Naomi Kramer
Naomi Kramer is a Canadian curator and president of the Holocaust Education and Genocide Prevention Foundation.
Early life and career
From 1978 until 1985 Kramer worked as a director at the Galix Corporation in New York, where she supervised 300 employees. In 1985 she was employed as a display artist at Dawson Displays in Montreal, where she was responsible for several exhibitions at Holt Renfrew, Northern Telecom, La Baie, and Philips International; Exhibits in the Museum of Science and Technology, Ottawa, Ontario; Catalogue of Cree Art, Canadian Museum of Civilization.Holocaust Education Career
Montreal Holocaust Museum
Naomi began her tenure in 1992 as the education director at the former Montreal Holocaust Memorial Center. In her nine years as an education director, Kramer developed Docent Training Programmes, lectured at the McGill University, and created numerous multimedia educational programmes. Additionally, she was responsible for teacher's guides for Holocaust education in elementary, high school as well as at college levels.Canadian Jewish Virtual Museum
In 2001 Kramer became the project director of the Canadian Jewish Virtual Museum. She oversaw the development of the first Canadian Jewish Museum Website, the creation of communal archival database, the budget implementation and writing reports to Federal Government. Furthermore, she produced numerous multimedia and educational videos. The Flash introduction was used as a model by Canadian Heritage for cultural institutions setting up virtual Websites.Jewish Museum
In 2002 Kramer started working as a museum consultant on the development of the Museum of Jewish Montreal. She was responsible for the liaison with Municipal, Provincial, and Federal Government Agencies. Additionally, she developed Collections Policy, recruited board members and co-drafted the By-Laws.Holocaust Education and Genocide Prevention Foundation
Kramer is the president and founder of the Holocaust Education and Genocide Prevention Foundation, a non-profit organization mandated to educate the public about the destructive powers of prejudice and discrimination.She was a delegate to academic conferences in Israel, the United States, Germany and Austria. Furthermore, she is the co-coordinator for the Annual Symposium on the Holocaust and Genocide at Vanier College.
Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service
In 1994, Kramer was designated as one of the first international partners of the Verein Austrian Service Abroad, Gedenkdienst the Republic of Austria's program to place young Austrians as volunteers at Holocaust and peace related institutions in lieu of compulsory military service.Vanier College
An early pioneer of bilingual tolerance-based programming across Canada, Kramer spearheaded the launch of an annual symposium at Vanier College on the Holocaust and Genocide now entering its 28th year. In May 2018 to mark the anniversary of her almost three-decade involvement with the program, she led a HEGP educational trip to Austria and Italy entitled, "Moral Responsibility: Global Citizenship" for 25 students from Vanier College and Concordia University. In Italy, Kramer organized a round table discussion with Father Norbert Hoffmann, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews in Vatican City. In Vienna, the students were hosted by City Councillor, Tanja Whesley at the Rathaus and by Canadian Ambassador, Mark Bailey at his residence. In Linz the group visited Mauthausen and met with Niklas Frank, son of infamous war criminal Hans Frank and Gauleiter of Poland during the Second World War.Publications
Literature
- Kramer, Naomi. Kristallnacht: Icon of the Shoah, in Building History: The Shoah in Art, Memory, and Myth ed. Peter Daly, Karl Filser, Alain Goldschlager, and Naomi Kramer, Peter Lang Publishing. New York, 2001.
- Kramer, Naomi. The Institutionalization of Memory: Museums as Keepers of the Past and Educators for the Future, in Building History: The Shoah in Art, Memory, and Myth ed. Peter Daly, Karl Filser, Alain Goldschlager, and Naomi Kramer, Peter Lang Publishing. New York, 2001.
- Kramer, Naomi. The Transformation of the Shoah in Film, in Building History: The Shoah in Art, Memory, and Myth ed. Peter Daly, Karl Filser, Alain Goldschlager, and Naomi Kramer, Peter Lang Publishing. New York, 2001.
- Kramer, Naomi. Museums and Holocaust Education in Canadian Children's Literature/Litérature canadienne pour la jeunesse Issue no.96 Spring 2001, University of Guelph.
- Kramer, Naomi and Headland, Ronald. The Fallacy of Race and the Shoah, University of Ottawa Press, Ottawa, 1998.
- Kramer, Naomi. Visualizing Memory... a last detail, in Ronald Headland ed. So Others Will Remember: Holocaust History and Survivor Testimony Véhicule Press, Montreal, 1997.
CD-ROM and Video
- The Holocaust in German History. Goethe Institute, Munich, 1999. CD-ROM
- Fact, Fiction, and Propaganda DVD and pedagogical guide designed to alert students to the destructive powers of prejudice. It exams the history of propaganda and provides tools of analysis for establishing credible websites
- Visualizing Memory... a last detail. Distributor: Ergo Productions, USA, Educational video
- Historical Overview of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim. History video
- Canadian Jewish Virtual Museum and Archives Films: Nachum Wilchesky: "Yidishkeit On The Air." Be Prepared: Jewish Brownies and Girl Guides
- Oral Histories: Edward Bronfman, Rosetta Elkin, Bernard Finestone, Gloria Victor Halpern, Mildred Lande C.M.
Exhibits