ONONDAGA COUNTY – Onondaga County will be investing more into antisemitism education with the goal of reaching every one of its middle and high schools.
The $60,000 initiative with educational nonprofit 3GNY—for which the county plans to put up a match of $30,000—was announced by County Executive Ryan McMahon during a press conference on May 9 at the Sam Pomeranz Jewish Community Center of Syracuse’s Anne & Hy Miller Family Auditorium.
The funding will support 3GNY’s hallmark “We Educate” program, which gives students the opportunity to learn firsthand from descendants of Holocaust survivors about the lasting lessons and preserved family legacies of that genocide.
3GNY, with its mission to both teach about “the perils of intolerance” and attach a human connection to the Holocaust’s place in history beyond just the pages of a textbook, makes it its goal to counter antisemitism through the testimonies of visiting 3G, or third-generation, speakers.
The organization has already worked with 15 local school districts in the county, but the additional investment will allow 3GNY to expand its reach and partner with others so more grandchildren of Holocaust survivors can come into schools and share their personal, passed-down stories.
“By partnering with schools and communities throughout Onondaga County, we aim to cultivate a generation of upstanders who are equipped to recognize and counter antisemitism and other forms of hatred,” said David Reckess, the executive director of 3GNY.
He said hosting those speakers gives renewed relevance, “extra resonance” and more meaning to the Holocaust by making it applicable to the present day. He added that students are able to ask questions and actively engage in conversation with the descendants whether the presentation is in an auditorium or classroom space, the latter giving room for the teacher to also link what’s said to the in-class curriculum.
Reckess said those visits and survival testimonies are meant to foster stronger dialogue, understanding, empathy and insight into the experiences of not only people who survived the Holocaust years ago but also their living offspring, who range in age from teenagers to people in their 50s and even older.
He said another level of importance comes from the fact that there are fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors who are still alive and even less who were older than children at the time, making their grandchildren often the last ones in the lineage to hear their stories directly and therefore especially obligated to hold onto and honor those memories while upholding the promise of “never again.”
McMahon said the testimonies, which are taken to schools as well as other workplaces and larger-scale community settings, “break through the noise” of everyday life and are “powerful” in confronting antisemitism.
“Education and understanding history is the key to stopping hatred and to bring people together,” McMahon said. “This is a start, and we want this initiative to be very successful moving forward. We hope that this is a model that other communities embrace and can follow across our country in these trying times.”
Thanking community partners like the Jewish Federation of Central New York, individual donors to the nonprofit, and the county for its commitment to the organization, Reckess also talked from his own perspective as a 3G as he relayed a bit of his grandmother’s Holocaust story. He said she was 16 when World War II broke out and she went on to survive near-starvation in the Lublin Ghetto, escape daringly from the Majdanek concentration camp, and hide for three and a half years in a tiny apartment thanks to a Polish Catholic family.
“Her story shows the depth of what is possible when antisemitism is left unchecked and what hate and bigotry can do to families, communities and entire societies,” Reckess said. “Her story also shows the resilience of the human spirit, the outsized impact that small acts of compassion and courage can have, and the power that each of us have to stand up to hatred through our words and our deeds.”
Mike Balanoff, the president and CEO of the regional Jewish Federation, stepped to the podium as well. He said Jewish people are only 2% of the American population and so they need vigilant allies to combat prejudice against them, adding that schools have a role to play as “anchors of the community” which allow students to learn about multiple cultural narratives and celebrate diverse perspectives.
“This is powerful because this education component with our local school districts as well as this real-life experience that they can relate to hopefully will open some eyes,” said Mark Olson, the county legislator for the 10th District. “For us at the county leg, this is a good thing to do to support the school districts.”
Among the upwards of 30 school districts in Onondaga County, Olson has reached out to East Syracuse Minoa and Fayetteville-Manlius about the heightened commitment to 3GNY’s initiative, while 12th District legislator David Knapp, who was also present for the press conference, is reaching out to the school districts of LaFayette, Tully, Fabius-Pompey and Jamesville-DeWitt.
3GNY began as an organization in 2005. Since then, it’s primarily been focused on the New York City area where it’s headquartered, but in the past few years, it has built its footprint upstate, elsewhere in New York, and beyond, reaching over 50,000 students overall with the presentations its speakers deliver.
More information can be found at 3gny.org.