In the 69 years since the Holocaust ended, atrocities have continued around the world. Do genocides in places like Darfur, Cambodia and Rwanda prove that the phrase, “Never Again” has lost its meaning?
Not if a group of Nicolet High School students has anything to say about it.
A year ago, Nicolet sophomore Hannah Sprung and her fellow Hebrew 3 students Hilary Miller, Shoshana Altman-Shafer, Yogev Ben Yitschak and Ma’ayan Oren — all graduates of the Milwaukee Jewish Day School — thought something was lacking in their school’s curriculum.
Sprung is a regional board member of Wisconsin BBYO. “As the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, the Holocaust has always been a big part of my life,” she said.
Last year a group of Nicolet students saw “Irena’s Vow,” a play about a Polish nurse who risked her life to save Jews during World War II.
“Afterwards the kids in Hebrew 3 started talking about the Holocaust and the idea came out to try to get a class at Nicolet started,” said Sprung.
Miller is also a BBYO regional board member. She had devoted her bat mitzvah celebration project to Holocaust education three years earlier. She compiled a book titled “Survivors of the Holocaust: Keeping the Candle Lit.”
As a result, “I was asked to speak around the Milwaukee area to discuss the importance of remembering the Holocaust and its atrocities and the importance of our generation to take advantage of the eyewitnesses to ensure that this atrocity, and others like it, will never happen again,” Miller said.
Adding a class to the course handbook of a large high school isn’t easy. To complicate things, these students had no idea that Nicolet’s superintendent and principal were about to change.
“I just took the initiative to talk to the administration, then a group of us went and talked to the superintendent [then Dr. Rick Monroe] about it,” said Sprung. “He thought it was a great idea, he loved what it stood for.”
Monroe referred the group to Paul Hepp, head of the social studies department. Despite how complicated the process seemed, Sprung didn’t lose momentum or enthusiasm.
In May 2013, the group went to a social studies department meeting and made a presentation. In October, Hepp said that Dann Jacobson was interested.
Jacobson, a Nicolet social studies teacher, was excited both by the idea of teaching this course and by Sprung’s commitment.
“Nicolet had a course called ‘Genocide and Justice’ many years ago,” Jacobson said. “The initial idea was to reintroduce that course, but it was determined that a course that dealt with social justice and leadership development would be a path we would prefer.”
Jacobson added, “I was impressed by Hannah’s passion, effort and willingness to maturely discuss the issues with teachers and administrators.”
But the idea was suddenly dropped. In November, according to Sprung, Hepp said that the administration declined to offer the class for next year, but the reason why was not explained.
Sprung was determined to keep the idea alive. She emailed the new principal, Greg Kabara, new superintendent, Dr. Robert Kobylski, and Brenda Turner, the new head of curriculum.
“They gave me a time and I met with them,” said Sprung. “They were interested in what I had to say, they felt that after talking to someone who was so passionate, they got a sense of what the goal was and they felt more confident in the class and they were more excited about it then.”
In November and December, Sprung spoke to the school board. The board voted to recommend approval of a new course titled “Leadership & Social Justice” for one semester next year.
“Hannah and other students had invested a significant amount of time and thought into the course,” said Kabara. “I am really excited to see how this student-driven course will impact student engagement.”
“We discussed a number of important reasons to add the course,” Kabara continued. “To educate students on the current and historic injustices in our world, to determine how to prevent or correct the injustices, and, most importantly, to teach students the leadership skills necessary to act on injustice of our world.”
“I know we already have one student, who has demonstrated the leadership skills necessary to create this positive change in our world, and that’s Hannah Sprung,” Kabara said.
Joan Elovitz Kazan is a freelance writer who lives in Bayside. She is co-president of the Milwaukee Jewish Day School Parent-Teacher Organization and is a member of the BBYO Friends and Alumni Network.
The Milwaukee Jewish community’s commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, is scheduled for Sunday, April 27. See announcement in Top Stories.
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