- JFCS in the Media
- Education
- Holocaust Center
San Francisco Chronicle
By Filipa A. Ioannou
At Francisco Middle School in San Francisco’s North Beach, more than 80 percent of the students speak a language other than English at home — and they were quick to pick up on the talk about immigration during the recent presidential debates.
“There’s a total undercurrent of fear here for our particular students,” says Marna Blanchard, a social studies teacher at Francisco, where students’ other languages include Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin and Korean.
Concert pianist Mona Golabek greets student at performance of Children of Willesden Lane, part of the Bay Area Big Read Photo credit: Lea Suzuki
The complicated emotions students feel as they observe current events — from President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to build a border wall to the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe — have led some to connect deeply with their learning materials as they study the Holocaust.
As part of “The Big Read,” a program launched by the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center this fall, 7,000 Bay Area students read a book about the life of Lisa Jura, a 14-year-old girl who fled Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938.
Read the full story at the San Francisco Chronicle >