Lighting the Darkness

Madene Shachar ’84 preserves the past in the present

by Kathryn Tirjan ’05

Keeping the spotlight on one of the world’s darkest eras—while living near one of today’s most dangerous countries—is the aim of Madene Saidel Shachar ’84, a forum administrator/project supervisor and part-time guide at the Yad Layeled Children’s Memorial Museum in Israel, the world’s first children’s Holocaust museum.

Shachar credits Dickinson with guiding her into her field. While a sophomore, this sociology major participated in an urban semester program based in Harrisburg that combined urban studies with a field of interest—in Shachar’s case, education. “The liberal-arts education makes any student a more well-rounded and thoughtful person by providing the tools for self-study and broadening of one’s knowledge,” Shachar claims.

“ Since I left Dickinson after my sophomore year, you would think that there was no time to connect the rest of my life’s work to my ‘incomplete’ college education, but that one semester eventually led to my working in a Kibbutz [the Hebrew word meaning common settlement] children’s house, becoming an early-childhood teacher and going on for my B.Ed. in early-childhood education and being part of the first graduating class in this field in Israel,” notes Shachar, who has made Israel her home for the last 20 years. She finished her education at the Oranim Teacher College (considered one of the best teacher-training colleges in Israel) and later the Kibbutz Seminar Teacher’s College.

Three years ago, Shachar decided that it was time for a career change after 16 years in early-childhood education. Despite Shachar’s lack of formal training, the director of the education department at the Ghetto Fighter’s Museum, the world’s first Holocaust museum, saw her potential and offered her a post as an English-speaking guide for foreign visitors. Shachar, who resides near the seaport city of Haifa, excitedly accepted.

After all, “here was an opportunity to research and learn in one of the best-stocked archives and library on [the Holocaust],” Shachar says. In hindsight, she adds that other benefits of the position were “meeting great educators, who taught [her] how to grasp the Holocaust and to teach others about one of the darkest periods in the history of mankind.”

However, Shachar lost her job because of the decline in foreign tourism. She then began working at the children’s museum and became involved with the International Book-Sharing Project: Children of the World Learn about Children.

“ The Yad Layeled Children’s Memorial Museum was established to remember [the 1.5 million] children who died in the Holocaust as well as tell their story and the story of those children who survived,” explains Shachar. “A multimedia collection of three-dimensional exhibits, videos and soundtracks of passages from children’s diaries help us to understand the many different experiences children had during the Holocaust.”

The International Book-Sharing Project is geared for middle- and high-school students. Once an Israeli school is paired with an American school, teachers from both schools are trained, and the students read and discuss the same book. In the final stages of the project students are encouraged to share their opinions, ideas and thoughts on the reading and the Holocaust via the Internet.

Currently, Shachar’s International Book-Sharing Project duties include monitoring the project’s Web site, completing evaluations of school forums, guiding three Israeli schools (of the 22 pairs of schools) through the stages of the program and furthering the development of the program and teacher workshops.

“ One of the greatest rewards is reading what the children have to say to each other and how they react to each other’s thoughts,” says Shachar. She also takes pleasure in working with American schools and watching the project, Web site and student discussions progress. “By having the younger generation break the culture and language barriers, we have a real opportunity to create dialogue between nations as well. I truly believe that through education we can solve the world’s problems,” adds Shachar.

Geographically, Shachar is close enough to one of the world’s most prominent conflicts that her own three children are required to take their gas masks to school each day as part of school policy. And yet she claims to have returned to her usual routine. “I was more concerned about the terrorist attacks ... and I am worried for my family in the U.S.,” says Shachar. “Israel has enough problems with the economy and strikes. Iraq is just news. Israelis are trying to make ends meet and finding it difficult to keep their heads above water from month to month.”

Despite the current world situation, Shachar continues to make waves overseas as she pursues her work with the museum. “I am proud to be affiliated with an institution that educates about democracy, freedom, tolerance, human dignity and personal responsibility—these are universal subjects whose importance span beyond the actual historical events of the Holocaust and whose existence are being denied every day, all over the world.” •

For more information about the Ghetto Fighter’s Museum and Yad Layeled Children’s Memorial Museum, go to: www.gfh.org.il

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