Sioux City Tolerance Week aims to teach respect for all
Learning how to live together in peace has been an age old struggle for mankind.
Sioux City’s tolerance week has held the mantle for the last 11 years of educating people – primarily children – about the importance of respecting people from any culture and understanding the persecution that humans have endured throughout history.
“People take ‘tolerance’ literally,” said Christine McAvoy. “The literal definition is ‘to tolerate someone,’ but the actual idea [we are trying to teach] is ‘how can we all live together in peace and harmony’?”
McAvoy and her founding partner Lou Ann Lindblade have been facilitating tolerance week since it started in 2005.
“We look at many, many films and documentaries, talk to survivors, and surf the Internet to find things to thread the week together,” McAvoy said.
Tolerance week kicked off on Monday evening with a presentation of “Rosenwald” at WITCC’s Cargill Auditorium. The documentary tells the story of Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish philanthropist who helped open 5,300 schools for black children in the early part of the 20th century, during the time of segregation.
“[Rosenwald] is in theaters right now,” McAvoy said, “but the nearest place that it is being shown is Minneapolis. So we were very lucky to be able to do this screening.”
The week will continue with the opening of “I Never Saw another “Butterfly” at the Orpheum on Wednesday, a play presented by the Sioux City Community Theatre’s Youth Theatre that was inspired by a poem written by a 12-year-old boy who was murdered at an Auschwitz concentration camp. The play will continue to be shown throughout the weekend at the community theatre.
“It’s about Terezin, a concentration camp for artists and children,” said McAvoy. “They sent the questioners there – the people who were wondering what was going on [with the Holocaust]. It was really an insult to the people who lived there, because it was depicted like they were living really well there, when actually they weren’t. It was a façade.”
People were held in Terezin until there was room for them to be sent to Auschwitz, where they were murdered. Only 1 percent of children held in Terezin survived.
One of those survivors, Inge Auerbacher, will be attending the performance at the Orpheum on Wednesday night. This will be Auerbacher’s first time participating in Sioux City’s tolerance week, and also tolerance week’s first year without a speech from Holocaust survivor Phil Gans.
“Phil knew how to relate to the kids,” McAvoy said. “I think in middle school age, you don’t really understand the seriousness of [the Holocaust] – you have to be older to grasp it. So taking something kids can relate to – Phil said, ‘I knew the ultimate bully. Hitler was the ultimate bully.’ Bullying is something kids can understand.”
Thursday night will feature a presentation of another documentary, “Raise the Roof,” at the Sioux City Art Center (shown above).
“It’s about the reconstruction of [synagogues] that were destroyed [by the Nazis],” McAvoy said. “It was mostly done by students. They used the tools from the time period that the buildings were constructed. I can’t imagine doing what those people did to get that accomplished.”
Ultimately, tolerance week aims to educate people of all ages to be aware of the persecution that people have suffered and learn to overcome it.
“They teach about the Holocaust in middle school, but they need to continue the dialogue or it doesn’t stick,” said McAvoy. “It’s a heavy enough subject… we try to give it to people in steps.”
Tolerance week is made possible by the contributions of Jerry and Kathy Weiner.
“The Weiners wanted to do something for the community,” said McAvoy. “They wanted this to be completely accessible to anybody, with no barriers – completely open to anyone who wants to come to a presentation.”
All tolerance week events are free and open to the public.
Photo: http://www.mfa.org/
About the Author
Ivy Sweet I am a proud poodle owner, avid video gamer, reality TV junkie, writer, Briar Cliff University alumna, and freelance editor from Sioux City. I like to do stuff and then write about it.
Related Posts
Week Ahead: Musicals, Meditation and Trip Modus →
Week Ahead: Illusions, Musketeers and a French Farce →
Director’s goal: Make Christmas Carol’s fantastical moments real →
