Beyond the Textbook: Training Teachers to Teach the Holocaust

July 24, 2026

On the first day of school this fall, fifth grade teacher in Walton County, Daphne Williams plans to begin with a different kind of history lesson. 

Months before welcoming her students back into the classroom, Daphne joined a cohort of educators from across Georgia committed to deepening the way they teach the Holocaust. 

Through the Teacher Ambassador Program, a year-long partnership between Kennesaw State University’s Museum of History and Holocaust Education and The Breman, Daphne spent months studying Holocaust history, exploring Jewish life, discussing difficult questions, and learning alongside fellow educators, culminating in an immersive journey through Germany where the history she’d spent months studying came to life. 

“It was totally life-changing,” Daphne says. “The Jewish community trusted us enough to empower us to learn and then come back and deliver what we learned to future generations. I have no words. I can’t thank them enough.” 

That kind of transformation is exactly what the Teacher Ambassador Program was designed to create. 

“The best chance we have at making change is the long game, and that means investing in our teachers, who invest in our children,” says KSU’s Andrea Miskewicz.  

Together, Kennesaw State and The Breman built the Teacher Ambassador Program to move beyond teaching the Holocaust as a single historical event. 

“We can’t simply teach that six million Jews died,” says The Breman’s Rabbi Joe Prass. “Education is understanding how millions of ordinary people were convinced that this was required. Education is learning how to recognize the signs of history repeating itself.” 

Participants examine Jewish life before the Holocaust, the gradual rise of Nazi ideology, resistance movements, and the choices ordinary people made, giving them the tools to help students understand not only what happened, but how it happened. 

Turning that vision into a year-long experience required more than passion. It required investment. 

Through a $200,000 grant from Federation’s JInnovate initiative, Kennesaw State and The Breman were able to fully fund the Teacher Ambassador Program for four years, making the experience accessible to teachers from communities across Georgia. 

“When you invest in teachers, you’re investing in every child they will ever teach,” says Samantha Kurgan, Federation’s VP of Community Engagement. “I don’t believe the Jewish people should be the only bearers of this history. Our teachers are our front line.” 

Now in its second year, Federation’s investment is already creating a ripple effect. 

Daphne returned home determined to redesign her curriculum, spend more time teaching the Holocaust, and bring the stories, photographs, and personal experiences from the journey into her classroom. 

“I want every child who sits in my classroom to be given truth, taught empathy, and given a voice,” she says. “I want them to be empowered to stand up and do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do.” 

Daphne is just one of sixteen educators in this year’s cohort. Each teacher will return to their district, share what they’ve learned with colleagues, strengthen Holocaust curriculum, and reach hundreds of students every year. Over the course of a career, those classrooms become thousands of young people with a deeper understanding of history, empathy, and the responsibility to stand against hatred. 

That is the lasting impact of JInnovate. Not simply funding a program but helping visionary partners expand an idea whose impact will continue for generations. 

As Andrea puts it, “We’ve created something special because we’ve done it together. When we work together, what we come up with is much more profound than anything we could create on our own.”