Using Local History to Counter American Racism and Antisemitism

American civil rights educators and activists have been engaged in deep dialogue with counterparts in Germany who focus on local German Jewish history and the Holocaust, thanks to Widen the Circle’s Visiting Program. As America struggles to acknowledge and counter its own legacy of racism and bigotry, three of the programs’ participants will discuss how certain German approaches to educating about Jewish history and the Holocaust can be applied to this country.

About the Speakers

Dr. Karlos Hill, author and community-engaged scholar whose recent book examines the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921. He has worked to introduce curricula about the massacre in secondary schools and was involved in community-wide efforts to mark its 100th anniversary, and has written and taught about other aspects of black history.

Gabriele Hannah, author and activist who has made a specialty of compiling and then telling the stories of individual Jews in the Rhine-Hesse region. She has also lived in the American South.

Joel Obermayer (facilitator), is founder and executive director of Widen the Circle and a director of the Obermayer Foundation. He founded Widen the Circle in 2019, a time of growing racism, antisemitism, and right-wing extremism, to amplify and enhance community-based history projects, and to bring together the people engaging in it to share ideas, approaches, and mutual support.