Mary Ellen Richichi, a non-Jewish middle-school teacher in the Florida public school system, grew up immersed in Holocaust education. Her father, who served in the U.S. military during the Cold War, was always watching History Channel documentaries about World War II.

“I’ll never forget, I was probably about 7 or 8, and he said to me, ‘Holocaust and World War II is one of the events you need to know and never forget,’” Richichi told JNS.

Her father passed what she called his extensive immersion in history on to her, which led her to “want to know more and just read as much information as I can about it.”

Richichi is passing that curiosity—particularly, about the Holocaust—along to her students at Independence Middle School in Jupiter, Fla. And as a result, the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous recently recognized her for that instruction with its 2024 Eduard Sonder Award.