Shoa commission sees slash in state funding
NJ Holocaust centers fret impact on events and teacher training
Paul Winkler said that despite cuts in its funding, the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education will continue its basic efforts — “bringing survivors and students together.”
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September 9, 2009
The New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education is the latest victim of budget cuts by the state.
With a budget that has been slashed from $244,000 to $180,000, the commission, which trained 7,000 NJ teachers last year, will certainly feel an impact, but will continue to carry on with its core programs, said executive director Paul Winkler.
“We’re going to look forward to when [the funding is] restored,” Winkler told NJ Jewish News. “In the meantime, we’re not stopping.”
Winkler said the cuts did not come as a surprise. “Everyone at the state level was expecting it,” he said. “There are some programs that have been cut completely.”
The commission has already adopted cost-saving measures. Its five employees, all part-time, have accepted salary cuts, and commission members no longer will submit related travel expenses for reimbursement.
The commission hopes to obtain outside funding for its curriculum guides, and is also collaborating with the Amistad Commission — a state body charged with teaching African-American history and experiences in NJ classrooms — on a curriculum about genocide and slavery. It is also collaborating with the New Jersey Arab-American Heritage Commission on a workshop about stereotyping.
Similarly, any new projects that arise will rely on securing outside funding.
With anti-Semitism on the rise, said Winkler, “the main thing is we can’t stop the work we do.”
Holocaust education centers around the state, many of which request grants from the commission for specific programs each year, will feel the impact of the cuts on some level.
“It’s an additional crunch,” said Dr. Ann Saltzman, director of Drew University’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Study in Madison. “We’re all experiencing difficulty finding support for our programs as it is”; with the latest cuts, she said, it’s “even more of a challenge.”
“The amount of money that the state is actually able to provide at this point is nominal,” Saltzman said. While the center has three programs already planned for the fall semester — including its annual Kristallnacht observance in November, for which the commission has pledged its support — Saltzman said she is still concerned.
“We are totally dependent on outside funding for our programs,” Saltzman said. The center’s funds, she said, come from the commission, the NJ Council for the Humanities — which itself has been affected by decreased fund-raising — individual supporters, and family foundations.
As for its spring programs, “we’ll have to see where we end up,” Saltzman said.
At Kean University’s Holocaust Resource Center, a joint initiative between the university and the Holocaust Resource Foundation, a private philanthropic organization, the impact of the state cuts are not as dramatic, said director Gerry Melnick.
“The only direct implication thus far is that the university has adopted a furlough system” for all staff members, with seven unpaid days. Its major programs, however, are mostly underwritten by the university, the foundation, or by “self-supporting” admission fees.
The only difference Melnick has seen, as other administrators noted, is that public schools, with their own budget shortfalls, are not approving as many out-of-school professional development days as they did in the past. The schools cite the costs involved and the need to hire substitute teachers for the day.
In the meantime, Kean continues to do teacher in-service days at participants’ schools.
“The support of the NJ Commission on Holocaust Education is really important to us,” said Dr. Harriet Sepinwall, codirector of the center of Saint Elizabeth’s Holocaust Education Resource Center in Morristown. The center, which does not charge admission fees for its public programs, does not have major donors of its own, she said.
Sepinwall said it will be a “big challenge” for Winkler, “who has been a tireless champion in Holocaust education in New Jersey…to attempt to support meaningful Holocaust education programs in the state with a limited budget.”
The commission is a cosponsor, for example, of an Oct. 1 CSE workshop, Finding Refuge: Latin America and the Holocaust, and also is assisting with related publicity efforts. If it were to cut off funding, CSE “won’t be able to support programs like this,” said Sepinwall.
Winkler remains optimistic about the future as he continues to charge ahead with the commission’s programs. “The bottom line is we’re not going to stop our basic efforts — bringing survivors and students together,” he said.
Johanna Ginsberg contributed to this story.
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