The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR) presented the Robert I. Goldman Award for Excellence in Holocaust Education to the School District of Palm Beach County’s K-12 Holocaust studies program planner Kimberly Coombs and POLIN’s deputy director of education Łucja Koch. The awards were given at the foundation’s recent gathering for Holocaust Rescuers in Warsaw, shortly after the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
The JFR selected both educators as recipients of the 2024 Goldman Award because of their commitment to Holocaust education. Coombs is empowering educators across her school district to better teach the Holocaust to students. Koch is ensuring that the Holocaust is taught in Poland by providing educators with teacher-training programs through the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
“We are privileged to honor exceptional educators each year and especially proud to present this year’s award to Kimberly for her outstanding work in ensuring the highest possible levels of Holocaust education across her district in Palm Beach and to Łucja for her efforts to ensure that Polish students understand what occurred during the Nazi occupation here,” said JFR executive vice president Stanlee Stahl.
“It is an incredible honor to be chosen as the 2024 Goldman Award recipient by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, one of the world’s leading institutions in Holocaust education,” said Koch at the ceremony. “It is especially humbling to receive this award in the presence of our heroes—the righteous who in history’s darkest hour chose to be upstanders instead of bystanders, role models for future generations.”
“Receiving this award this year was especially meaningful because it was given one day after we participated in the international ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, just outside of the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and was presented at the JFR’s gathering in Warsaw honoring 10 of the remaining righteous heroes who in history’s darkest hour, stood as a beacon of hope. The righteous are not just heroes but role models for our students across Palm Beach County, and meeting some of them in person was awe-inspiring. In an era when antisemitism, misinformation, and disinformation are on the rise, it’s more important than ever that every student who leaves the classroom fully understands the history of the Holocaust,” said Coombs.
Her continued involvement in JFR programming has been made possible by inSIGHT Through Education, which provides Palm Beach County Schools with the resources to educate its students about the Holocaust and supports Palm Beach County educators’ participation in the JFR’s academic programs. She first attended the JFR’s Summer Institute in 2022 and has since participated in three of the organization’s highly selective Advanced Seminars. The programs are intensive academic seminars for middle- and high-school educators whose curriculum includes or focuses on teaching about the Holocaust. She has taught for 30 years—28 of them with the Palm Beach County School District and resides in Loxahatchee, Fla.
Koch was first introduced to the JFR by POLIN’s current chairman, Marian Turski, in 2009. Since then, she has partnered with the JFR on education programs, including those surrounding the JFR’s work supporting the righteous and ensuring their legacies continue to inspire generations of Polish students.
Goldman, for whom the award is named, was one of the founding trustees of the JFR. A beloved and respected leader of the organization, he was its vice chair and led its education committee until he died in 1998. In tribute to his commitment to Holocaust education, particularly to teaching about rescue, the JFR established the award in his memory.
For more information, see: www.jfr.org.