The Jewish Education Project announced the names of this year’s Shine A Light on Antisemitism Civic Courage award winners, and two University of Minnesota professors are among the recipients.
Professors Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr and Jana Lo Bello Miller at the University of Minnesota School of Education are transforming teacher preparation by enhancing Jewish inclusion and addressing antisemitism.
Shine A Light on Antisemitism Civic Courage Award honors individuals across the United States who demonstrate civic courage by taking bold action against antisemitism through education, advocacy and community building.
“With antisemitic incidents at all-time highs, these awards shine a light on ordinary people making extraordinary choices – proving that courage isn’t reserved for history books, but lives in everyday moments when individuals choose to dispel darkness through action,” said Amy Amiel, chief program officer at The Jewish Education Project. The project is part of an organization that aims to recognize, encourage, and inspire educators to foster meaningful Jewish experiences in education.
There are 18 Shine A Light winners across nine categories. Martin-Kerr and Lo Bello Miller are among the honorees in the University Educators and Administrators category.
Martin-Kerr is combating antisemitism at what many consider its most foundational level. Her work focuses on preparing elementary school teachers to educate young students. She also oversees undergraduate programs for future elementary teachers, including the elementary licensure program.
“I can use my powers to make sure that our Jewish students are included and recognized and they’re valued and honored and they’re embraced and seen by us as faculty,” said Martin-Kerr.
Born and raised in Jamaica, where she received the majority of her teacher training, Martin-Kerr came to the U.S. in 2002 and joined the University of Minnesota in 2011. She says her background shaped her commitment to recognizing and confronting antisemitism in higher education.
“If there is one thing you’re gonna remember about me, it’s that I’m Jamaican, and my ethnicity is extremely important to me,” said Martin-Kerr. “I move and operate in the world differently because of my ethnicity. I wasn’t born and raised in the United States. I came here as a full-blown adult.”
What sets her apart is her drive to act and her ability to recognize gaps in her own teaching. She applied for the George Washington University Fellowship and Summer Institute on Antisemitism and Jewish-Inclusion after realizing that, while her syllabi covered diverse topics such as race, religion, and combating anti-Blackness and other forms of racism, they included nothing on antisemitism or Jewish inclusion.
She saw this as a clear gap in her knowledge and a need to address it.
The summer institute she attended was held just before Oct. 7, 2023.
“Total coincidence, and also a great one. It was the universe that made it happen. Yes, I love that the universe caused me to go to George Washington,” said Martin-Kerr.
There, she learned how to transform educational resources and guide new teachers in understanding Jewish identity and the complexities of the Jewish experience.
Martin-Kerr partnered with her colleague at the School of Education and Human Development, Lo Bello Miller, to revamp course materials, providing comprehensive instruction on antisemitism and Jewish inclusivity.
“After attending the institute, October 7 happened, and I witnessed several things on campus and immediately shifted the gear that I was in and I started doing what I needed to do, doing what needed to be done,” said Martin-Kerr.
They began reworking course materials to include instruction on antisemitism, used grant funding to expand their collection of Jewish children’s literature, established a faculty-student talk series, and presented at conferences.
“After October 7, our roles as teacher educators within an institution kind of solidified that like this is what it means to be an action and community and to support our students, where more stories were coming up of antisemitism in our college campus, that it was like even more so about learning, but then like action pieces that I think we just had to shift things within the curriculum even faster and in the community space at U of M,” said Lo Bello Miller
Lo Bello Miller works primarily with graduate students. She has been in her role for more than a decade and she said she’s seen the impact the revised coursework has made.
“It’s really been the last few years that we both hear stories of students feeling scared to come out of their dorm rooms, or now students saying, I’m going to bring Jewish children’s literature into my classroom,” Lo Bello Miller said. “And now I feel confident… it’s not one type of story. There’s just more stories, I think, that we’re hearing. And so to me, that’s been the most significant difference I’ve seen.”
Martin-Kerr applied and received grant money to both acquire a Jewish teaching assistant and acquire and incorporate Jewish children’s literature in their classroom, as well as bringing in Jewish guest speakers to engage with students.
Her work extends beyond her classroom. Martin-Kerr’s forthcoming co-authored publication, Evaluating Jewish Children’s Literature: A Toolkit for Elementary Educators, is designed to give teachers practical tools to incorporate Jewish narratives and address antisemitism in the classroom. The publication builds on her broader work to support Jewish identity and inclusivity in education.
“’I’ve been using Jewish children’s literature, intentionally to expose my students and myself, because I’m not Jewish, to contemporary Jewish culture, also to try to combat antisemitism.” said Martin-Kerr.
Regardless of awards, Martin-Kerr and Lo Bello Miller say they will keep fighting antisemitism across the university, beginning in the classroom.
“I’m going to continue supporting our Jewish PhD students. If some of them are having a hard time finding faculty members to support their work, I’m going to continue doing what I have to do,” said Martin-Kerr.
Lo Bello Miller says their program to combat antisemitism in education and promote Jewish inclusion is constantly evolving.
“It feels good, and I will say that it still feels very fragile,” she said. “As things shift in our own response, our own roles and responsibilities as everything is going on in higher education, we are able to make moves in our curriculum for the courses.”