Daughter of Holocaust survivors: 'Teach tolerance'

Apr. 1—CUMBERLAND — Dr. Judy Stone pushes herself to recount stories of physical and emotional torture inflicted on her family.

More than 80 of her relatives, including grandparents, were murdered in concentration camps.

As the daughter of Hungarian survivors of Auschwitz and Dachau, Stone wrote "Resilience: One Family's Story of Hope and Triumph Over Evil."

"I have a lot of nightmares," she said. "It never leaves you."

The product of deep strength and scars, Stone, like so very many other kids of Holocaust survivors, entered a profession to help others.

She became an infectious disease specialist and spent 25 years in solo practice in Cumberland, and today writes for Forbes.com as a senior contributor on health care issues.

"You want to make the world a better place ... and do what you can to stop the madness," Stone said.

Recently, she completed Holocaust education training and hopes to speak to local school students about her family's experiences.

"It's very hard for me to talk about," Stone said. "It's a painful topic."

However, rising incidents of antisemitism, hate, and racism motivate her beyond her comfort zone to speak out.

According to a recent Anti-Defamation League study, "over the past two years, researchers have found increasing endorsement of anti-Jewish tropes among the American public."

For the second consecutive year in 2023, "ADL recorded its highest ever number of white supremacist propaganda incidents, with a total of 7,567 cases," which marked a 12% increase from the 6,746 incidents in 2022.

"Anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda by white supremacists saw a massive 141 percent jump, increasing from 68 incidents in 2022 to 164 in 2023," the ADL reported.

Yom HaShoah

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the internationally recognized date for Holocaust Remembrance Day corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar and marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

"In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called Yom HaShoah," the organization's website states and adds this year it falls on May 6.

Stone contacted public school systems in Allegany and Garrett counties, as well as Allegany College of Maryland and offered to talk to students about her family's Holocaust survival.

She hopes that can happen as Yom HaShoah approaches.

Schools and organizations need to "do more to combat hate," Stone said.

'Human costs'

Allegany County Public Schools Public Information Officer Christian Brooks did not indicate whether Stone's request was approved or denied.

"The instructional supervisor let Dr. Stone know that she would inform teachers about this option during staff development and that school principals determine the calendar of events for school level presentations and determine if particular requests are approved and can be accommodated during the year," Brooks said via email.

ACPS "performance indicators related to Holocaust education" include exploration of "local, regional, and global relationships that have defined Jerusalem as a place by analyzing the impact of physical geography, nationalism, World War I and II, and the actions of international organizations, the Holocaust, and the founding of Israel on Jerusalem," she said.

Modern World History students "analyze the global scope and human costs of (WWII) by evaluating the cause, course, and consequences of the Holocaust" and "analyzing the systematic and state-sponsored atrocities perpetrated by governments in Europe and Asia" during WWII, Brooks said.

US History II students "assess the progression of the United States' involvement in world affairs by analyzing the origins of the Holocaust and the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped the American response," she said.

'Foster engagement'

John White is interim senior executive director of the Maryland State Department of Education communications and community engagement office

"MSDE emphasizes the need for professional learning for educators and content specialists, so educators can develop the tools necessary to teach the Holocaust with confidence and foster engagement and dialogue among students," he said via email. "MSDE has hosted multiple social studies supervisor briefings in conjunction with the Jewish Museum of Maryland."

Frameworks in pre-kindergarten to fifth grade "provide opportunities for students to learn concepts such as freedom, bias, power, authority, diversity, and the role of the individual in supporting the common good," White said.

Guidelines from national organizations including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Facing History and Ourselves recommend teaching the Holocaust in sixth grade and above, he said.

"These experts cite the developmental ability to empathize with individual eyewitness accounts and the content needed to contextualize events surrounding Holocaust history as limiting factors for introducing the content to young learners," he said. "Instead, these organizations advocate for the inclusion of objectives that have young learners analyze the value of diversity and the dangers of bias and prejudice."

MSDE altered the language of two objectives in the high school state frameworks for Modern World History and United States History, White said.

They include analyzation of "systematic and state-sponsored atrocities perpetrated by governments in Europe and Asia" during World War II, origins of the Holocaust and the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped the American response, and evaluation of the cause, course, and consequences of the Holocaust, he said.

Living memorial

Stone recently supplied written testimony for Maryland Senate Bill 1058, the Educate to Stop the Hate Act.

"Since 2016, in particular, there has been a notable increase in divisiveness and hate-mongering across the board," Stone said.

"This has soared since Oct. 7," she said of Hamas' unprecedented attack on Israel.

"We must do more to teach tolerance in schools in general and specifically provide Holocaust education," she said.

Rachel Loew Lipman is a board member and education committee chair of 3GDC.

"As grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, 3GDC constitutes a living memorial that preserves and honors the legacy of our grandparents through education, advocacy, and community-building," the group's website states.

Lipman is a fifth-generation mead and winemaker for her family's Loew Vineyards in Mount Airy, Maryland, where she worked for nearly a decade with her grandfather, William Loew, a Holocaust survivor.

Last week, Lipman spoke in Annapolis to support the Educate to Stop the Hate Act.

"I speak publicly to schools," she said of sharing valuable life lessons she learned from her grandfather.

Descendants of Holocaust survivors are the last people to have heard first-hand accounts, Lipman said.

"These stories are relatable," she said of the importance of sharing family oral history with school students.

"What started with Jews didn't end with Jews," Lipman said.

Teresa McMinn is a reporter for the Cumberland Times-News. She can be reached at 304-639-2371 or tmcminn@times-news.com.