Confronting Antisemitism in Schools
Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center created the Confronting Antisemitism in Schools toolkit to provide lessons and activities for grades 3-12 teachers to ensure their students have an age-appropriate and foundational understanding of antisemitism, its harm, and ways to take a stand against it.
Complex Answers to Difficult Questions
Processing Current Events Through the Lens of History
This toolkit was created to give you guidelines on how to address some potentially difficult questions you may encounter. This document, while not exhaustive, focuses on the most commonly asked questions on the following topics: antisemitism and rising hate; war in Israel and Gaza; Holocaust denial and disinformation; and genocide. And for each question, we provide only a sampling of possible responses. We expect to be updating this document as new questions emerge.
Resources for Teaching About the Holocaust and Genocide
All Illinois public schools have been required to continue instruction on the Holocaust and other genocides as part of the social studies curriculum starting with the start of the 2024–25 school year. The Holocaust and Genocide Resources guide supports educators in fulfilling this legislative mandate through historically accurate, age-appropriate, and trauma-informed materials for grades K–12.
The Illinois State Board of Education collaborated with museums, scholars, survivors, and community organizations — including the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center — to curate this resource guide. Materials are aligned with the Illinois Social Science Standards and have been reviewed for cultural responsiveness, academic integrity, and pedagogical soundness.
Holocaust Remembrance Day Event Toolkit
Holocaust Remembrance Day (Hebrew: יום השואה or Yom HaShoah) is a day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and for the Jewish resistance in that period. The Holocaust is an event that can – and should – be remembered and commemorated by everyone, regardless of background or identity. Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center developed the below guide to help those who wish to design and host their own Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorative event.
Photo credits: Robert Kusel