Should Holocaust Education Be Required?

And what's the impact?

Over the past two weeks, more than 1,000 people came out to support Senate Bill 5851 and House Bill 2037, which if passed will mandate Holocaust education in Washington state schools by 2027-28.

The bills build on past legislative successes heralded by the Jewish community and the Holocaust Center for Humanity, the state’s only Holocaust museum and education center, based in Seattle. Following the passage of a 2019 bill, the Center got funding to work with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to bring Holocaust education to public schools. The results were positive enough to encourage them to continue the work.

If the legislation passes, Washington public schools will need to designate April as Genocide Awareness Month, strongly encourage Holocaust and genocide studies elective in high schools, and eventually mandate Holocaust and genocide education as part of social studies. The Holocaust Center for Humanity would be the lead educating body and tasked with the massive responsibility of bringing professional development to teachers statewide.

“The implications will be huge, because we’ll have to scale up to meet the increase in demand for what we do to reach every single school and every single teacher,” says Dee Simon, CEO of the Holocaust Center for Humanity. “It’s a wonderful challenge and one we have been praying for.”

The events of October 7th and the spike in anti-Jewish activity since are fueling much of the energy around the bills, which Senate bill co-sponsors Sen. John Braun (R-Centralia) and Jesse Salomon (D-Shoreline) openly acknowledge. “This isn’t a partisan issue. This is a moral issue,” Braun said at the opening of the hearing. Simon believes this is what brought so many people out to support the bills. “The Jewish community is on heightened alert. Years ago I’m not sure this would have gotten so many responses. People are realizing there are all these tools, and this is one of them.”

But will Holocaust education move the needle on combating anti-Semitism in a post-October 7th world — and is Holocaust education making a dent in anti-Semitism in the first place? Does the current model of Holocaust education trade addressing the true roots and current manifestations of anti-Semitism for a clean moral message about being a nice person? There is a lack of evidence around how effective mandatory Holocaust education is, and surveys show that younger generations exhibit minimal awareness of basic Holocaust facts.

In a 2022 article in The Atlantic, Yair Rosenberg puts a positive spin on the abysmal levels of Holocaust awareness, as made public by a Claims Conference survey that found, among other things, 11 percent of respondents believe Jews caused the Holocaust. “This sounds awful—until you discover what Americans know, or rather don’t know, about other things,” he writes. Consider that 37 percent of Americans don’t know elections occur every four years or that half of Americans can’t name the three branches of government. Then the fact that 90 percent of respondents believe the Holocaust actually happened sounds like a win.

According to Simon, Holocaust education in Washington can only be as good as the professional development and available materials, and because of that, she’s optimistic.

“There’s been a number of studies shown that students who study the Holocaust have more empathy and study more cultures openly. It’s been beneficial for teaching about compassion and empathy toward others,” says Simon. “What we’ve found is, our students are so impacted by the lessons that teachers continue to teach it every year because the students want it.”

Simon adds that the Center isn’t just offering historical lessons. “We’re teaching classes on Jewish identity, American Jewry, navigating conversations about the Israel-Hamas war,” she says. “In general, people don’t know what Judaism is. In Eastern Washington, there’s no synagogue.”

But as many have seen, all the Holocaust education in the world can’t combat the hatred coming out of Arab nations, and the Nazi slaughter is being weaponized against Jews by those who believe that Israel is committing a genocide right now. Some opponents of the bills expressed this sentiment, including a woman named Leslie Maxwell who bitterly stated, “We don’t need to spend tax dollars educating children on genocide when they’re all being educated for free, online, right now.”

Another notable opponent of the bill is Washington Ethnic Studies Now. Director Tracy Castro-Gill, who has claimed that “white Jews” are hijacking the work of people of color and regularly rails against Zionism, argued in her testimony that at a time when the world is moving away from Euro-centrism, “a genocide is a genocide and the Holocaust is one genocide that happened in Europe to Europeans.” If anything, she continues, the bill should focus on the genocide of Native American populations and others around the world, including Palestinians.

But the biggest source of pushback on the bill comes from members of Bosnian, Cambodian, Rohingya, Sudanese, and other persecuted communities who want to see the bills amended to elevate education about other genocides. “There’s a lot of amendments being proposed by the Senate and the House to be more inclusive of other genocides,” says Simon.

Simon argues that the Center is already educating about other genocides, but the lack of materials is an issue. “Yes, we want to include other genocides, but there isn’t a lot of pedagogy on them,” she says. “That’s a process that will take several years to build.”

Holocaust education seems to be stuck with the dilemma of whether to focus on anti-Semitism as a specific form of hatred, or on a universal message of standing up for the downtrodden. It’s becoming evident that it’s hard to do both.

Wherever the legislation ends up, Simon has no illusions about the challenges ahead. “I believe that anti-Semitism will exist the way that all hatred will exist,” she says. “It won’t go away, but every generation has to fight it. In history, we’ve seen it, it ebbs and flows. As Jews it’s our lot. It’s not going to go away. We’re doing our job in our generation, and we have to teach our young people to do the same.”

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Shoutouts

Todah Rabbah to Rabbi Ben Hassan, Congregation Sephardic Bikur Holim, and the entire Limmud Seattle team for welcoming me to the Pacific Northwest this earlier this month. Shabbat Shalom. —David Benkof

A hearty mazal tov and todah rabbah to the fabulous Limmud board and volunteers for putting on a great festival and concert last weekend! —Ruthie Voss

Mazel Tov to Bubbie Sarah Boden with the delivery of her granddaughter Nora Judith!! —Nancy Greer

Mazels to the JCRC Advocacy staff at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle for their dedication to our community’s needs, especially in this difficult moment. We appreciate you! —Linda Clifton

Mazel Tov to Shella & Jacques and the Sadovniks and Alcabeses on the birth of a baby girl! Shoutout to Yael Chotzen & Jared Brown on birth of a daughter! —Shira Kaufman

Our hearts go out to the entire Rosenthal family and NYHS/YOH and larger Seattle Jewish community, on the death of Rabbi Daniel Rosenthal, founder of Yeshiva High School in Seattle, that has touched and impacted so many students and this entire community and beyond. May his memory be a blessing and inspiration to us all. —Shira Kaufman

Shoutout to all the Seattle area Jews, young, old, and in between, who are raising their voices to protest the horrors that the Israeli government is inflicting on Gaza. —Michael Blum

Thank you to all the leaders and volunteers of Limmud who put on an another amazing event that brings together all kinds of Seattle Jews. —Paul and Danielle Nacamuli

Thank you to Nancy Greer for your years of Federation leadership, and a welcome to Solly Kane on stepping in to fill big shoes in a very challenging time. —Paul and Danielle Nacamuli