Good evening<\/p>\n
Thanks for having me.\u00a0 Earlier this week, we remembered those lost in the Holocaust, including Anne Frank, during Yom HaShoah (literally Day of Remembrance)\u00a0 Each year, people gather to \u201cnever forget\u201d.<\/p>\n
Not only have I authored a book about Holocaust survivors (who settled in Columbia) I have also written books about MEDIA LITERACY\u2014because I am concerned that we are not teaching young people how to apply critical thinking skills to the MEDIA they attend to.<\/p>\n
These are, I think we can agree, troubling times.<\/p>\n
We all see and hear the news from halfway around the world.<\/p>\n
And it is disturbing.<\/p>\n
Many of us follow the news by watching TV reports or read newspapers.<\/p>\n
But that is not, how many of our young people get their<\/u> news and information: they rely on social media, which is not always accurate or reliable.\u00a0 They may not consider the source or why someone is sending a message<\/p>\n
What about Anne Frank and her family: how did they get the news when they were closeted in the annex. The world was at war.. We know they had access to a shortwave radio and their helpers would occasionally bring them newspapers.<\/p>\n
Anne occasionally looked out the window. We all know she wrote a diary expressing her thoughts and feelings. \u00a0In 1941 she wrote:
\n“Imagine how interesting it would be if I published a novel about the Secret Annex”<\/p>\n
That diary has been read and widely circulated. In fact, it has been translated now in at least 70 languages. And if you\u2019ve toured the Anne Frank Center downtown, you may have seen a portion of those translated books in a display.<\/p>\n
“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes..” that could very well have been written yesterday. But it was written by Anne in 1945<\/p>\n
The Franks like other Jews of the time were exposed to propaganda and antisemitism.\u00a0 When I speak to students today (about our book) I am shocked that most don\u2019t know what propaganda or antisemitism is today.<\/p>\n
Antisemitism led to the Holocaust and it has exploded again.\u00a0 Parents, if\u00a0 your student is on Instagram, you need to know about this startling statistic: research released last month showed alarming findings– Instagram\u2019s algorithm pushing antisemitic content to millions.<\/p>\n
If we forget the lessons of the past, we are doomed to repeat them.<\/p>\n <\/strong>I worry that young people may not recognize that rhetoric and actions of today eerily resemble 1940 Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n As a media literacy educator I worry because I don’t see many young people questioning what they see read and hear.<\/p>\n We live in a world now where images and video are being easily manipulated and transmitted instantaneously.<\/p>\n It is more important than ever that our young people STOP. THINK FACT CHECK and VERIFY what they are exposed to. Because if they share that information, it may be false inaccurate, an even dangerous.<\/p>\n TO STUDENTS: Raise your hand if you have fact checked and verified something you read online before sharing it.<\/p>\n Tonight, as you tour the Anne frank exhibit you will learn about the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany, the laws that restricted the Jews, and the antisemitism that spread throughout Europe.<\/p>\n My question is what will be the takeaway?<\/p>\n Will you– young people –be bystanders, or will you be upstanders?<\/p>\n Will you speak out when you witness or experience prejudice, hatred, racism or antisemitism? I hope so.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll be watching.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good evening Thanks for having me. Earlier this week, we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-42067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-popular"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42070,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42067\/revisions\/42070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}