The Elkins Park-based Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center is displaying a sculpture titled “Entrance to Birkenau” and other Holocaust items in a glass case in Cheltenham High School’s main lobby for the 2023-24 school year.
Lise Marlowe, the museum’s outreach director and an elementary teacher at Cheltenham, organized the partnership and said she hopes teachers take advantage of the learning opportunity.
The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, which is based in Melrose Park, covered the meaning and intent behind the display in a recent article. From the Exponent’s article:
It is getting harder to organize visits by survivors to local schools, so Holocaust education needs to take new forms. This effort becomes even more important in an era of rising antisemitism.
Recent estimates by the Holocaust Survivors’ Rights Authority and the Anti-Defamation League put the number of remaining survivors at less than 200,000 between the United States and Israel. Marlowe said the Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center, or HAMEC, used to communicate with 40 survivors. Today, that group is down to five.
Last week, Marlowe surprised her students as the guest scooper at Sprinkles Ice Cream in Elkins Park.
Marlowe, who is retiring after this school year, was named the national History Channel Teacher of the Year in 2006, and in 2019, she received the Human and Civil Rights Award – Educational Leader from PSEA.
From Cheltenham School District’s announcement:
Selection committee co-chair Tim Graham nominated Marlowe for “the inspirational work” she does “to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive for your students and the community.”
Marlowe will be honored at the PSEA’s Celebrating Excellence Award Dinner on Thursday, May 16 at the Philadelphia 201 Hotel, along with five other Human and Civil Rights award winners, as well as the PSEA Adler Friend of Education Award honoree.
“It’s a great honor to receive this award for the continued work in keeping Holocaust education alive for Cheltenham students and the community,” said Marlowe. “I am very proud to work in a district where Holocaust education is supported and appreciated. There are so many Cheltenham teachers who do incredible work in pursuing their passions in the classroom, and I’m fortunate to be part of this special school community.”
A national award winning teacher, Marlowe attributes her dedication to teaching Holocaust history to her own great grandmother’s instrumental role in resisting the Nazi’s attempts to deport the entire Jewish population of Denmark.
This past November, Marlowe was honored by the Philadelphia Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center’s 57th annual silent auction and dinner for her decades of Holocaust education at the Cheltenham School District.
For more of Marlowe’s educational efforts, awards, and appointments, you can click here.
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Photos courtesy of Cheltenham School District, Lise Marlowe