WHS teacher awarded state humanities grant

Weiser High School teacher Michelle Chavez received a $3,500 grant from the Idaho Humanities Council to bring a Holocaust survivor to Weiser.

 Chavez has been teaching for 24 years, and for the last 15 years she has taught two Holocaust literature classes a semester. Last spring, Chavez decided she wanted to bring in Holocaust survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan. 

 Chavez heard Lazan speak in Boise about five years ago and was moved by the experience and knew she wanted to provide her students with the same opportunity. 

 Lazan has said many times, “This generation will be the last to hear first-hand survivor testimony.” 

 With the help of school district clerk Kyla Dickerson, Chavez wrote and submitted the grant request that will cover Lazan’s travel, lodging and speaking costs. The Weiser Education Foundation also awarded Chavez a grant to help with the costs. 

 Lazan was liberated from the notorious Bergen-Belsen camp as a child with her family. They then moved to Holland, and later relocated to Illinois, where she graduated from high school. Eventually she wrote the book “Four Perfect Pebbles” detailing her experiences. 

 Principal Dave Davies said, “Teaching about the Holocaust is a passion for Mrs. Chavez. I know that this was very important to her, to get a survivor in to speak.”

 On Monday, April 1, Lazan will travel from her home on Long Island and arrive in Weiser. First on her agenda is to speak to Chavez’s Holocaust classes. Then there will be a schoolwide assembly where she will speak for about an hour. 

 Chavez is inviting area high schools to bring in their interested students. Later in the evening, Lazan will do a presentation open to the community.

 Students will be able to order Lazan’s book ahead of time, and she will do a personalized signing on those books. Books will also be available for purchase at the community presentation, with a book signing happening afterwards. 

 As a Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel has said, “When you listen to a witness, you become a witness.”

 Chavez stated, “We all must embrace this opportunity to hear a witness tell her story.”

 For the fall semester Holocaust classes, Chavez was able to bring in author Marty Brounstein to speak on Oct. 15. Brounstein is the husband to a Holocaust survivor, and he wrote the book “Two Among the Righteous Few.” 

 The Wassmuth Center, of Boise, donated a classroom set of Brounstein’s books to Weiser High School. 

 “To have an opportunity to interact and ask questions with a person is invaluable,” Davies said of both opportunities Chavez is providing for the students.