Holocaust Center tries to boost on campus awareness

According to the FBI's most recent hate crimes statistics released in November under the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), New Jersey ranks third in the nation (behind California and New York) for the number of hate crimes committed. Racial and religiously motivated crimes are among the most prevalent, and though hate crimes against Muslims have been on the rise since 9/11, Jews are still the victim of the greatest number of religiously based hate crimes.

Despite the grim statistics (which may be deceptively inflated simply because New Jersey is better at gathering and reporting hate crimes data than many states) New Jersey is a leader in Holocaust education and programs relating religious tolerance. Starting in 1973, New Jersey pioneered a statewide system of Holocaust and Genocide Resource Centers overseen by the Department of Education. The Holocaust curriculum is now mandated in the state of New Jersey for pre-k through twelfth grade.

There are now 25 Holocaust and Genocide Resource Centers located on New Jersey's public college campuses, one of which is located at Mercer on the second floor of the student center, next to the bookstore. Most students do not seem to be aware of that the center is there, however. In a survey, conducted by The VOICE, of 26 Mercer students, only a quarter knew the campus had a Holocaust and Genocide Resource Center.  

According to Mercer's Dean of Student Services, Dr. Diane Campbell, the center hosts a variety of programs but may not be reaching a large number of students. She says, "In terms of the students and staff [events] we have had movies, we have had programs on Darfur, we had speakers come in. There have been books that different people read and come in for discussion. And the impact is small but I think the programs are rich."

The center's resources include a collection of textbooks on the Holocaust and Genocide. There are also DVD's and the technology to view those films in the center itself. There is a display on the genocide in Darfur and pictures of propaganda from World War II. There are also books written by teenagers during the Holocaust. In addition the resource center also contains the holocaust curriculum for pre-k through twelfth grade.

When asked why students are not taking advantage of the center, Elizabeth DeGiorgio, assistant Prof. of Education and Psychology and Co-Director for Mercer's Holocaust Resource Center says, "In many cases I think people go ‘Oh that's just the Holocaust/Genocide Resource library, how does it relate to me?' Or ‘oh that's too depressing.' You can't be talking about this topic with joy. This is emotional and it should be."

According to DeGiorgio, many faculty members do not yet know the operating hours of the resource center and the center was not opened full-time until three weeks ago. The center is currently open mornings from 9 am to noon and afternoons from roughly 3 pm to 7 pm. Specific time slots are posted in the center's window, but nowhere else on campus.