WASHINGTON—Chicago teacher Joyce Witt’s name was added Wednesday to the engravings on the wall of the national Holocaust museum to recognize her lifelong dedication to educating people about the mass genocide.
“For the first time in my life I’m speechless,” Witt said.
Witt, who taught social studies to high school students in the Chicago area, was surprised with the engraving. She initially thought she was accompanying her nephew to the ceremony on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“I was overwhelmed, I had no idea that this was happening. I had no idea. If there was $100 million that the kids spent on a gift for me, there is no better gift,” Witt said. “This honors my life and my lifetime achievements. How wonderful that my family had honored me in this way. I’m blessed with the family that knows what is most meaningful to me.”
Witt grew up in Chicago and holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She taught in the public schools before she found herself traveling to Poland and Israel in 1991, the recipient of a Jewish Labor Committee fellowship. It was there Witt realized her calling: to educate others about the Holocaust. Her family, although Jewish, was not personally affected by the Holocaust.
Witt is a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s regional education corps’ Midwestern region, focusing mostly on the Chicago area, where she trains teachers on how to teach the Holocaust.
Edward Leshin, who works for a small private equity firm in the Chicago area, is Witt’s nephew. It was his idea to surprise Witt with a $50,000 engraving gift, which also honors her 70th birthday.
“I wanted to do something for her birthday to pay tribute to all the work she’s done,” Leshin said. “She’s the inspiration for our family; she’s always the person giving herself and her time and dedicating it to the education of others and to Jewish teachings and world history, and I just thought it should be recognized.”
Leshin stressed the importance of teaching the Holocaust to generations to come.
“This is what my mother’s true passion is,” said Holly Goldberg, Witt’s daughter. “This has just completed her journey, even though it’s going on forever. I’m just so proud of her.”
Goldberg said that it was “tough” keeping the surprise a secret because the two talk at least twice everyday.
Liz Marcus, Witt’s other daughter, said that she was “overwhelmed” and “emotional” by the morning’s events.
“It’s just an honor for her to be recognized for all her hard work that she’s done,” Marcus said.
Christina Chavarria, program coordinator for education initiatives and resources for the museum’s Levine Institute for Holocaust Education, has known Witt since 2001. She said Witt’s reaction to the unveiling was “precious.”
“Every time I will go into the donor’s lounge I will always look at Joyce’s name,” Chavarria said. “It’s the first time that I know of, that one of our museum teacher fellows who has grown with us has been honored in such a way.”
The museum has exhibits devoted to additional acts of genocide.
When asked about the contentious recognition of the Armenian Genocide, which also claimed the lives of Assyrians and Greeks in the 20th century, Witt said: “It’s all politics. They [Turkey] don’t want to accept responsibility for something that was terrible because the United States doesn’t call it genocide. The Pope just now used the word ‘genocide.’ It’s a travesty that it hasn’t been recognized and hopefully the United States will recognize it. And we need to recognize it. [You] can’t come to terms with it if you don’t own up to the past. ‘Never again’ happens all of the time.”
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