A group of Catholic school educators from 10 states, including Robert Biehle of Duchesne High School in St. Charles, Mo., will be traveling to Israel on an Anti-Defamation League mission that aims to provide an advance course of study on anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and Catholic-Jewish relations. Biehle will join 20 other participants in the nationally acclaimed ADL Bearing Witness Advanced program, where the group will visit Christian and Jewish holy sites in Israel and meet with Holocaust survivors, members of the Israeli government, Arab Israelis, Israeli journalists, Catholic dignitaries, Jewish community leaders, interfaith experts and scholars.

“This remarkable mission aims to continue fostering strong Catholic-Jewish relations and by equipping the educators with resources on the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and the current state of affairs in the region;  we are thrilled that Bob will take these tangible experiences back into his classrooms,” said John Wallach, Chair of the ADL Missouri/Southern Illinois Regional Advisory Board.

Since its inception in 1996, ADL Bearing Witness: Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and Contemporary Issues has trained more than 1,700 Catholic school educators across the U.S. about the historical relationship between the Jewish and Catholic communities and the impact of that relationship on Catholic teaching, catechesis and liturgy. Bearing Witness Advanced was initiated in 2005 to allow Bearing Witness graduates to extend their learning and travel to Israel.

The St. Louis Archdiocese and the Missouri/Southern Illinois ADL have partnered to send regional teachers to Bearing Witness for the last four years.

ADVERTISEMENT