Initiated in 1994 by former faculty member and alumna, Margaret Kocevar ’90 (1969-1996), the Tolerance Resource Center is designed to provide students, faculty, scholars, and members of the greater Cleveland community with the opportunity to understand, research, and appreciate issues of racial, cultural, religious diversity and harmony in the world around them.

The Tolerance Resource Center, housed in the Clara Fritzsche Library at Notre Dame College, opened on November 16, 1997, a day designated by the United Nations as International Tolerance Day. Margaret (Maggie) Kocevar’s vision of a center that houses books, videos, educational material, a VCR and a computer with links to related museums throughout the world became a reality. Maggie was a Holocaust scholar and was working toward her PhD when she died suddenly of a heart attack. She and Sister Mary Louise Trivison, Holocaust educator, had spent many months planning the Center.

Although the Center focused on the Holocaust in its beginning months, scholars, friends, faculty and administrators quickly realized that many other issues of intolerance could be addressed through the Center. Additional education material, curriculum guides, videos, maps and posters were soon added to the collection. Internet links related to sites and museums throughout the country were established.

To enrich the Clara Fritzsche Library holdings on tolerance related issues, the Kocevar family presented Maggie’s collection of resources to the Center. The collection of Katherine Koperick, a former educator and advocate for the disabled, came to the Center through her family, and the resource materials of Sister Mary Louise Trivison brought the holdings to about 1,900 volumes and media resources.

Teaching Tolerance

How does a small Catholic liberal arts college situated in a religiously and culturally diverse community teach tolerance, racial and religious harmony? They do it by inviting neighbors to campus for art shows, plays, and movies – all related to issues of tolerance. They do it by offering Holocaust courses in the academic curriculum: religious and philosophical issues, women, the other victims, the churches, the children, the rescuers, the survivors and, currently, the hidden children.

Rachel Morris, a former professor of Maggie Kocevar’s and chair of the fine arts department at Notre Dame, saw an opportunity to tap a wider audience beyond classroom doors. “The arts have a unique way of building bridges and surreptitiously getting the message across.” Faye Sholiton, a well-known Jewish playwright, and Maggie Kocever had been interviewers for the Shoah project. Faye presented her play, The Interview, to Notre Dame’s Tolerance Resource Center for possible production. With the support of the Jewish Community Federation and several local families the play premiered on February 14, 1998 in conjunction with an art exhibition by Peter London. His portraits of people who had perished during the Holocaust served as the setting for the play, which has since won numerous awards and been performed from New York to Los Angeles.

The Clara Fritzsche Library at Notre Dame College hosted an earlier exhibition, Views of Israel, the photography of Elliot Faye, which stressed the religious diversity of Israel: Jewish, Muslim and Christian. Judy Harlan, a child of Romanian survivors displayed her paintings depicting Holocaust themes as well. The Library also hosted the FBI poster exhibit of the Holocaust planned with several Jewish and Christian groups of Cleveland.

In May 1999, The Tolerance Resource Center, Second Generation Kol Israel and the Cleveland Holocaust Center held the First Educators’ Conference. The following year the Center expanded is programming to include other issues of anti-bias. It hosted an exhibit of artists, all victims of sexual abuse. Related workshops and other speakers addressed this sensitive issue during the course of the exhibit. Another exhibition centered on the theme of global religious persecution. The level of suffering and persecution depicted throughout the world overwhelmed visitors to the exhibit Artists represented in the show spoke to students about the importance of social justice reflected in their artwork.

The following year the Center linked arms with its neighboring community, University Heights, sponsoring a series of popular movies that explored various issues of racial and religious intolerance. It was a program meant to emphasize community harmony as well as diversity. Students and faculty met with residents from the neighboring community, viewing and discussing issues of race, of religion and of prejudice in honest and enriching dialogue.

The Mary Costanza Exhibit, Images of Love and War, October 11 to December 14, 2001, provided another opportunity to bring the greater Cleveland community into contact with Mary Costanza’s art as well as her message of love and social justice in the context of the Holocaust. Co-sponsored by the Tolerance Resource Center and the Italian American Cultural Foundation, supported by generous gifts of the Jewish community and friends, Images of Love and War provided national and international guest lecturers, specialists on Holocaust issues, two art exhibits, an Educators’ Conference on teaching the Holocaust in Middle and High school classrooms and a comprehensive bibliography on “Teaching about the Holocaust.” With the assistance of Holocaust Survivors whose experience graced and enriched tours, student docents guided visitors, school groups or others through the exhibit. The Manchester Dance Ensemble performed a program on Holocaust themes, and the Bodwin Theater Group presented three performances of the Investigator, by Peter Weiss.

In January, 2002, Facing History in Ourselves conducted a workshop for the Notre Dame College faculty, “How to Address Stereotypes in the Classroom.”
The workshop served as preparation for the Charlene Teeters art exhibit scheduled for the spring of 2003.

Native American artist Charlene Teeters brought her exhibit focusing on prejudice against Native Americans to Notre Dame College from March 12 to April 17, 2003. March 12 marked the opening of the series with a slide lecture by Teeters and a Case Studies Workshop for teachers, co-sponsored by Facing History and NDC. Art as Activism, presented by Teeters, opened the exhibit, “Home of the Brave”. An accompanying exhibit “Home of the Brave: An Ohio Interpretation” was held in the Clara Fritzsche Library Gallery and featured the works of local Native American artists. A panel discussion, “Misuse of Native American Symbols in Sports and Media,” closed the week’s activities. The Tolerance Resource Center collaborated with the UCC on April 5, 6, 7 for its 5th Annual Conference, Racist Imagery in Popular Culture with its speaker, Dr. Richard Grounds. Thanks to a generous grant for the entire enterprise, faculty were offered grants for course/curriculum revision, and the Tolerance Resource Center and the Clara Fritzsche Library can boast an outstanding collection of curriculum and teaching guides. A Library-engendered bibliography of books and videos on Native American issues was also compiled for distribution to local educators.

Recently the Tolerance Resource Center collaborated with the Heights Community Congress to sponsor Community Connections, a series of three evening community-building workshops. Insights and Illuminations, held on February 18 and March 9 and 23, 2004, brought to together educators, college students, parents, business leaders, community leaders and church members to enhance perceptions about the cities in which we live (Highland Heights, Lyndhurst, Mayfield Heights, Richmond Heights, South Euclid) and to serve as a catalyst for positive change.

Attitudes and prejudices are slow to change but at Notre Dame College the challenge is being met in the classroom as well as in the campus gallery, the library collection and gallery, and Tolerance Resource Center.

Mary Louise Trivison, S.N.D., PhD.
Professor Emerita, Notre Dame College

5/18/04

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