The anniversary comes just over a week after the Atlantic Bar and Restaurant in Tiverton shared an antisemitic meme on Facebook featuring Frank. The post prompted a flood of angry comments and reactions from people around the world. Wendy Joering is the Executive Director of the Sandra Bornstein Center for Holocaust Education. She sat down to speak with our afternoon host Dave Fallon about the incident, teaching the history of the Holocaust, and about antisemitism in Rhode Island.
For more stories and resources on the Holocaust, and to learn more about the work of the Sandra Bornstein Center for Holocaust Education, go to bornsteinholocaustcenter.org. This conversation was produced for the ear. Click the orange play button above to listen. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Dave Fallon: We’re speaking with Wendy Joering, Executive Director of the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center. Welcome.
Wendy Joering: Thank you for having me.
Fallon: First of all, there was that restaurant incident with the image of Anne Frank as part of a meme, that got immediate, negative reaction. When you first heard about it, you said to yourself what?
Joering: I was horrified. There are a group of things in this world you don’t make fun of, and that, there is no room for comedy in the Holocaust. … It told me that the people, whomever posted the meme, needed sensitivity training, but needed education — education on what the Holocaust was, what it means today, and what it still means, will mean forever to people. And that it is not something at all that should be used in that regard.
Fallon: Now, the restaurant involved in this incident has since apologized and, of course, removed that meme. What did you think of the apology? Not everyone liked it.
Joering: So at first, it felt sincere to me, and I thought it was sincere. But given the fact that there has been no communication since, I’m really not sure. I don’t want to put words in anyone else’s mouth. But I think that a way they could help make this as right as it could be is to educate themselves and their staff. And I think it’s very, very important to do that.
Fallon: Now, there was the Holocaust education program at the Tiverton library. Yes. How did that go?
Joering: It was a huge success. We had to open all the doors to make the space larger. So there were over 100 people. Representative Edwards from Tiverton and I work very closely together very quickly to make sure that this happened, and it was a success. And what was I think a huge success was, I didn’t know most of the people in the room, and that’s exactly what we wanted. I know a lot of people throughout the Jewish and non-Jewish community. But I think the people of Tiverton and the surrounding area really listened and wanted to be there, wanted to learn and wanted to pay respect.
Fallon: Explain who spoke, please.
Joering: So, Representative Edwards opened the program. And our two speakers from the Holocaust Speakers Bureau Education Center were Alice Eichenbaum, who is a Holocaust survivor. She survived the ghetto. Her husband, Raymond, who’s no longer with us, survived Auschwitz. And he’s one of the founders of the [Sandra Bornstein] Holocaust Education Center. And Lillian Birch, who is part of the Speakers Bureau as well, and her mother survived Auschwitz. … One of the highlights of the evening for me was when a 13-year-old young boy who was there — I’d say he was between 13 and 15 — went over to Alice Eichenbaum and said, “Can I have a selfie with you?” And he took a picture. And that to me, showed that it was moving to him, and it meant something.
Fallon: Now the Holocaust in Germany and in Europe, was some 80 years ago, and many of the people of that generation are gone. How do you teach about the Holocaust in contemporary times? How do you reach people now? Because you don’t have as many people to speak from personal experience.
Joering: We don’t have as many. But we are very lucky in Rhode Island, we still have people that do speak. So we go out as much as possible. COVID kind of halted that in the in-person [setting]. We did do some Zoom programs, but we are back and scheduling for the year already in-person programs with our speakers. And we want to get as many in-person programs with our survivors and second-generation survivors as possible — especially with our survivors, because they’re…we don’t have a lot of time with them, unfortunately, left. And why we still have them here I think it’s so important for people to hear directly from them. And we are working on programs now and planning for the time when we don’t, when we won’t have them with us anymore. We’re working on a hologram program that our survivors are working with us on. So we’re getting a lot of footage of them. And we also do a lot of in-person program[s] where the survivors might not be there, but we’re working with teens and we’re working with kids on education.
Fallon: How do you make the Holocaust of 80 years ago relevant to today, and in current events today?
Joering: By educating people, and talking to people about kindness and empathy, and learning about the differences in cultures and the way people live, it can help educate people. And that is so relevant today, and to everything going on in this world. So we’re really working hard to come up with other programs for kids that will focus on this.
Fallon: What have you experienced locally in terms of antisemitism?
Joering: Just in the last few months alone, there was a swastika held outside of a bookstore on the east side of Providence. There was a sign over, I think, the India Point [Railroad] Bridge that said “Jews killed Jesus.” There have been a few swastikas throughout the state carved into different sites. There have been flyers, just as recent as a few weeks ago, in Warwick in East Providence, and people arrested in East Providence for putting up antisemitic fliers, and trying to recruit people to be part of an antisemitic group. So it’s happening all over. It’s happening more than people know. It’s just being being, you know, mentioned on the news and things more now. But it’s constantly happening. And like the ADL reported, last year was the highest rate of antisemitic incidents that have ever been reported.
Fallon: How would you suggest that people educate themselves about antisemitism, about Holocaust history?
Joering: The Sandra Bornstein Holocaust education center in Providence is for the entire community, Rhode Island, southeastern Massachusetts, Connecticut. We have a whole library. We have some programs going on throughout the year that we would love to have anybody attend. People can go to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. There are so many different ways to get educated. The ADL [Anti-Defamation League] has some great ways to help with fighting antisemitism. We work with our partner agencies, the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, we work together to help fight antisemitism. And we’re creating programs for this fall.
Fallon: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Joering: We have a conference on August 23rd at Rhode Island College, Navigating the Holocaust and Genocide Laws, for teachers. You can get six PLUs, and for more information please email us at info@hercri.org, or just visit our website. We would love to have as many teachers as possible attend that.
Fallon: We’ve been speaking with Wendy Joering, Executive Director of the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center. Thank you for talking with us.
Joering: Thank you so much for having me and addressing this important issue.
Fallon: This is The Public’s Radio, 89.3 FM.
