Interfaith Shabbat at The Temple

InterJoin The Temple on YouTube for a special Interfaith Shabbat with guest speaker, Fred Whittaker.

Originally from Waukegan, Illinois, Fred Whittaker has been teaching science, religion, and Holocaust Studies at St. Francis of Assisi School in Louisville for the past 18 years. While attaining comprehension of the historical details which define the Shoah is vital, Mr. Whittaker asks his students to do more than become historians. Because their lessons will be drawn from the sacred text of the lives, suffering, and heroism of the Shoah’s victims and survivors, Mr. Whittaker passionately believes that his students must truly become witnesses as well, honoring and dignifying, in all they say and do, the memory of those whose lives were taken so prematurely. Extending the same caring and concern they develop for people who lived during the Holocaust to the lives of the members of the Jewish community, who must live today still in the presence of antisemitism, becomes a natural outcome of empowering students to ‘Never Forget’ in Mr. Whittaker’s class. Both historians and witnesses alike are called to knowledge. Witnesses, he teaches, are called to pronounce themselves meaningfully, courageously, and compassionately into the lives of individuals who have been marginalized, forgotten, or oppressed. In this way, he hopes, a generation of students will be raised who understand who they must be and become if events such as the Shoah are to never happen again.

Amongst Mr. Whittaker’s most proud achievements is the 13-year long journey he led to pass legislation that would mandate Holocaust education in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. In 2008 the Ernie Marx Resolution was passed. In 2018, the Ann Klein and Fred Gross Holocaust Education Act was passed.