Dr. Paul Winkler went to his eternal rest on July 12. I missed the funeral of my mentor, colleague and friend because it was day two of our Annual Seiden Teacher’s Conference in memory of Cecile Holzman Seiden. Cecile, a child survivor, master teacher and public speaker, produced much of the NJ State Commission on Holocaust Education’s Middle School Curriculum.
For me the conference became an opportunity to speak of Dr. Paul Winkler. Given Cecile’s regard for him, I believe she would have approved. Both would have been immensely pleased to learn that Robert Hadley of the Shoah Foundation, a presenter at our conference, said that he relied on the NJ Commission’s curriculum when he was a classroom teacher in Oregon.
Paul Winkler was a warm and extraordinary human being. As a teacher he made a difference. Earning a doctorate, he rose in the ranks to become a tremendous global force in Holocaust and Genocide education. He will be missed by countless people. Fortunately, the man who was the founding executive director of the NJ State Holocaust Education Commission lived to see his dream realized. He was the engine that made New Jersey a model in Holocaust and Genocide Education and Remembrance throughout the world. He was ever-energetic, even when he was battling for his life.
I’m so glad that we thought to honor him at our Federation’s annual Yom HaShoah commemoration at Kean University in 2014, one of the—if not the—largest such event in the state. Getting there and staying throughout the evening was not easy but he felt the love, never uttered a word of complaint and was grateful that we had arranged for him to sleep at the university’s special guest quarters rather than drive the long way home. I always meant to ask how many miles he logged each year as he crisscrossed the state to attend programs and events wherever and whenever he could. He was extremely encouraging and supportive of centers, of teachers, survivors and students. His openness and generosity, his embrace of the world and its people, his ability to keep a meeting to the scheduled time…there are so many marvelous things I will remember about him. Most especially I will remember his laugh. It was filled with such zest. Clearly, he took so much pleasure in living.
It was no surprise that he fought cancer with every ounce of his strength. A responsible realist, he named and mentored his successor, Lawrence Glazer, years ago, yet continued to hold the reins of office until he handed them over to the very kind and capable Glazer.
I will always be indebted to Dr. Paul Winkler. He sent me on my first visit to Holocaust sites, and in 2000 to Yad Vashem’s International Educators’ Institute. I could always call him for advice and was, later, honored when he called to ask advice on certain matters or for help in his work, whether it was designing the special button for his commemorations, team-teaching a workshop at the Princeton Historical Society or launching the Student-Survivor Luncheons. When I brought him special curriculums from students, teachers or my colleagues at Associata Tikvah, a Holocaust Center in Romania, he was happy to post their work on the Commission website as part of the Commission’s comprehensive curriculum, which is greatly respected and used throughout the world. Paul knew he could always count on the Holocaust Council of Greater MetroWest to host special programs and new initiatives, including the delegation of educators from Lithuania along with its education minister, and the Commission’s special celebration on the 20th anniversary of the State Mandate to teach the Holocaust and genocide in all NJ public schools. (Most Catholic and Jewish schools have adopted that mandate.)
Paul remained a stalwart supporter of CHE, the Council of Holocaust Educators, which I founded in 2000. Right to the end, Paul reveled in the Council’s successes and remained supportive of our cutting-edge initiatives and programs, including our outreach last year to the Armenian community through our commemoration of the centenary commemoration of the Armenian genocide. New Jersey’s Department of Education has an extensive curriculum on the 1915 genocide of Armenians and Paul was very proud of the fact that the Commission had, under his able leadership, withstood Turkey’s threats and pressures to omit it.
On a personal level, like many of my colleagues, I will forever be indebted to Paul. He supported my own professional growth, writing recommendations that made it possible for me to attend the ALPHA Seminar in China and Korea in 2011, and the ISGAP conference on anti-Semitism in Oxford last summer. I will always be grateful to him and will treasure my memories of a warm and wonderful man, who transformed the hearts and minds of thousands upon thousands of people. He left an impressive legacy that New Jersey’s 30 Holocaust Centers will strive to maintain and grow, in part to honor a beloved leader and also because it is the right thing to do, a path to peace and mutual understanding.
May Paul Winkler rest in peace and may his memory always be for a blessing.
Barbara Wind is the director of the Holocaust Center of Greater MetroWest.
