Police Trainings
The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh has been teaming up with the City of Pittsburgh’s Bureau of Police and conducting a half-day training for all police recruit classes since 2017. Our training is modeled in part after the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Law Enforcement and Society training, and is similar to many other workshops Holocaust education centers and museums throughout the country hold for local police academies, connecting the lessons of the Holocaust, civil rights, and police work today.
Given Pittsburgh’s tragic and unique experience with modern-day antisemitism occurring in our own backyard, our training differs slightly from others around the country. We consider ourselves on the cutting edge of imparting understanding antisemitism to police officers: teaching them how to identify antisemitic threats in the communities they serve, how to address and respond to calls from citizens related to antisemitic concerns and crimes, best practices to serve the unique needs of the Jewish community in Pittsburgh, giving the recruits a basic understanding of Jewish holidays and cultural traditions, and hearing from officers who responded to the October 27th synagogue shooting, as they share their first-hand accounts.
Pittsburgh Police Academy recruits also get to meet and interact with our partners at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Security, and hear an abridged version of our Dismantling Antisemitism training. Finally, the recruits also hear from a Generations Speaker who shares how their family members were impacted by the Holocaust, antisemitism, and state-sanctioned persecution.
To learn more about this program, or if you are a law enforcement agency interested in hosting a training for your staff, please contact Christina Sahovey, our Operations Manager: csahovey@hcpgh.org