When Steven Spielberg accepted the Academy Award for the best motion picture Schindler's List, he implored educators to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive by teaching the subject to their students. He didn't have to tell student teacher Erin Gruwell to do the right thing. The day before the director made his historic speech, Gruwell took her class of about 50 inner-city students to see Spielberg's film. Before that, she took her Wilson High School English class to the Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance. But prior to both field trips, Gruwell had an important speaker - Irv Rubin - address her class to talk about the Holocaust and its effect upon today's Jewish community.

What impressed Rubin about Gruwell was that she was paying for the class's field trips out of her own pocket; she had spent the entire winter break working in a department store to raise the money. Without a second thought, Rubin promptly waived his honorarium. Then he went to the Wiesenthal Center to see if there could be a reduced admission charge for the class. Unfortunately, museum officials explained they give a certain number of free tours to schools and couldn't afford to waive or reduce fees for another group. "I couldn't go back to Erin without positive news," said Rubin, "so I turned to some long-time JDL supporters for help." Si Frumkin, chairman of the Southern California Council for Soviet Jews, was the first to respond. "I don't know where the Jewish community would be without Si," commented the JDL leader.

Rubin raised $150 to help Gruwell offset her expenses. "Erin has renewed my faith in public education. She is an angel," said Rubin. What Erin isn't, though, is Jewish! And, as radio personality Paul Harvey says, "now you know the rest of the story."