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Published: January 23 2012

Bruce Klasner, social studies teacher at Broward County Public Schools Everglades High School, has been named Holocaust Teacher of the Year by Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education.  

Klasner, the son of a Holocaust survivor, teaches an elective “History of the Holocaust” class and is the founder and advisor of Students for Tolerance and Acceptance through Knowledge and Education (S.T.A.K.E.), which created a Tolerance Museum at Everglades High School and workshops and programs on anti-bullying.

FAU’s Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education selected four South Florida teachers to receive the Gutterman Family Outstanding Holocaust Educator Award.  The awardees will be honored at the Center’s third annual Teacher Appreciation Dinner on Wednesday, January 25, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Lakeside Terrace and Banquet Center, 7880 Glades Road, Boca Raton.

 “As women and men committed to engaging students with the history of the Holocaust and the contemporary struggle for justice, this year’s award recipients are truly extraordinary,” said Rosanna Gatens, Ph.D., director of the Center.  “Their lessons reflect a broad range of cognitive and service learning activities as well as the global reach of Holocaust study as it is implemented here in South Florida.  Their knowledge, skill and creativity as teachers are clearly evident in their Holocaust instruction.”

Klasner is one of four teachers that the Center recognizes each year in Broward and Palm Beach counties who have demonstrated positive impact on their schools and the wider community in the field of Holocaust, genocide and human rights education.  The Award recipients will participate in a three-week, all-expenses-paid study tour to Holocaust-related sites in Poland, Germany and Israel, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.  

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