Into Tomorrow: Exploring Identity, Resilience and Healing through Holocaust, Indigenous and Japanese-American Histories

Date: June 1-6, 2026

Location: Boise, Idaho

About the 2026 Program

We finished the week in Boise, Idaho at our seminar, “Into Tomorrow: Exploring Identity, Resilience and Healing through Holocaust, Indigenous, and Japanese-American Histories” with deep scholarship and practical application.

Former Secretary General of IHRA and current TOLI Board Member Dr. Kathrin Meyer led a session on Holocaust Distortion and Contemporary Antisemitism; Lisa Shiosaki Olsen and Midori Tanada from Minidoka National Historic Site and Friends of Minidoka led the group through primary source exploration; participants celebrated Shabbat with a talk about Judaism from Rabbi Johanna Hershenson; dinner was sponsored by the Council for Holocaust Awareness of Idaho; and service was held with Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel (CABI) (among the oldest synagogues in continuous use west of the Mississippi River).

The seminar concluded with participants sharing their action plans for the coming year during our final morning at the Wassmuth Center. An unforgettable and transformative week!

This seminar was hosted in partnership with the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, the Boise State University Writing Project, and the Council for Holocaust Awareness of Idaho.

      

Leaders

  • M. Lacy Watson

    Lacy Watson has taught English Language Arts at Billings West High since 2011. Growing up in rural Montana, without a synagogue or a Jewish community, she found some initial connection to her identity when learning about the Holocaust at home and in public school. This interest led her to study in Europe with the Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Teachers Program. She went on to earn a Master’s of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies through Gratz College. She also works with the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights (TOLI). Lacy has led seminars and professional development about the Holocaust, Indian Education for All, and Human Rights.  Her work with the NEA, Elk River Writing Project, and TOLI is integral to her teaching, learning, and living as a person determined to be an upstander.

  • Paul Regelbrugge

    Paul V. Regelbrugge is the Director of Education for the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle. A former attorney, Paul then taught in the inner cities of Chicago and Buffalo, as well as in Spokane and Kent, Washington. Paul is a USHMM Teacher Fellow, Powell Teacher Fellow, Alfred Lerner Teaching Fellow,  The Olga Lengyel Institute (TOLI) Teacher Leader, and a Gonzaga University adjunct professor. He has created numerous lessons and resources and led countless professional development sessions related to the Holocaust, other histories and genocides for Washington educators. Paul is also the author of The Yellow Star House: The Remarkable Story of One Boy’s Survival in a Protected House in Hungary, and co-author of the graphic novel, More Than Any Child Should Know: A Kindertransport Story of the Holocaust.