Drew Beiter

(a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of East Aurora)

The Presentation of the Irena Sendler Award

“For Repairing The World”

Andrew Beiter Recieves the Irena Sendler Award,
a Prestigious International Award

Springville, New York eighth grade teacher Andrew Beiter has been chosen as the one American teacher to receive the Irena Sendler Award for outstanding Holocaust education.  The award was presented in a school assembly March 27, 2008, highlighting the Kansas students who wrote and appear in the drama Life In A Jar, playing in Buffalo, New York.  The play portrays the work of Polish-Catholic Irena Sendler, recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for smuggling 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust, hiding their identities on slips of paper buried in a glass jar.  The teacher/director of the students originally set on the task of re-discovering her story after four decades of media obscurity, conferred the $10,000 award in front of Mr. Beiter’s students, past and present, gathered for an hour of interaction with the Life in a Jar cast.  The Irena Sendler Award is given annually to one teacher in Poland and one in the United States whose innovative and inspirational teaching of the Holocaust exemplifies Irena Sendler’s respect for all people regardless of background.  The Polish award was presented on April 30, 2008.

A native of Buffalo, Andrew Beiter attended St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute and earned a B.A. in Political Philosophy at Michigan State University in 1983.  He spent several years as a United States Park Ranger in Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks before returning to Western New York to receive his teaching certificate from the University of Buffalo and an M.A. in Education from SUNY Fredonia.  He began his teaching career at St. Bonaventure School in West Seneca in 1995, teaching Social Studies, English and Spanish.  He taught 7th and 8th grade Social Studies in Panama, NY, before assuming his present position teaching 8th grade Social Studies at Springville Middle School in 2000.  He and his wife Mary live in Hamburg with their two children, Mitchell (10) and Margaret (6). 

Mr. Beiter has been very active in the Buffalo, New York, Holocaust Resource Center.  His teaching in the Springville Middle School has been an example of presenting the idea of making a difference.  He has held summer institutes dealing with Dafur, Holocaust studies, and other genocides.  His life has been dedicated to ‘repairing the world’ and he continues to present creative and innovative methods in education.  His students have taken to heart the story of Irena Sendler and Life in a Jar.  Drew Beiter is ‘touching the future.’

The Irena Sendler Award is presented by the Life in a Jar Foundation, and funding for the award is through the Goldrich Family Foundation in California, with the assistance of Metuka Benjamin of Stephen S. Wise Temple in Los Angeles.  Life in a a Jar is a non-profit foundation which creates exciting history and social studies projects with teachers around the world.

http://www.springvillegi.org/webpages/sdarfur/irena.cfm

http://www.irenasendler.org/default.asp

http://www.springvillegi.wnyric.org/msvids/award.video.mpg

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Drew has put together a multi-media presentation about the situation in Darfur, which he has already given at the UU Churches in East Aurora and Hamburg. This presentation involves a slide show, music, audience participation, and printed information for everyone to take home. He would like to offer this same presentation in the other UU churches in Western New York, and perhaps other organizations in the area would be interested as well. Here is a short description of the presentation:

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Andrew Beiter’s talk will explore the historical roots of mass murder and how the rise of global communication allows average citizens to alter its outcome.  Highlighted will be the causes and responses to the genocide in Darfur, and what local students and religious congregations have done to end it. Be sure to bring your cell phone to the presentation!

Mr. Beiter is an 8th Grade Social Studies teacher at Springville Middle School. In addition to co-chairing the Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide studies in Hamburg last August, he is a board member of the Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo, as well as Buffalo for Africa.

Graduating with a BA in Political Philosophy from Michigan State University and a Masters in Education from Fredonia State College, Mr. Beiter was the national winner of the 2007 Irena Sendler Award for repairing the world, and is currently a 2008 Teacher Fellow of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He has run numerous workshops on the Holocaust and genocide prevention, including the 2007 Day of Learning on Darfur at Daemen College. He is the proud parent of Maggie and Mitchell Beiter, has been married for 13 years to his wife Mary, and resides in Hamburg with the three of them.

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