FAU’s Gutterman Family Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education Dinner Honors Educators

Image: Tracy Sachs, Arthur Gutterman, Chelsea Dittrich, Maureen Carter

More than 150 people attended Florida Atlantic University’s Arthur and Emalie Gutterman Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education (CHHRE) annual Educator Awards Dinner at the Boca Raton Marriott at Boca Center.  The dinner celebrated the exceptional work of K-12 teachers supported by FAU’s Gutterman Family CHHRE and honored the 2021 Gutterman Family Outstanding Holocaust Educators. The highly competitive award is funded by Arthur Gutterman, a benefactor whose generous contributions help sustain the Gutterman Family’s CHHRE’s community and professional learning programs.  This year’s award recipients were:

• Broward County Public Schools – Chelsea Dittrich, Sunrise Middle School and Tracy Sachs, Deerfield Beach High School
• School District of Palm Beach County – Maureen Carter, Boca Raton High School

 “Research has demonstrated that students who learn about the Holocaust in school demonstrate higher critical thinking skills, a greater sense of social responsibility as well as civic engagement,” said Michael Horswell, Ph.D., dean of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters.  “FAU is on a journey to become the nation’s leader in creating and assuring peace, justice and human rights – for all. Holocaust education, with its concomitant fight against antisemitism and other forms of hate, will always be central to that mission.”

This was the 12th year of the award, which recognizes educators who have demonstrated a positive impact on their schools and the wider community within the field of Holocaust, genocide and human rights education.  It honors individuals who actively, by their example and through teaching these difficult subjects, strengthen South Florida students’ world-citizenship and capacity to uphold the dignity of all persons.

The Arthur and Emalie Gutterman Family Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education (CHHRE) is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote respect for all people through the study of Holocaust, genocide and human rights, and is an integral unit of FAU’s Peace, Justice and Human Rights Initiative.  The Center relies exclusively on private donations to provide professional learning programs and classroom resources for teachers and students, and community programs to support the mandated FL.ST 1003.42: Required Instruction of the Holocaust.  Programs include professional learning for educators, Holocaust Summer Institute, and an annual trip to the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., as well as programs open to the community. The Gutterman Family CHHRE serves K-12 educators in public, private, charter, parochial and Jewish Day Schools throughout Broward, Palm Beach, St. Lucie, Martin, and Indian River counties.