NSU Newsroom
SharkBytes
Horizons
This version of NSU News has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of NSU News, visit news.nova.edu.
This version of SharkBytes has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of SharkBytes, visit sharkbytes.nova.edu.
CAHSS Faculty Organized Students to send Letters of Hope to Children and Adults in Syria through The Wisdom House
Gary Gershman, J.D., Ph.D., professor in the Department of History and Political Science (DHPS) in NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS), organized an initiative for CAHSS students to send Letters of Hope to children and adults in Syria. Last spring, The United States Holocaust Museum sponsored a program on NSU’s Fort Lauderdale/Davie campus called Fleeing Atrocities: Witness Perspectives. It featured Mouaz Mustafa from the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF) and Alfred Munzer, a Holocaust survivor. Gershman and Mustafa kept in touch and Gershman learned more about The Wisdom House, a project sponsored by SETF.
The Wisdom House began in Little Rock, Arkansas after a TedX presentation by Mustafa at the University of Central Arkansas. Originally, the goal was to do something about the thousands of orphaned children in Syria by connecting and sustaining a Syrian orphanage for five years. However, seven years later the orphanage is still operating in spite of the bombings and having to move underground and The Wisdom House still supports the project.
Gershman indicated that, “If I have learned one thing from teaching the Holocaust and Genocide it is that to be a bystander is to enable the atrocities. I vowed that I would do something and help this cause. One of the Wisdom House projects is called “Letters of Hope.” This is a chance to write to children and adults in Syria and let them know that we care and want to help. It truly gives them hope.” Last summer, Gershman was awarded the 2017 Curt C. and Else Silberman Faculty Seminar Follow-Up Grant for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, one of only two 2017 recipients. He was able to research and study there using their archives.
Gershman invited CAHSS undergraduates to participate by writing letters and using the NSU Write from the Start Writing and Communication Center. After only three days over 150 letters were written and sent through The Wisdom House to Syria. He hopes that this will be the first of other initiatives. For more information, please contact Gershman at ggershma@nova.edu. For more information about The Wisdom House, please go to: http://thewisdomhouseproject.com/.