Survey Proves Long-term Impact Of "March Of The Living" (mol) Experience

Jan. 31, 2011 - PRLog -- NEW YORK – A survey of the long-term impact of the March of the Living experience quantifies that the March transforms participants’ lives in many ways that reach beyond Holocaust education. The survey showed that 89% of respondents expressed an increase in their commitment to human rights, 91% agreed that confronting Anti-Semitism gained more importance in their lives, and 61% expressed an increase in the importance of their adherence to their Jewish faith.

The survey was conducted by independent research firm InfoFeedback that sent questionnaires to 1,703 former MOL participants with 231 completing and returning the questionnaires for an overall completion rate of 13.6%.  According to InfoFeedback, “This is consistent with a margin of error of 6%... (a) margin of error and level of confidence (that) indicates that the results can be interpreted with confidence.”

Additional findings include: 84% said that the importance of educating their children in the Jewish faith increased after the March; almost two thirds of respondents reported that they had traveled to Israel since their participation in the March; and 87% felt an increase in their feelings of tolerance for other groups after their experience of the March.  (Complete survey findings accompany this news announcement.)

“The findings of this study are significant. Until now we assumed the March had a lasting impact on participants,” said Eli Rubenstein, National Director of March of the Living Canada, the organization which commissioned the survey.  “This study now proves scientifically that the March transforms lives in many areas, some of which we never imagined.”

The study results were published around the same time as controversy erupted over a master's thesis that was accepted by the University of Toronto written by anti-Zionist activist Jennifer Peto titled: The Victimhood of the Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust Education." In her thesis, Peto, who is Jewish, attacks the March of the Living and the March of Remembrance and Hope as examples of, “how Jewish victimhood is instrumentalized in ways that obscure Jewish privilege, deny Jewish racism and promote the interests of the Israeli nation-state.”  The University of Toronto has received wide-reaching criticism for awarding a master’s degree based on a thesis that has been described as nothing more than a commentary of personal views, penned with no true academic research or requirement to present facts that may contradict Peto’s personal political agenda.

Even a cursory look at the findings of the MOL study prove that those who participate in the March have a heightened sensitivity to human rights, which is in direct contrast to Peto’s thesis that the March is used by the “privileged” Jewish community to gain advantage over other groups.

“March of the Living started as, and has always been, a totally educational and enlightening experience,” observed Dr. Shmuel Rosenman, Founder and Chairman of the International March of the Living program.  “At a time when 35 Holocaust survivors are lost each day, it won’t be long before we lose all first-hand accounts of the evil that occurred a mere 65 years ago.”

“It is gratifying to know that March of the Living positively transforms the lives of participants in the areas of tolerance, human rights and Jewish identity,” added Anita Ekstein, a Holocaust survivor who will be traveling on the March of the Living this spring for her 11th time.

Started in 1988, March of the Living is an international, educational program that brings Jewish teens from all over the world to Poland on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, to march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the largest concentration camp complex built during World War II, and then to Israel to observe Yom HaZikaron, Israel Memorial Day, and Yom Ha'Atzmaut, Israel Independence Day.

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About March of the Living: Started in 1988, March of the Living is an international, educational program that brings Jewish teens from all over the world to Poland on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, to march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the largest concentration camp complex built during World War II, and then to Israel to observe Yom HaZikaron, Israel Memorial Day, and Yom Ha'Atzmaut, Israel Independence Day.