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2008 President’s Award
The Bearing Witness Program
The Bearing Witness Program – designed by the Anti-Defamation League of Washington, DC – is a professional development opportunity for Catholic school educators. Now a nationwide program, Bearing Witness seminars equip Catholic teachers with knowledge of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism. It helps teachers explore the roots of hatred, violence and prejudice, so they may in turn realize their responsibility to model and promote understanding among all people. Teachers receive resources necessary to teach their students about the historical relationship between Jewish and Catholic communities.
The concept for this program began when James Cardinal Hickey, then Archbishop of Washington stood before hundreds of Jews and Catholics in St. Matthew Cathedral in a liturgy of remembrance of the Holocaust. In the front row of seats, sat six elderly Holocaust survivors. After speaking about the agony of the Jewish people and then in private conversations with the survivors, Cardinal Hickey gave his blessing to this project which was created by the ADL and the archdiocese.
Bearing Witness, which first served Catholic educators in the Archdiocese of Washington, has become a national program training teachers in Catholic schools across the country. The program continues to be coordinated in conjunction with the Archdiocese of Washington D.C., the United States Holocaust Museum, and the National Catholic Educational Association with the endorsement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archbishop Donald Wuerl regularly participates with the teachers in the Washington summer institutes. Seminars are also held regionally in Arizona, San Diego and Los Angeles. Bearing Witness has been cited by the Holy See as an important initiative to improve Catholic-Jewish relations.
Catholic education has at its center Jesus’ teaching about profound respect for the dignity of every human person. Bearing Witness has helped hundreds of teachers and their students deepen their knowledge and experience of this core teaching.
Abraham H. Foxman
National Director
Anti-Defamation League
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