The Yad Mordechai Museum and Institute of Holocaust Education – Educational Approach
The educational approach of the School of Holocaust Education at the Yad Mordechai Museum is derived from the museum’s purpose and vision.
The Yad Mordechai Museum is an institute of Holocaust education – an educational institution whose primary purpose is to preserve the historical memory of European Jewry, from the beginning of the twentieth century, through the struggle to establish the state of Israel, up to the present. This memory is instilled using educational tools and in light of universal and particularist values that find expression in meetings with groups from various populations during their visits to its many sites.
The school engages in teaching history in a thought-provoking manner that subjects the topics and the concepts to ethical and moral examination in comparison to life today. In this way, we enable visitors to ponder events, perceptions, and behaviors; to doubt; and to develop positions vis-à-vis the historical story and its effects on contemporary reality. The museum’s educational activity emphasizes the development of humanistic and human values, as well as the strengthening and deepening of Jewish and Israeli identity in light of historical events and the reality in which we live.
Holocaust education at the Yad Mordechai Museum is anchored in an emotional approach that enables learners to contend with the events of the period, in accordance with their age characteristics, thereby protecting their ethical world. According to this approach, the museum itself is a multidisciplinary and multisensory pedagogical tool that helps learners take an active part in the learning process through the viewing and usage of visual technological tools displayed throughout the museum, and through the mediation of the educational staff, which facilitates and encourages learning and curiosity, the asking of questions, and critical examination.
The principles guiding all the activities of the institute for Holocaust Education include: critical thinking, asking questions, discussing moral and ethical dilemmas, seeing the good in people, the right to choose, and the concept of human equality.
The educational teams are responsible for meticulously implementing the educational approach and mediating the story to visitors. The educational teams are able to adapt their instruction to the group in question with regard to age, areas of interest, and learning and emotional abilities. In addition, the educational teams undergo initial training and frequent advanced training programs to deepen the content and their teaching methods, and to create a high-quality and emotionally-moving learning experience.
