The Jewish History Museum & Holocaust History Center’s annual fall benefit, “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught,” will honor Holocaust education pioneer Ray Davies.
It will be held Sunday, Oct. 29 at noon at the Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort.
Richard T. Hanson, professor emeritus of the School of Theatre, Film & Television at the University of Arizona, will give a presentation highlighting classic moments in theatre that emphasize the importance of ethics in education.
Davies, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Japan in 1952, has been a Tucson resident since 1952. Now retired, he is an internationally renowned lecturer and Holocaust educator. A charter member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., he was appointed to the USHMM Educators Council and selected to represent American educators at the dedication ceremony for the museum in 1993. He is an emeritus board and founding member of the Educational Enrichment Foundation, a local nonprofit, which has named its annual humanitarian award for him. A founding member of Tucson’s Holocaust Survivors Speaker Bureau, Davies was the first recipient of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Jewish Community Relations Council’s Margie Fenton Humanitarian Award
in 2004.
“Ray is the first generation Holocaust educator in our community. He literally made the way for generations that have followed. His life-long commitment to Holocaust education is a model for everyone in the field,” says Bryan Davis, executive director of the Jewish History Museum.
The fall benefit will highlight the museum’s Birin Family Educational Outreach Program, which provides students across Southern Arizona opportunities to explore questions of identity, community, race/racism, memory and justice through the prism of Jewish values and the history of Jewish people in Southern Arizona.
Hanson created the UA’s musical theatre program. He has the honor of having a UA Foundation Musical Theatre Endowment established in his name and was awarded the James P. Anthony Award for sustained excellence in teaching. He has directed and choreographed numerous musicals, plays, and revues. He currently presents lectures celebrating the American Musical Theatre and the Great American Song Book for The Learning Curve’s series, Learning at The Loft.
The cost of the fall benefit lunch is $95; RSVP at jewishhistorymuseum.org or 670-9073.
