What is UPSTANDER WEEK?
County Executive Robert Astorino has officially declared May 29 June 1, 2012, as Upstander Week. This special week is meant to encourage student activism and awareness by inspiring students to become upstanders (rather than bystanders) and to take an active role in changing the world. It is a call to action for participating schools to get their communities involved by hosting an event to bring attention to a particular human rights issue.
Educators Field Study Trip to Germany & Poland June 30 - July 15 2012
- To inspire and motivate area middle and high school educators in their preparation to teach the lessons of the Holocaust to their students.
- To combine visits to Holocaust memorials, including two concentration camps in Germany and a death camp in Poland with meeting with representatives of Human Rights organizations in both countries.
Yom HaShoah Commemorations Thursday, April 19, 2012
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Countywide Commemoration 10 AM - 12 Noon Outwitting the Nazis to save thousands of Jewish children. A screening of Irena Sendler: In the Name of their Mothers for students will be followed by a candle lighting ceremony and Keynote speaker Ruth Bachner, a Holocaust survivor. Co-sponsors: Westchester Jewish Council & Jacob Burns Film Center Limited Seating, Please RSVP
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Commemoration Ceremony 6:00 PM This event will have a screening of Testimony of the Human Spirit to be followed by the commentary of two Holocaust survivors featured in the documentary. Meet Judith Alter Kallman author of A Candle in the Heart: Memoir of a Child Survivor and Rabbi Emeritus Amiel Wohl from Temple Israel of New Rochelle, will lead the ceremony. Co-sponsor: Justice Brandeis Law Society
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Hunting Eichmann: Distinguished Lecture 7:30 PM A distinguished lecture by Neal Bascomb, author of Hunting Eichmann, a narrative on the pursuit and capture of Adolf Eichmann. The Susan J. Goldberg Memorial Teacher Award will be presented. Co-sponsor: Iona College |
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Human Rights Institute for March 14, 2012 Three hundred students and teachers attended the HHREC Human Rights Institute of High School Students Leaders to hear Rwandan genocide survivor Jacqueline Murekatete speak about her experience. Students participated in workshops on various human rights issues to discuss ways of empowering other students to become upstanders rather than bystanders.
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Distinguished Lecture by March 29, 2012 Bernd Wollschlaeger MD, author of A German Life, spoke about his experience as a son of a highly decorated German military officer during WWII and how this impacted his own life decisions. Over two hundred-fifty community members attended this distinguished lecture. Focus Seminar on the March 21, 2012 Expanding our human rights mission to include additional examples of genocide, twenty-five local teachers attended this Focus Seminar. |
Westchester's Holocaust Survivors October 2011 As the number of Holocaust survivors in the county decreases, those who remain find sharing their stories all the more important.
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Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that can develop after a person is exposed to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, or other extreme threats on a person's life. Symptoms may include disturbing thoughts, feelings, or dreams related to the events, mental or physical distress to trauma-related cues, attempts to avoid trauma-related cues, alterations in how a person thinks and feels, and an increase in the fight-or-flight response. These symptoms last for more than a month after the event. Young children are less likely to show distress but instead may express their memories through play. A person with PTSD is at a higher risk for suicide and intentional self-harm.
Most people who have experienced a traumatic event will not develop PTSD. People who experience interpersonal trauma (for example rape or child abuse) are more likely to develop PTSD, as compared to people who experience non-assault based trauma such as accidents and natural disasters. About half of people develop PTSD following rape. Children are less likely than adults to develop PTSD after trauma, especially if they are under ten years of age. Diagnosis is based on the presence of specific symptoms following a traumatic event.
Prevention may be possible when therapy is targeted at those with early symptoms but is not effective when provided to all individuals whether or not symptoms are present. The main treatments for people with PTSD are counselling and medication. A number of different types of therapy may be useful. This may occur one-on-one or in a group. Antidepressants of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor type are the first-line medications for PTSD and result in benefit in about half of people. These benefits are less than those seen with therapy. It is unclear if using medications and therapy together has greater benefit. Other medications do not have enough evidence to support their use and in the case of benzodiazepines may worsen outcomes.
An extensive article about improving the existing tests and developing new methods for PTSD early spotting was published in the New York Times last year.
In the United States about 3.5% of adults have PTSD in a given year, and 9% of people develop it at some point in their life. In much of the rest of the world, rates during a given year are between 0.5% and 1%. Higher rates may occur in regions of armed conflict. It is more common in women than men. Symptoms of trauma-related mental disorders have been documented since at least the time of the ancient Greeks. During the World Wars the condition was known under various terms including "shell shock" and "combat neurosis". The term "posttraumatic stress disorder" came into use in the 1970s in large part due to the diagnoses of U.S. military veterans of the Vietnam War. It was officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980 in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III).