
Melissa Mott
Melissa is the Director for Echoes & Reflections, a Holocaust education program, and develops antisemitism education with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). A former 10th grade English teacher in Newark Public Schools and Fulbright scholar in Poland, Melissa studies the intersection of history education, collective memory, and anti-democratic thought.
Melissa has written curriculum and programs, and trained educators on Holocaust pedagogy, antisemitism education, inquiry-learning, human rights, LGBTQIA+ history, and African American history in the U.S. and Kenya, Ghana, Israel, Poland, UK, and Germany. Melissa received her Ed.M. from Columbia University Teachers College in 2017, focusing on the link between antisemitism and anti-LGBTQ sentiment in former Soviet countries.
Before joining ADL, Melissa worked as a consultant translating primary sources into education programs and curricula emphasizing post-Holocaust memory and cross-cultural communication. She has worked with the Auschwitz Jewish Center, the Borderland Foundation in Sejny, Poland, as well as the Queer Newark Oral History Project, NYC LGBT Historic Sites. Specializing in oral history and uncovering narratives that have been silenced, also holds an M.F.A. in Writing from Rutgers-Newark.
Melissa has presented for The Comparative International Education Society, National Council for Social Studies, and National Council on Public History, among others.
Sunday, May 1 GLI Breakout Sessions Block 1
Antisemitism and Holocaust Distortion in the age of COVID
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen an increase in the number of antisemitic incidents. Conspiracy theories blame Jews for the spread of the virus, politicians have equated pandemic related restrictions and vaccinations with the Holocaust, and historic antisemitic tropes have been recycled for the age of social media. Learn with ADL’s experts on extremism the ways in which antisemitism and Holocaust distortion have manifested throughout the pandemic.
Sunday, May 1 GLI Breakout Sessions Block 2
Antisemitism and Holocaust Distortion in the age of COVID
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen an increase in the number of antisemitic incidents. Conspiracy theories blame Jews for the spread of the virus, politicians have equated pandemic related restrictions and vaccinations with the Holocaust, and historic antisemitic tropes have been recycled for the age of social media. Learn with ADL’s experts on extremism the ways in which antisemitism and Holocaust distortion have manifested throughout the pandemic.