Unique Educational Opportunities to bridge the gap between education and action, counter the rise in antisemitism and hate speech, and help students nurture their “Beloved Community” (MLK)
“LIGHT is not a classroom resource or a new curriculum. It’s a revolution in our approach to arts and humanities. LIGHT is the Yin to the Yang of STEM. Through STEM, students have learned HOW to be innovative. Through LIGHT, students learn WHY, and are given OPPORTUNITIES to apply innovation to community problems, with Holocaust remembrance as the foundation and contemporary genocides and human rights violations as the catalyst.” The amount of LIGHT Programming grows by the day. Below are some featured examples of completed and ongoing projects to help inspire, prepare and empower you and your students to join LIGHT.
This year, Pittsburgh is participating in the Daffodil Campaign, a project of the POLIN Museum in Warsaw Poland. The campaign is designed to raise awareness of and commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which began on April 19th, 1943 – and we do so by making and wearing paper daffodils as a sign of solidarity, resistance, and memory.
The Butterfly Project began as an initiative to create and display a total of 1.5 million butterflies in cities around the world, one for every child murdered in the Holocaust and to honor the survivors. Through education and hands on artistic programming, students are empowered to remember the past, act responsibly in the present, and create a more peaceful future. Kits available through the HCP.
CHUTZ-POW! Superheroes of the Holocaust - an acclaimed and ongoing comic-book series created and published by The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh that seeks to place stories of UpStanders’ courage, resilience, and sacrifice at the forefront of Holocaust awareness. Four volumes are available for purchase, but an exclusive digital edition available for all LIGHT Coordinators.
Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, is the day set aside to remember the approximately six-million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. It is held on the 27th of the Jewish month of Nisan. Because the 27th of Nisan changes each year on the secular calendar, the date of the commemoration varies year to year. In 2021, Yom HaShoah began featuring LIGHT student interviews of Holocaust survivors.
"If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person." - Fred Rogers
With the help of the LIGHT Community Partnership Coordinator, LIGHT students participate in the planning and execution of new or existing children and family community library programming. For example, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Thanksgiving, and Martin Luther King Day.
LIGHT students visit and partner with local businesses and organizations dedicated to community empowerment, remembrance, and resilience. For example, LIGHT students partnering with Tupelo Honey Teas to create a LIGHT Tea blend, made available to Pittsburgh-area LIGHT schools as a fundraising tool.
LIGHT students team up with local educational nonprofits to lead in the implementation of their programming. For example, LIGHT students trained as docents for the traveling Wannsee Conference museum exhibit brought to Pittsburgh through Classrooms Without Borders, then led community members through the exhibit at a community Holocaust remembrance and education event.
"Mutual caring relationships require kindness and patience, tolerance, optimism, joy in the other's achievements, confidence in oneself, and the ability to give without undue thought of gain." - Fred Rogers
#ArtAgainstAtrocities (March - April) is a student-created arts and writing competition designed to raise awareness of atrocities past and present. Originally created as a LIGHT project of Montour High School in Pennsylvania, Art Against Atrocities is now a student-run international arts and writing competition through Together We Remember’s April “Genocide Awareness Month” campaign.
The Waldman International Arts and Writing Competition (Sept - Jan) is a Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s student-centered international arts and writing competition during the fall and winter of each school year.
"All of us, at some time or other, need help. Whether we're giving or receiving help, each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world. That's one of the things that connects us as neighbors--in our own way, each one of us is a giver and a receiver." - Fred Rogers
LIGHT students lead school-wide Together We Remember events dedicated to transforming Holocaust remembrance into action for all victims of Identity-Based Violence (IBV). All LIGHT Coordinators get exclusive access to Together We Remember’s network and resources.
Students plan, carry out, record, and share interviews and panel discussions surrounding remembrance and resilience.
A collaboration of the LIGHT Network with the help and support of the entire LIGHT team, students design, promote, and carry out community remembrance and education events surrounding past and present genocides and/or human rights violations, including contemporary racial and social justice campaigns.
Within this crucible of political titans and international powers, Khoi develops her most personal and unique art form to date. Her new sound is rooted in forgotten Vietnamese musical traditions yet looks to the world, with her most political, yet personal, song lyrics to date. Bad Activist explores both the actual historic events of the artist's life, as well as the subconscious dream worlds that have fueled her work.
"As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has- or ever will have- something inside that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression." - Fred Rogers
LIGHT student-made Black History Month teacher toolkits, “History of Antisemitism” timelines, or Holocaust FAQ google slides presentations.
To recognize events like Indigenous Peoples' Day, Genocide Awareness Month, Black History Month, and more.
Letter-writing to local representatives is a great way to give students real world practice for advocacy work.
LIGHT students participate in grassroots antiracism work with the help and support of the LIGHT Coordinator (who receives support and professional development from the LIGHT Network.)
"Some days, doing 'the best we can' may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn't perfect on any front-and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else." - Fred Rogers
LIGHT Coordinators students can easily introduce and encourage participation in school-wide monthly campaigns like Hispanic Heritage, Native American Heritage, Black History, Women’s History, Genocide Awareness, Arab-American Heritage, Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage, and LGBTQ+ using the spotLIGHT tool.
LIGHT students transform in-class research of contemporary genocides using the USHMM Early Warning Project and LIGHT shared lesson plans as the spark for advocacy work that continues outside the classroom walls.
"There are times when explanations, no matter how reasonable, just don't seem to help." - Fred Rogers
LIGHT Coordinators receive continuous professional development opportunities and support on how to set up and use their LIGHT Center to help students create things like custom DIY buttons, t-shirts, and stickers.
LIGHT students teach one another how to “make” in the humanities (in their LIGHT Centers) surrounding remembrance and advocacy. Examples include racial and social justice buttons, t-shirts, stickers, posters, vinyl wall quotes, multicultural holiday decorations, and DIY Holocaust and contemporary genocide memorials.
"The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile." "Try your best to make goodness attractive. That's one of the toughest assignments you'll ever be given."
Through LIGHT your students will have access to a growing variety of branded items, some produced by local businesses, made available to LIGHT Coordinators at cost. We make the product, you make the profit. Then, you choose whether to invest in your school’s LIGHT program or donate to a charity of your choice. Plus, students gain entrepreneurship experience.
Students can gain creative experience by making their own merch. With some upfront material cost, students can learn to create DIY items such as buttons, stationary, t-shirts, stickers, posters, ceramics, and more. The possibilities are endless!
"The thing I remember best about successful people I've met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they're doing and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they're doing, and they love it in front of others." - Fred Rogers
