March 23-24, 2023
Registration Open!
Governor Tony Evers signed into law mandating Holocaust education be taught to Wisconsin middle school and high school students. More than ever, it is important to teach about the Holocaust to prevent atrocities from being repeated. The workshop will empower middle and high school teachers who want to learn more about teaching the lessons of the Holocaust in their schools and will feature national and local Holocaust scholars. Jennifer A. Nielson, an author known primarily for young adult fictions, says it well, “In the knowing, there was peace.
Registration Link:
https://viterbouniversityethics.regfox.com/2023-teaching-the-holocaust-workshop
Teaching the Holocaust Workshop Schedule
Location: Fine Arts Center Lobby
Thursday, March 23
Meet the Speakers:
Holocaust Survivor & Keynote Speaker
Peter Feigl
Thursday, March 23rd, 2023
7 p.m.–Fine Arts Center Main Theatre
Peter Feigl, the only child of Ernst and Agnes Bornstein Feigl, was born on March 1, 1929, in Berlin, Germany. His father, a mechanical engineer, worked for a multinational company selling automotive equipment throughout Europe while his mother stayed home to raise Peter in an upper middle class environment. When the family, who were non-practicing Jews, moved to Vienna in 1937, Peter was baptized in the Catholic Church in the hope he would be shielded from the virulent antisemitism in Germany and Austria.
Feigl Strong: Whispers from the Past
Ruth Busalacchi
Ruth Busalacchi lives in Waukesha, Wisconsin, with her husband, Rick. She has two sons: one who lives in Whitewater, WI, and another, who resides in Nashville, TN. She has been an educator for 30+ years, mainly at the middle-school level, in the Germantown, and Menomonee Falls school districts (Southeastern Wisconsin). She currently teaches sixth grade students, in her World Geography class. Her goal, as a teacher, has always been to immerse and engage her students, to help them understand, and appreciate the world around them.
Last spring, she was unknowingly presented with the “teaching moment of a lifetime”, and was afforded an opportunity to collaborate with Holocaust survivor, Peter Feigl. The entire experience highlighted the “power” of first-person resources, but more importantly, emphasized the depth that “one story” can have on the mind and souls of a new generation of students.
Ruth wishes to share her resources, strategies, and insight, that helped make this “gift of hope” a reality.
Using Scripts and Dramatic Works in Holocaust Education
Kristi Moulton
Kristi Moulton is the librarian at Logan High School in La Crosse, WI. She holds a Masters in Library and Information Science and a BS in Communication Art & Literature Education. Professional interests include research, information literacy, and partnering with teachers to incorporate high-quality, engaging resources in all subject areas, as well as helping readers find their next favorite book. She loves theater and has been involved on and offstage for many years, and in 2014 co-directed "And Then They Came For Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank" with Darryle Clott. She is the mother of 2 energetic boys and enjoys reading, traveling with her husband Mark, and eating ice cream.
Stephen Feinberg
Stephen Feinberg had the honor of working at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, D.C., from 1996–2011. From 1996–2000, he was responsible for the development and implementation of the Museum Teacher Fellowship Program. As director of the National Outreach program at the USHMM from 2000–2009, he was responsible for the creation, design, and implementation of the Museum’s entire national educational outreach program. He was the special assistant for education programs in the National Institute for Holocaust Education (NIHE) at the USHMM from 2009–2011. In this capacity, he coordinated NIHE’s international educational activities as well as directing the USHMM’s teacher education programs in California, Florida, Texas, and Illinois.
Feinberg was a member of the U.S. delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) from 1999–2011, working extensively with the IHRA education working group. In addition to conducting teacher training programs across the U.S., he has also coordinated or participated in programs in Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
He joined the USHMM’s staff in Washington in 1996, but had been an educational consultant for the Museum since 1990. He is the co-editor, with Dr. Samuel Totten, of Essentials of Holocaust Education (Routledge, 2016) and Teaching and Studying The Holocaust (Allyn & Bacon, 2000).
Prior to his work at the museum, he was a social studies teacher in public and private schools in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Paris, France. He also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco (1968–1970) and Thailand (1974–1975). Feinberg received a bachelor's degree in history from UCLA and a master's degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.
Dana Humphrey
Dana Humphrey has 42 years of educational experience as a middle school English teacher, department chair, district curriculum coordinator, and professional development presenter. She serves as the ELA consultant for the St. Louis Regional Professional Development Center. She has presented numerous workshops at the local, state, and national level and has written and co-authored articles and chapters in books on effective instructional pedagogy.
Dana is a 2000 Museum Teacher Fellow from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and a member of two Holocaust education consortium. She serves on the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum Council and is a teacher educator at the museum. She has presented for the USHMM Belfer Conference, the USHMM CHEC Conferences, the National Council of Teachers of English, the St. Louis Holocaust Museum, and the Missouri Holocaust Institute. Dana is also a gubernatorial appointee to the Missouri Holocaust Education and Awareness Commission.
Rick Kyte
Richard Kyte is director of the D. B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership and Endowed Professor of Ethics at Viterbo University, where he teaches a variety of courses dealing with ethical issues in business, health care, law, politics, and the environment. He has published and lectured widely on topics related to justice, forgiveness, virtue, and the meaning of life.
After growing up in Frazee, a small town in northwestern Minnesota, Rick attended Hamline University where he earned a B.A. in philosophy. He then went on to graduate school, obtaining a Ph.D. in philosophy from The Johns Hopkins University in 1994. Since then he has taught at several colleges and universities including Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tenn.
He is the author of several books and writes a regular column for the La Crosse Tribune titled, The Ethical Life.
Rick is an active member of the First Presbyterian Church and the Downtown Rotary Club of La Crosse. He serves on numerous boards, including the Editorial Board of the La Crosse Tribune, the La Crosse Community Foundation, and the Coulee Region Chapter of Trout Unlimited.
Darryle Clott
Darryle Clott earned a bachelor’s degree in 1966 and a master’s degree in 1971 from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She retired from La Crescent (Minn.) High School in 2004 where she taught a comprehensive unit on the Holocaust for several years in her English classes. The classes inspired her to attend the Teachers’ Summer Institute on Holocaust and Jewish Studies and Jewish Resistance in Poland and Israel in 2001, and she is on their alumni advisory board. As her interest in the Holocaust grew, Clott became a member of the American Friends of the Jewish Fighters Museum Consortium of Holocaust Educators and is the founder of the Midwest Holocaust Education Consortium. She is a Teacher Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Clott leads Holocaust educator workshops and is an associate of the D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo University. She is a member of the Chancellor’s Community Council at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She is instrumental in bringing Holocaust survivors to the La Crosse community at Viterbo University including Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, Presidential Medal of Honor winner Gerda Weissmann Klein, and Otto Frank’s stepdaughter Eva Schloss.
Clott was a participant in the 2006 Educators’ Seminar of the Educational Program on Yiddish Culture at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. She is on the editorial board of Yeshiva University’s PRISM: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Holocaust Educators. Clott was honored with the Gregory P. Wegner Holocaust Education Award at the Congregation Sons of Abraham Synagogue in 2008 and 2014 and is the Graff Distinguished Alumnus Award winner for 2008 at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. In 2009, Clott was chosen to be part of a League of Women Voters project, “The Road She Traveled,” for local women who have had a significant impact on their community.
Clott is the 2009 La Crosse Toastmasters’ Communication and Leadership award winner. In 2010, she was one of 10 American Holocaust educators chosen to travel to Poland to study Holocaust pedagogy with Polish Holocaust educators in a program sponsored by the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C. The La Crosse area YWCA Tribute to Outstanding Women Trailblazer Award was presented to Clott in 2010. In 2011, Clott was given the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. The medals are presented on Ellis Island to American citizens of diverse origins for their outstanding contributions to their communities, their nation and the world.
In 2014, Clott was honored by Fort McCoy with the Patriotic Civilian Service Award in appreciation for exceptional support to the Fort McCoy community of soldiers and civilians.
She received the Pope John XXIII Award for Distinguished Service from Viterbo University in 2017. The award, the highest non-academic award conferred by Viterbo, is given to those who have distinguished themselves through outstanding leadership and through service to higher education, to community and to humankind. In 2018, Clott received the Iverson Freking Ecumenical Recognition Award, which recognizes the dedication of people to ecumenical endeavors and who reflect a positive commitment to Coulee Region communities. Clott is the 2019–2020 Mrs. Oktoberfest.
Comments from Past Presenters
"My observation of, and participation in, such a forum as the Holocaust Educators' Workshop at Viterbo University is a major learning event for me. To be exposed to Holocaust scholars working in this field and survivors who bring an immediacy to the subject is key. The workshop is superbly organized, with time for both concentration and reflection. The annual topics themselves are timely, reflecting the changing nature of Holocaust studies. Area teachers are no doubt the chief beneficiaries, but the community at large should consider itself fortunate to have such an ongoing program in its midst."
—Bill Younglove, instructor/teacher supervisor, California State University, Long Beach
"Over the past 20 years, I had the privilege of speaking in 12 states at some 200 venues, middle and high schools, universities, teacher seminars, churches and synagogues with audiences ranging from a dozen to just short of 200. But none of my speaking engagements compares with my experience at Viterbo University in La Crosse. Never before did I receive as much local media coverage as I did in La Crosse: phone interviews, live and prerecorded TV interviews and press coverage. A great credit to your PR savvy especially so because Holocaust messages often are a hard sell. Viterbo University's commitment to the moral and ethical significance of the topic had its pay-off that Friday evening when the auditorium was filled to near capacity with some 850 citizens curious to hear me speak of my Holocaust experience and the vital role played by rescuers. Darryle Clott's leadership and commitment to the Holocaust Teachers Workshop held annually at Viterbo University is unique in my experience and was evident wherever I looked. Viterbo University was an unknown entity to me prior to my visit to La Crosse. It no longer is and will never be forgotten.
Thank you so very much for having invited me to be part of the Holocaust Educators Workshop."
—Peter Feigl, Holocaust Survivor