The "Alicia Project"
In January 2010, Dr. Mark I. Greenberg, then-head of Special & Digital Collections at the University of South Florida (USF) Library in Tampa, interviewed Alicia Appleman-Jurman at her home in California. With the help of Elizabeth Tucker behind the camera, Dr. Greenberg delved into Alicia's life after what is chronicled in Alicia: My Story. Dr. Greenberg questioned Alicia about her experiences while in Eretz Israel (Palestine) in the years following the end of the book, life in the United States as she & her husband built their lives together & raised a family, and the specifics of just how Mrs. Appleman-Jurman wrote her book.
And thus began the "Alicia Project" -- with the end goal being another resource that educators not only in Florida but nationwide could utilize in order to teach the Holocaust.
The USF Libraries system would like to thank The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee for awarding a grant that made the "Alicia Project" -- the result of which is this online exhibition -- possible.
Although Mrs. Appleman-Jurman does not live in the Tampa Bay area, in 2013 those interviews were transcribed for inclusion in USF Tampa Library's Oral History Project. In addition, Mrs. Appleman-Jurman provided to USF a copy of her 1992 lecture at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah (part of its "Tanner Lecture Series"), which was transcribed as well. These were cataloged into the USF Libraries system and are available at any time to the general public; the audio files & transcripts can be found by clicking either of the first two links provided below.
Personal photographs provided by Mrs. Appleman-Jurman from her service with the Israeli Navy were digitized & cataloged into the USF Libraries system. The third link provided below leads to those photographs.
In keeping with the spirit of the "Alicia Project", other resources were also compiled to further assist educators in teaching about the Holocaust. The lists of fiction & nonfiction literature resources (Kindergarten through adult) as well as websites that focus on Jewish children who lived during or through the Holocaust as a primary topic are provided as a starting point for educators in their quest towards finding the best possible means by which to teach the Holocaust.
Lesson plans to accompany the chapters of Alicia: My Story, written by USF School of Education graduate students during the spring semester of 2014, were also incorporated into the "Alicia Project".
Finally, five short video compilations were created, for the specific purpose that educators could use these shorts as "teasers" or the attention-grabber in their classrooms, or as an introduction to utilizing Alicia: My Story in a Teaching the Holocaust curriculum.
ALICIA APPLEMAN-JURMAN ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW
ALICIA APPLEMAN-JURMAN LECTURE IN 1992