WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in cooperation with the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, will hold the Western Regional Education Summit on February 20 – 22, 2008, at UNLV. Educators from Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, with a wide range of experiences in teaching about the Holocaust, will explore how to bring Holocaust studies into their classrooms and communities.

The Las Vegas event is the fifth in a continuing series of regional summits led by the Museum in Washington, D.C., intended to enhance dialogue and cooperation among groups involved in Holocaust education.

In addition to exploring Holocaust history and education, the Summit will feature a series of conversations among participants, and will include presentations by Museum historians about contemporary antisemitism, the ethical dilemmas faced by teachers in the Third Reich, and how Holocaust history can be used as a catalyst to examine instances of modern genocide.

The goal of the summit is to support partnerships among Holocaust organizations, professors in colleges and universities, representatives from state departments of education, and secondary-level teachers to more effectively meet the challenges of teaching about the Holocaust in the future.

The Museum promotes the responsible teaching of the Holocaust by providing training and support materials to educators nationwide. The Museum Teacher Fellowship Program has developed a select national corps of Holocaust educators. Additionally, the Museum hosts an intensive three-day Belfer National Conference for entry-level Holocaust educators and organizes teacher training workshops in cities across the country. The Museum’s website, www.ushmm.org, provides resources at no cost to educators, including conference applications, an online training module, primary sources, and exemplary lesson plans.

For more information about the Summit, please contact Andy Hollinger at 202/488-6133 or ahollinger@ushmm.org.

A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was created to inspire leaders and citizens to confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity and strengthen democracy. Federal support guarantees the Museum’s permanence, and donors nationwide make possible its educational activities and global outreach. For more information, visit www.ushmm.org.