Photo: Nancy Green
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education Director Judy Margles announced a new fund to support Holocaust education throughout the state of Oregon, with a special emphasis on rural areas of the state. The Nancy Green Memorial Teacher Training Fund in Honor of Regina & Sidney Atlas has been established with a $25,000 donation by Dr. Gerald Green to support OJMCHE’s on-site and off-site endeavors to bring Holocaust education to all parts of Oregon. Community donations to the fund can be made online here.
“As a first-generation American with grandparents killed in the Holocaust and with cousins and uncles who survived that horrific event, the Holocaust has never been far from my thoughts,” says Dr. Green. “As the world we live in gets more polarized, genocide and racism continue to come to the fore, I (and Nancy) wanted to do something educational for children. Teaching about the Holocaust—yes, it really happened—and other genocides is one way of providing facts. After speaking with Director Judy Margles, the program of educating teachers in all Oregon school districts is a perfect fit for our philanthropic and moral and educational interests. Nancy taught middle and high school in Portland for 27 years and this will be a fitting memorial to her and to honor our now deceased cousins, Regina and Sidney Atlas, Auschwitz survivors.”
In speaking of the fund and its purpose, Barbara Atlas, OJMCHE board member and daughter of Regina and Sidney said, “the entire Atlas family is honored that our cousin Gerald would not only remember his wife, Nancy in creating this fund but that he also wishes to honor our parents. This is a loving and wonderful mitzvah.”
With the passage in 2019 of Senate Bill 664, which mandates Holocaust and genocide education in the state of Oregon, OJMCHE’s education team, led by Education Director Amanda Coven, has increased the outreach to educators, schools, and students across the state. With educational programming now online, OJMCHE has a robust series of virtual workshops, tours, and professional development for teachers.
The fund honors the memory of Nancy Marie Frahm Green who was born in Ontario, Oregon and spent her youth growing up and working on a farm. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Oregon State, she moved to Portland where she worked for 27 years as a teacher with Job Corps and the Portland Public Schools. Always a great advocate for women’s rights, she supervised and taught Franklin’s teen pregnancy program and classes in home economics, and personal finance.
