CHGS Philanthropy Report

Thank you for your generous support of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) at Salem State University. Your contributions have enabled the center to not only continue but expand its programming, reaching thousands of students, teachers and community members in our region and around the world. The center’s research, teaching, and public programs further our mission by combating racism, antisemitism, and prejudice and defending the values of social justice, diversity, and human rights that are the basis of our democracy.

Because of you, we can produce meaningful programs for hundreds of people throughout the year. We have held numerous teacher workshops on the Holocaust and other genocides including the Armenian, Bosnian, and Cambodian genocides as well as workshops on teaching difficult topics including Jim Crow and the legacies of the American Eugenics Movement. We have hosted scholars and artists tackling a variety of topics, such as the role of the International Criminal Court, the famine and genocide in Sudan, and the healing power of music and art. We also presented our signature event, the Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony, livestreamed from the Higgins Middle School in Peabody to over 300 viewers.

The center’s rich academic and educational programs exist and thrive because of you and your support. We are a leading institute in Holocaust and genocide research and can offer new scholarships and resources for researchers, professors, educators, students and the public because of your generosity. This report aims to illustrate just how deeply your philanthropy advances our mission at Salem State and beyond.

Sincerely,

Chris Mauriello, PhD
Professor, History
Director, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Thanks to the generosity of community member, Andrea Barron, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies is able to offer a competitive scholarship to students wishing to study abroad. Named in honor of Helen Hirshberg Barron, a lifelong learner and travel enthusiast, the eponymous scholarship helps offset the costs of foreign study and travel for students wishing to participate in CHGS’ study and travel institutes. In 2025, the scholarship was presented to Zachary LeColst, a gifted student and early career teacher. The scholarship enabled Zach to travel with Professors Chris Mauriello and Stephenie Young to Poland in April 2025 to study the Holocaust and visit such sites as the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp.

Our teacher workshops continue to reach hundreds of educators in our region and beyond. The Teaching the Holocaust and the Teaching Difficult Topics workshops bring middle and high school teachers and curriculum directors together to examine new approaches, curriculum and resources to address urgent historical and contemporary issues in the classroom. Through strong school district, community and national partnerships, we have developed innovative workshops and introduced participants to new expertise and educational materials from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Each year, these workshops prepare educators to engage their students on complex topics, including teaching about the history of the Holocaust, Native American history, LGBTQ history and other social justice and human rights issues. This work with teachers impacts hundreds of the students they educate, who make up a new generation of Americans. The center has a goal of expanding their professional development workshops and becoming the region’s hub for Holocaust and human rights education.

“Students need to see that so much of what we’re experiencing now—as a nation and as individuals—has already happened to varying degrees. This knowledge helps students to shape their world in positive ways.”

- Kim Hubbard ’14G, MAT- History, Melrose High School history teacher

We are so grateful for your ongoing support of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies; we hope that the details and stories provided in this report begin to illustrate the depth of your impact on the Salem State community and beyond. Thank you for all that you make possible—and thank you again for your thoughtful philanthropy.