For Betina Roher, an Abington High School history teacher, becoming an 2025 Alfred Lerner Fellow and attending a conference focusing on Holocaust education was something she wouldn’t soon forget.
Roher, 41, of Chester Springs, Chester County, described her time spent at the five-day intensive course hosted by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous as “intense” and “amazing.”
“The experience of hearing from the leading experts from all over the world who delve into this matter in such different ways, it was just a profound experience that I’ve never had before,” Roher told MediaNews Group.
Roher has spent nearly two decades as an educator in Montgomery County, teaching AP government and Holocaust, genocide and crimes against humanity to Abington High School students.
“I absolutely love history. I think it’s so important — not that other subjects aren’t as well — but I really think that kids need this,” Roher said. “They need this to go out into the world and really know what else is happening beyond their doorstep.”
Roher has long been passionate about the subject. It was something she picked up on from her childhood, having conversations with her parents, Steven and Janice Rosenblum.
“I’ve always loved history. I really have to attribute it to my father,” she said. “My father is not a teacher in any way shape or form, but he’s very very knowledgeable. He’s always up to date on what is going on in current events, but he can also speak about events in the past.”
Roher, who is Jewish, recalled learning about the Holocaust while attending religious school at Congregation Keneseth Israel, a reform synagogue, in Elkins Park. Her teacher, Clara Isaacman, was a Holocaust survivor.
“I can remember her telling us stories. I can remember reading her book,” Roher said.
“Even at a young age, I think I had so much to learn from those that were older than me and their experiences,” she said.
Roher graduated from Cheltenham High School in 2001 and went on to Millersville University, graduating in 2005.
While Roher said she initially planned a different path, it was her parents who reminded her about her love of history and encouraged her to pursue it and eventually become a teacher.
Roher emphasized how reflecting on Isaacman’s story resonated with her more as an adult.
“I think getting older, revisiting what she told us about herself, her family situation, really had more of an impact on me as an adult and now as an educator than it might have when I was a younger child,” she said.
“As an educator, our survivor stories are really important, and … we are going to have an incoming generation of students that is not going to be having the same opportunities that those before them that we ourselves had to hear these firsthand accounts of our survivors,” Roher said. “So it’s really important for us as educators [to] make sure we are continuing to bear witness since they will not be able to do that.”
The veteran educator has been teaching the elective for several years that she said has gained popularity among students. It’s administered as a dual enrollment course, Roher said. Abington is “the only school in Pennsylvania that offers this” in conjunction with Stockton University in Galloway Township, New Jersey.
Steve Marcus, coordinator of Holocaust and genocide dual credit consortia at Stockton University, had asked Roher about participating in the seminar focusing on Holocaust education and teaching techniques. “I said, ‘absolutely, sign me up,’” Roher said.
The news was well received by Roher’s parents when they heard of the invitation.
“They’re very proud of me. My mom has expressed that it falls to those of us who have the ability to educate, to continue sharing the history, to make sure that no one forgets,” Roher said.
The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous Summer Institute for Teachers took place from June 21 to June 25 in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Twenty-five participants selected by the New Jersey-based organization came from Holocaust centers as well as middle and high school teachers from 10 states and Poland to gain a better understanding of “the complex history of the Holocaust” and learn new teaching strategies.
“We went through pretty chronologically. We didn’t start with talking about the Holocaust,” she said. “We started with the history of anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism, and we really worked our way from there.”
Roher found herself “engrossed” in subject matter she found relevant personally and professionally as anti-Semitism remains on the rise in recent years.
“I think it’s important for everyone,” she said. “I think that when we see anti-Semitism, it’s almost like a bellwether for other things that are going on in the world. And we see that when we look back through the past, yes, anti-Semitism 100 percent is on the rise here today, and we can look back at how when we’ve seen anti-Semitism through other generations, the other things that were going on, and it’s something that we really do need to be aware of and we need to speak out against it and make people aware that the preconceived notions, the falsehoods that often get turned around in reference to Judaism, that they are usually not based in facts.”
There were 9,354 anti-Semitic incidents reported across the U.S. in 2024, according to findings from the Anti-Defamation League. Noted incidents include an arson attack at the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg while Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family were in residence; the fatal shooting of two individuals outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.; and an attack on Jewish demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado who were calling for the release of hostages in the Mideast.
“I would say that there are many connections that can be drawn, and that we all need to be aware of what is taking place,” she said. “I think that we need to make sure we’re not turning a blind eye to the anti-Semitism that exists, and to really make sure that we are speaking up and speaking out against it.”
Boher said she’s most excited to bring newfound tools to her classroom and incorporate primary sources and other tactics into lesson plans. She was most impressed by one of the speakers, Paul Salmons, who used an artifact when introducing the subject matter.
“We had numerous presenters who were using diary entries who were using documentation at different points,” she said. “The diary entries, many of them are from adolescence, and since I teach adolescents, having them relate, and getting that story firsthand through reading somebody’s journal, and then talking about their experience within a ghetto.
“And then the other primary sources that were also introduced as people were looking after the Holocaust, when they were looking for relatives, when they were applying for visas … it was amazing,” she continued.
When asked what Roher’s biggest takeaway from her experience at the conference was, she replied that “there’s always more to learn.”
“I think that there are definitely those out there who can still teach us more, and for me that’s a good feeling,” she said. “I always want to know as much as I can and the more that I can learn the better off I’m going to be and a better job I can do for my students.”