The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous

Description

The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR) provides monthly financial assistance to almost 1,700 aged and needy Righteous Gentiles in 28 countries. Funds are also provided to meet emergency needs of the rescuers -- food, medicines, heating fuel. The majority of the rescuers receiving financial support live in Eastern Europe. The Foundation seeks to fulfill the traditional Jewish commitment to "hakarat hatov", the searching out and recognition of goodness.
The Foundation's education program focuses on educating middle and high school teachers about the history of the Holocaust and within that context, rescue. The JFR education program, "Teaching the Holocaust: History, Perspectives and Choices," includes a three volume set for teachers and their students. The first volume, "Voices and Views," authored by Professor Debórah Dwork, is a ten-chapter edited and annotated collection designed to educate teachers about the Holocaust and to introduce them to the leading scholarship in the field. "Voices and Views" addresses the specific subject of moral courage and the rescue of Jews within the context of a general history of the Holocaust. The second section of "Teaching the Holocaust," provides additional resources enabling the teacher to integrate the knowledge obtained from "Voices and Views" into the classroom. The third section of "Teaching the Holocaust" is a student reader containing high school age appropriate introductions for each theme and primary source materials. The JFR is developing a national program of teacher education workshops and seminars.
The JFR also has an extensive Bar/Bat Mitzvah program for students and their families. The program twins a Bar/Bat Mitzvah with a Christian Rescuer.
Other programs include a Speakers Bureau and a missions program. Each year the JFR sponsors a trip to Europe to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to honor those non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews.