SV teacher visits Jerusalem to study Holocaust
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.
For Lucot, learning is best when you can go straight to the source.
“For me, I really need to stand on the site. It's like going to Gettysburg,” he said. “I wanted to see so many of these things.”
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 gives secondary educators professional development and resources to responsibly and effectively teach the Holocaust in today's classrooms. The program is the combined effort of the Anti-Defamation League, USC Shoah Foundation and Yad Vashem.
“These opportunities provide inspiration for the individual attending and often spark wonderful ideas for classroom activities and enrich the lessons taught to our students,” said Linda Andreassi, Seneca Valley's communications director. “It can also help to re-energize the instructor and provide new insight.”
For 10 days in July, Lucot traveled to Yad Vashem to hear from the world's leading scholars on the Holocaust. Lucot said Yad Vashem is the “Harvard of the Holocaust” for its in-depth resources, research and teaching staff.
“You're there with people I read about, the people I see on TV. You're walking the hallways with them,” he said.
They were also able to ask the experts questions that the teachers are often asked in class to see if they are answering their students appropriately, Lucot said.
“I could put my most difficult questions to them, and now I have their contacts, so I can reach out to them if something comes up,” he said.
Since he's been back stateside, Lucot has been going through his extensive notes from the seminar and adding information to his classroom power point presentations and lectures.
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.”
Lucot said the only time he was nervous was when the Muslim corridor of the West Bank was locked down due to the threat of a car bomber. Otherwise, it was a pleasant trip exploring the diversity of the area.
“There are some hostile environments and hostile people, but for the most part, everyone was very nice and supportive,” he said.
