Seneca Valley teacher travels to Jerusalem
While other teachers were enjoying time off from educating America's youth, Jim Lucot was in Jerusalem getting an immersive look at the Holocaust from survivors and scholars.
Lucot, a social studies teacher at Seneca Valley Senior High School, attended the Echoes and Reflections Advanced Learning Seminar in July at Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem.
Lucot had been looking into visiting Jerusalem on his own when Dr. Zipora Gur, executive director of Classrooms Without Borders, mentioned the Echoes and Reflections seminar and nominated him for it. He went to Poland to explore the Holocaust last summer with Classrooms Without Borders.
Echoes and Reflections is a program that empowers secondary educators with dynamic classroom materials and professional development to help them effectively teach the Holocaust, said Sheryl Ochayon, program director of Echoes and Reflections.
Ochayon said participants had nine days of lectures from prominent Holocaust scholars covering topics including the history of the Holocaust, Nazi ideology, contemporary anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.
The program challenged participants to think critically and strategically about how to approach these topics with students, as well as opened their eyes and deepened their knowledge of the Holocaust and of Jewish people.
Lucot said they went through intensive programming from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. Evenings were free, so Lucot spent that time exploring the old city and other areas.
He went to Galilee, Jordan, Jericho and the West Bank and tried to talk to as many different people from different cultures and religions as he could.
“To walk through Jerusalem and see so many different people with so many different belief systems speaking different languages is really impressive,” Lucot said. “Meeting so many different people, it was very peaceful.”
A full report will appear in the Butler Eagle.
