__________________ Nassau _________________
HERALD All the news of the Five Towns
Succos Fair and fun in the park
Chris Stefan is remembered
Take part in a beach cleanup
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Vol. 99 No. 43
oCToBER 20 - 26, 2022
$1.00
Come to the country fair By JEFFREY BESSEN jbessen@liherald.com
Monica Rzewski/Herald file
VIVIANA, lEFT, RoBIN and Frank Sita with a new friend at last year’s Rock Hall Country Fair, which is set for this weekend at 199 Broadway in Lawrence.
The two-day Rock Hall Country Fair is on schedule for the second consecutive year, after being canceled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Conceived 37 years ago by longtime Rock Hall Museum director Linda Barriera, the fair celebrates early America, and connects the past with the present through crafts, historical educators and entertainment. Amy Vacchio, who became the director of the museum after Barriera died in April, described the fair as a “big deal.” “It’s a wonderful place for the community to go,” Vacchio said, referring to the museum, which is owned and operated by the Town of Hempstead and where she has worked for 23 years. “It represents our history on Long Island and in New York. It predates the Revolutionary War and is a wonderful asset. It’s an example of surviving Georgian architecture, and the fair is a Continued on page 10
Focusing on Holocaust education in the public schools By KEPHERD DANIEl kdaniel@liherald.com
There is a renewed emphasis on Holocaust education thanks to a new state law signed in August by Gov. Kathy Hochul, requiring public school district superintendents to attest in a survey that their schools are making the Holocaust part of classroom instruction. Survey responses must be submitted by Nov. 10. The survey asks whether elementary, middle and high schools are providing instruction related to the Holocaust, how they are doing so and what type of training educators
have received in the subject. The American Jewish Committee praised the new law. “As the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, Holocaust education becomes more challenging,” said AJC Regional Director Eric Post. “Expanding Holocaust education is the biggest challenge this generation of Jews will have in the future, and increasing education levels in New York State schools is imperative.” While information from the State Education Department will detail what compliance with the law will look like, Holocaust education is already a requirement in the Lawrence School District,
W
e don’t want to traumatize 6-yearold kids, but we do want to start teaching them. ANDREA BolENDER
Board chair, Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County from kindergarten through 12th grade. Using resources provided by the state, which include funda-
mentals of teaching the Holocaust from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and lesson plans from the Anti-Defamation League and the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Lawrence has implemented an extensive Holocaust curriculum. “We have so many families in our district that have oral histo-
ries of having lost family members to the horrors of the Holocaust,” Superintendent Ann Pedersen said. “We join with one of our local yeshivas, HAFTR, to participate at the middle school level in Names, Not Numbers.” HAFTR is the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway. Continued on page 11