; Steven Field of New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine; Rebecca Erbelding of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Avinoam Patt of New York University; and Richards Plavnieks of Florida Southern College.

It also included Robert Jan van Pelt of the University of Waterloo; Edward B. Westermann of Texas A&M University; Holocaust historian and exhibition curator Paul Salmons; author Alexandra Zapruder; Christine E. Schmidt of the Wiener Holocaust Library; and Holly Huffnagle, the American Jewish Committee’s U.S. Director for Combatting Antisemitism.

“The three primary goals for the JFR’s Summer Institute are to provide teachers with a graduate-level course on antisemitism and the Holocaust, to empower educators to develop pedagogical connections with other teachers, and to equip these teachers with additional resources to bring back to their classrooms,” JFR Executive Vice President Stanlee Stahl said.

Ms. Verrone gave some examples of how these goals were met from her point of view. One was a lecture by Dr. van Pelt examining Western influences on World War II and the evolution of the Final Solution.

“Typically, we look eastward,” she said. “But he reminded us to look at the role of the United States, the Atlantic Charter, and more. He wanted to ground us in the context of the war and the development of the Holocaust. This is something we can shape differently in our lessons.” The Atlantic Charter was a joint declaration of goals for the war released in 1941 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Ms. Verrone also took away a profound lesson from Mr. Salmons’ talk about historians as “meaning makers” and how fellows can bring a sense of inquiry into their classrooms. Following his example, which was how showing students a toy that belonged to a child Holocaust survivor can become a springboard for discussions, Ms. Verrone plans to start all her classes by showing artifacts “to reinforce the idea that we are trying to provide meaning.”

International Holocaust museums, she said, have “created a lot of content for meaning-making lessons, including interactive artifacts and personal narratives. We are blessed with many resources to share this history in ways that are very relevant.”

On the first day of class in September, she plans to show students a chunk of the Berlin Wall as an entrée to “grappling with questions that don’t have easy answers” and gleaning insights from artifacts, documents, and speeches.

“In my sophomore world history class, I don’t teach World War II and the Holocaust until February, and this will prime us to be ready for those topics,” she said.

Ms. Verrone has found that students always struggle to understand the politics of the Weimar Republic and the notion that “Hitler didn’t seize power; rather, it was handed to him. An excellent lecture by Benjamin Carter Hett clarified this in a way I can now explain through graphs, charts, and maps, so the students can see how Hitler and the Nazis gained votes.”

Montclair Kimberley Academy’s upper school consists of about 450 ninth- through 12th-graders. The diverse coed private school has “a vibrant Jewish student community and Jewish Cultural Society,” Ms. Verrone noted.

About 12 years ago, as part of the ethical leadership development program she heads at the academy, Ms. Verrone included a lesson on the Holocaust in her ethics seminar.

“That lesson was probably by far the most engaging for my students,” she said. “They asked so many questions and wanted to understand more. My students’ interest is what led me to craft a proposal for Holocaust education. This comes from our kids and what they want.”

Despite the lengthening distance from the tragic events of the 1930s and 1940s, her students’ thirst for a deeper understanding of the Holocaust has only strengthened, she added.

“Our students see the relevance more and more every year, perhaps because they see the power of unchecked antisemitism as antisemitism is on the rise,” she said. “And I think the Holocaust resonates with them so much because it taps into historical inquiry and questions of empathy. Students want to understand the world and they appreciate that this is a complex topic.”

Ms. Verrone said she was grateful for the Summer Institute giving her the opportunity to ask scholars the questions that her students raise, and to brainstorm with other Alfred Lerner Fellows during and after the seminar.

She mentioned that many 12th-graders tell her at the end of the elective course that “for the first time they see why history matters, and they want to do more with it.”

At the end of the Summer Institute, Ms. Verrone has a similar outlook. “I feel like I am only beginning, and there is so much more I want to do.”

In addition to its nationally recognized Holocaust teacher education program for middle-school and high-school teachers focused on the historiography of the Holocaust, the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous provides monthly financial assistance to 73 aged and needy Righteous Gentiles — that is, non-Jews who risked their lives to assist Jews during the Nazi regime — living in 10 countries.

The organization’s fellowship program is named in memory of Alfred Lerner, the founding chairman and chief executive officer of MBNA Corporation, who died in October 2002. Mr. Lerner was a long-time adviser and supporter of JFR programs and activities, with a special interest in the field of Holocaust education.

In addition to Ms. Verrone, other New Jersey educators chosen as fellows this year were Nicole Kepner from Branchburg Central Middle School, Stephen Miller from Northfield Middle School, Paul Stanko from Sterling High School in Somerdale, and Haley Watson from Memorial School in Union Beach.