Righteous Among the Neighbors: James Lucot
Mt. Lebanon High School students interviewed non-Jewish Pittsburghers who support the Jewish community and take action to uproot antisemitism.
Righteous Among the Neighbors is a project of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh that honors non-Jewish Pittsburghers who support the Jewish community and stand up against antisemitism. In partnership with the LIGHT Education Initiative and Mt. Lebanon High School, student journalists interview honorees and write article-length profiles about their efforts. To learn more, visit hcofpgh.org/righteous-among-the-neighbors/.
From a young age, James Lucot, a teacher at Seneca Valley High School and a Holocaust educator at Butler Community College, has had a passion for history. Growing up, his grandmother told him what his family sacrificed to oppose what was happening in Germany during World War II. These stories turned into a calling when Lucot discovered how to combine his love for history and education: teaching. He has been recognized for his impactful teaching of the Holocaust by receiving an Educator of the Year award from the Holocaust Center in 2020 and being a recipient of the Righteous Among the Neighbors award this year.
Lucot has always felt deeply impacted by the atrocities of WWII. When he was growing up, he said, he was surrounded by Holocaust education.
“My uncle was killed in World War II, and I don’t have any memory without World War II,” Lucot said. “My grandma told me my earliest memories of how my family had to sacrifice. We had to sacrifice him to stop what was happening in Germany.”
As an adult, Lucot delved deeper into the history of the Holocaust. He felt it was important to meet the people affected by these events.
“When I got into my 20s, I would read stories about Holocaust survivors in the newspaper, and then I would go over to Squirrel Hill and see if I could meet them,” Lucot said, emphasizing that he first researched their stories, then contacted them requesting an interview.
Lucot demonstrates the importance of tangible history in his classroom by bringing in survivors so his students can “meet the people that made the history” they talk about — including a friend who was a “hero of the Bataan Death March.”
As a testament to how impactful his teaching is, Lucot was nominated for the Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year award in 2015. In addition to this honor, he was the only teacher who was nominated by a student.
“Everyone else was nominated by principals or superintendents,” he said. “So in my mind, I won right there. I guess it motivates me because I want to do it again next year, to do it for kids that I don’t know about yet.”
Many of the lessons Lucot brings into the classroom come from personal experiences gained through his travels and the people he meets. He went to Poland and Treblinka with a Holocaust survivor, Howard Chandler, which helped shape the way he thought about teaching.
“I had read ‘Remembering Survival’ by Christopher Browning, and I took these meticulous notes,” Lucot said. “So many people were asking Mr. Chandler questions, and when he couldn’t remember things specifically, he would just say, ‘Hey, Jim. You know?’ And I’d be able to have the information. I just knew I would teach the Holocaust for the rest of my life. I made a promise to him and other survivor friends of mine that I will do that, and I am keeping that promise.”
Lucot not only teaches Holocaust history, but connects lessons of antisemitism to local incidents so his students are aware that the world is still plagued with these issues. It is vital to understand the history of antisemitism so we can learn how to counter these attacks, he said.
“I do a thing in my class. I have eight swastikas,” Lucot said. “I have pictures of them spray painted, cut and etched, and I show them all. And I say, ‘Guess what? They’re all [from the school]. These are all the ones that we’ve had taken out.’”
Through his impactful teaching and deep understanding of Holocaust history, Lucot aims to equip his students with the skills to not only counter discriminatory acts, but to stand up fearlessly to injustice. He explains how important it is to speak for those without a voice and fight for those who can’t fight for themselves.
“I want my students to know that you cannot be a bystander,” Lucot said. “You can’t see something happening, look the other way and say, ‘Oh, I’m just a bystander.’ That’s not an option.” PJC
Maddy Holder is a senior at Mt. Lebanon High School.
comments