By Andrew Fribush, Seventh Grade, Krieger Schechter Day School of Chizuk Amuno Congregation
This year, Krieger Schechter Day School of Chizuk Amuno Congregation welcomed many new teachers to its faculty, including Michael Fauser.
Fauser teaches seventh and eighth grade U.S. history at KSDS, and in just a few weeks he has already made a profound impact on his students.
Fauser grew up in Manhattan, where he attended a private school that was approximately 50 percent Jewish. He later moved to Connecticut for college.
He currently resides in York, Pennsylvania,. Fauser says he loves his job, making the 50-plus-mile commute worth it.
Fauser says he has always loved different types of historical resources, such as atlases, maps and museums. Of the latter, one of his favorites is the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
“Being brought up in the city always gave us an opportunity to go to those kinds of places,” says Fauser, who is also a big fan of historical novels and films.
Fauser says he did not always know that he would pursue a career in teaching history. His college history professors “opened [his] mind to what was available out there,” he says, and this eventually prompted him to pursue a career as a history instructor.
Fauser previously worked for a variety of governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. At the museum, he worked as an image archivist examining unidentified photos from the Shoah.
“We had to try to narrow down where [the photo] was taken,” he says. “Sometimes this was very time-consuming. Sometimes we had just seen a photo that looked similar, and we were able to match it.”
Fauser also worked in a federal government division that specialized in war criminal identification. In that position, he says he had the privilege to work with former district attorneys and Special Forces personnel.
“When you have to find someone in the field, you have to use all of your senses and all of your awareness and all of your skills to make sure you have identified that person,” says Fauser.
During his time as a war criminal identifier, he says there is one case that particularly stands out. Fauser was working to identify a war criminal from World War II by comparing an old photo of the suspect with a recent one. “His eyes have never changed over 70 years. And to look at someone when they’re 90 and to see the same eyes from a photo of them when they’re 25 is very powerful and moving,” Fauser says.
Fauser has two years of teaching experience as a long-term substitute. KSDS is his first full-time teaching position.
Fauser says he chose KSDS because the curricular material is his specialty.
“At this point in my career, I’m looking for motivated students who are academically minded and can ask questions and be involved in dialogue,” he says.
Ben A., who is one of Fauser’s seventh grade students, says he is thoroughly enjoying his class.
“I think his teaching style is different, and he even said he’ll let us give ourselves grades on class participation, which I think is pretty cool,” Ben says.
He describes Fauser’s class as hands-on and comprehensive.
“When a student asks a challenging question, he will take time to go over it to make sure that they understand,” Ben says.
He also likes how Fauser runs his class. “It’s not a strict atmosphere,” Ben says. “It always has activities and people asking questions, and I think that overall it’s just a great way to run a class.”
Andrew Fribush is a seventh grade student at Krieger Schechter Day School of Chizuk Amuno Congregation.
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