Making the Holocaust and Human Rights Relevant for Today’s Students

Date: July 7-10, 2025
Location: Glen Cove, Long Island, New York
This seminar offers educators an in-depth exploration of the Holocaust, providing historical context, pedagogical strategies, and resources to teach this complex subject effectively. Participants will engage with survivor testimonies, primary source materials, and inquiry-based approaches to foster meaningful classroom discussions. The seminar equips educators with tools to promote critical thinking, empathy, and an understanding of the consequences of prejudice and discrimination. By the end of the program, educators will feel confident and prepared to create impactful lessons that resonate with students.
Benefits of Participation:
- Engaging guest speakers
- Enhanced historical understanding of Jewish life and culture, the events of the Holocaust, historical and contemporary antisemitism, and other human rights issues
- Use the concept of identity to promote critical thinking and understanding of an individual’s roles and responsibilities in society
- Learn innovative, inquiry-based methods to teach sensitive and complex topics effectively
- Examine other histories of persecution, such as Native American histories, in order to understand systems of oppression
- Explore best practice approaches to frame meaningful and age-appropriate classroom discussions and activities
- Experience reflective writing as a method to process complex information
- Potential CTLE learning hours for NYS teachers
In partnership with the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County.
Leaders
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Paul Regelbrugge
Paul Regelbrugge is the Director of Education for the Holocaust Center for Humanity. In this role, he co-created the Washington state-required “best practices” curriculum for teaching about the Holocaust and genocides other than the Holocaust, has led hundreds of professional development sessions, oversees the Center’s educational programs and resources and has led Holocaust study tours in Europe. 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) Fellow, and a Gonzaga University adjunct professor. He 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.
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Lacy Watson
M. 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. Lacy is a proud member of her local teacher’s union and the National Educators Association. Through the union, she works with a program that focuses on racial equity in public education, Leaders for Just Schools. 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 across Montana, Georgia, and New York. 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.