A new program to train teachers in teaching holocaust and associate disuses begins February 2000 in the College of Education at Wayne State University. The program is the first of its kind in Michigan.

Paula Wood, dean of the college, is pleased that the college is implementing this important program. She says, to her knowledge, it is the only program of this type in the Midwest.

Ida and Myron Joyrich of Franklin presented a $150,000 gift to endow the Ida and Myron Joyrich Endowment for Holocaust Education. The goal of the program is to attract teachers who currently are not including the Holocaust as part of their regular social studies curriculum.

Ida is a holocaust survivor. She was born in Poland and had been an inmate at some of the worst concentration and death camps in Poland and Germany (Majdanek, Plaszow, Auschwitz and Malchov.) Only she, her mother and three cousins survived from a family of more than two hundred people.

For more than 50 years Ida was not able to speak of her experiences, not even to mention the names of the camps she was in. Now she finds spiritual relief in the knowledge that the history of the Holocaust will not be forgotten. The program is her idea.

Ida says, "People at the university were excited and extremely helpful about the program. I am grateful for that." Ida is the owner of BEAD WORKS, a bead store in Franklin.

Myron attended Wayne State's School of Medicine where he graduated at the top of his class. He was a clinical assistant professor in the School of Medicine and recently retired as staff radiologist after 42 years at Sinai Hospital.

He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha as well as winner of numerous Alumni Awards.

Holocaust scholar Sidney Bolkosky, director of the University of Michigan Oral History Project, is the program's co-facilitator. His book, Life Unworthy of Life, will be used as a textbook.

Richard Gibson of Wayne State's teacher education department and long involved with the study of the Holocaust is co-facilitator.

Twelve teachers from Detroit, Highland Park, Oak Park and Inkster will begin the training classes. The program offers a curriculum development component where participants receive three full days of instruction with information on available teaching materials and time to design a curriculum for their particular lesson plans. The materials are tied to current events.

Three follow up sessions throughout the year will help determine how successful the teachers are in incorporating the Holocaust studies into their curriculum. The session will help in assuring continued use of the information. For more information call the college at (313) 577-1620.