Inside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, one of the partners in the Eileen Ludwig Greenland National Bearing Witness Summer Institute program. Photo: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

JNS.org – A group of 40 Catholic school educators traveled to Washington, DC, in late July as part of a program to learn more about the history of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.

The Eileen Ludwig Greenland National Bearing Witness Summer Institute is a long-running program sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in partnership with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Catholic Educational Association, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Georgetown University’s Program for Jewish Civilization.

Over a five-day period, the program seeks to educate participants about the history of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and recent changes in Catholic-Jewish relations.

“Bearing Witness is a unique program in its partnership between the Catholic and Jewish communities and our joint commitment to changing the dynamic between our communities so that the past does not serve as a model for our future engagement,” Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director, said in a statement.

“In working together to understand and teach the difficult history of anti-Semitism and the impact of this history on Catholic-Jewish relations historically and today, Bearing Witness is a powerful example of how we can work together to shape a better future,” Foxman said.

Since 1996, ADL’s Bearing Witness program has trained more than 1,700 Catholic school educators.