The Van-Gelder Center for Holocaust Instruction & Research

About us

The goals of the Van Gelder Center: The Van Gelder Center focuses on researching
Holocaust education in schools in Israel and around the world, with diverse Jewish
and non-Jewish populations. The Center conducts research, seminars, conferences
(international and national), research workshops, and practical workshops for teachers,
principals, and educational policymakers on Holocaust education in both formal and
informal education. The Center emphasizes issues of identity, memory, and socialization
in a world without survivors, the intergenerational transmission of Holocaust memory
to the second and third generations, and the tension between particularistic and
universalistic aspects.

• Theoretical-philosophical research: clarifying the problems and challenges of
  Holocaust education.
• Historical-social research: Exploring conflict and conciliation among nations
  and within societies by uncovering the roots of past events to draw meaningful
  conclusions for reconciliation and peaceful coexistence in the present.
• Applied research: Creating models, evaluating different parameters of antiSemitism and tolerance worldwide, interreligious, ethnic, political, and minorities.
• Research in the area of “Education for Human Rights and Reconciliation” in Israeli
  society and worldwide.

Principal activities and achievements

• Facilitating exchanges between Israeli and International academics through
  conferences
• Initiating and supporting research
• Producing and publishing educational and instructional materials for all education levels.
• Establishing cooperation between Israeli and International institutions such as
  UNESCO and Creating programs within the Israeli educational system.
• Service to the Community and the Educational System

Research under the auspices of the Center:

• Yael Richler Friedman: The influence of teachers’ sense of efficacy and their
  pedagogical content knowledge (P.C.K) of primary school teachers on their
  pedagogical goals and teaching strategies in teaching controversial issues. The case
  of Holocaust education in Israel.
• Yael Shtauber: Tourist Guidance in Heritage Sites and Institutions Commemorating
  the Jewish people Holocaust: An exploratory research (Together with Prof. Poriya
  from Ben Gurion University)
• Sarit Levy: “Hashahar 6” High School Students with Special Needs Journey to Poland. 
   

Community Engagement

• The Center aims to provide educators with research and practical guidance regarding
  Holocaust education in Israel and worldwide.
• The Center’s research agenda includes clarifying the problems of Holocaust education
  from a historical, sociological, psychological, and philosophical perspective.
• Research conducted under the auspices of the Center includes studies on Holocaust
  Education and perceptions of citizenship in the world, the socialization and values
  of minority groups, values of education, teachers’ professional socialization patterns,
  and perceptions of reconciliation and conflict management.
• Conferences to the community on Ten Tevet and Yom Hashoa.

International Engagement

• Accordion content.The Center has developed a theoretical framework in collaboration with international
  institutions to revisit the concepts of the Holocaust and genocide, using them as
  a lens to reexamine anti-Semitism from an innovative perspective. Additionally,
  the Center has designed a curriculum on ethics, social justice, gender equality, and
  violence, intended for use in high schools.
• The Van-Gelder Center organizes international conferences and cooperates with
  UNESCO Chairs and similar institutions and Centers worldwide.

Impact

• Prof. Gross was invited to participate in an international symposium at the UN on
  the Future of Holocaust Education
• The center organizes annual international conferences with prestigious universities
  in Austria, Germany, the UK, the USA, Australia, and China
• The Center collaborates with the International School of Bar-Ilan University

Contact Information

 Prof. Zehavit Gross | zehavit.gross@biu.ac.il