DKGNJ Convention 2025 - Victoria Kessler- Keynote Speaker 2025
The reason I chose this topic for this year's state convention is from an experience I had at our DKG Society International Convention held in Maryland last July. Carmela DeMarco, Past State President and Gamma sister, invited me to attend the Forum meeting. The International Forum Committee hosted Marion Blumenthal Lazan, co-author of The Four Perfect Pebbles. Her story of surviving the concentration camp as a child and her message of peace and kindness was extraordinarily moving. The realization that we, educators of a certain age, know the history of the holocaust. However, the students may not and we need to educate them.
The NJ department of Education, Holocaust Commission provides a list of twelve speakers available for visits for educational events or in your school assemblies or classrooms. The link on the website is at New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education Speakers Bureau : https://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/speakers/
Cathy Fortunato, DKGNJ State Program Planning Chair
The NJ department of Education, Holocaust Commission provides a list of twelve speakers available for visits for educational events or in your school assemblies or classrooms. The link on the website is at New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education Speakers Bureau : https://www.nj.gov/education/holocaust/speakers/
Cathy Fortunato, DKGNJ State Program Planning Chair
Attend the luncheon at the DKGNJ State Convention on Saturday, April 5, 2025 to hear our Keynote Speaker, Victoria Kessler. Victoria will address the challenges and benefits of teaching about the Holocaust and Genocides using the NJDOE Curriculum Guide to teach with confidence. She has twenty-nine years of experience teaching French at Somerville HS. Her experience includes:
- Participant in Kean University courses Teaching the Holocaust and Teaching Prejudice Reduction (2001-2002)
- Participant in Rutgers University Master Teacher Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Education (since 2009)
- Participant NJ Commission on Holocaust Education Trip with Maud Dahme (2013)
- Participant Facing History and Ourselves In-Depth Summer Program (2014)
- Created original curriculum and launched full year Holocaust & Genocide Studies course (2014)
- Participant Echoes and Reflections Summer Seminar at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem (2019)
- Member of NJDOE Commission on Holocaust Education Curriculum Revision Team for K-8 and 9-12 resources (since 2020)
- Co-presenter at NJEA Convention: NJDOE Commission on Holocaust Education - Revised Curriculum (2022)
