Americans and the Holocaust: Lacy Watson

M. Lacy Watson will be giving a presentation on historical and contemporary antisemitism. Learn the roots of the oldest hatred and how they still spread today. 

M. Lacy Watson has taught English Language Arts at Billings West High since 2011 and has been drawn to Holocaust education her whole life. 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. Her desire to honor the history of the Holocaust in her teaching led her to Europe to study with the Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Teachers Program in 2014. After this life-changing experience, she earned a Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies through Gratz College. Lacy works with the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights (TOLI) as a satellite seminar facilitator and serves on a teacher advisory panel for the organization.   Her work with the Elk River Writing Project, Worlds Apart but not Strangers, and TOLI have been integral to her teaching, learning, and living as a person determined to be an upstander.