Tagged Holocaust education

New Hampshire lawmakers send bill requiring Holocaust education to governor

BOSTON (JTA) – New Hampshire will mandate Holocaust and genocide prevention education under a bill passed overwhelmingly by its House of Representatives. If Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, signs the measure into law, New Hampshire would become the 14th state to require genocide prevention education in public schools, according… Read more »

State legislative committee approves Holocaust education bill for Arizona schools

State Rep. Alma Hernandez with Holocaust survivors and Jewish Family & Children’s Services staff from Southern Arizona at the capitol in Phoenix Jan. 27. (L-R) Erika Dattner, Susan Kasle (JFCS vice president of community services), Raisa Moroz (JFCS Holocaust survivors program manager), Michael Bokor, Wanda Wolosky, Sharon Glassberg (JFCS clinical therapist/wellness and support specialist), Hernandez, Theresa Dulgov, Sara Lichter, Pawel Lichter, Sidney Finkel, Barbara Agee

On Monday, Jan. 27, which was International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, bill #HB2682, submitted by Arizona Rep. Alma Hernandez with bipartisan support, passed unanimously in the House education committee. The bill requires Arizona schools to teach about the Holocaust and other genocides.… Read more »

Young people are responsible for most of New York City’s anti-Semitic attacks. Will Holocaust education help?

New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza speaks at a news conference prior to a students' tour of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City, Jan. 15, 2020. (Ben Sales)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Jyrell McGriff, an African-American eighth-grader who lives in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, doesn’t interact much with the many Orthodox Jews who share his neighborhood. He sees them on the street or on buses. He also has fond memories of a Jewish teacher from years… Read more »

Makers of Krispy Kreme giving tens of millions to Holocaust survivors and education

Gideon Taylor of the Claims Conference speaks as Israeli President Reuven Rivlin look on in Jerusalem in 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

(JTA) — A major German industry family will donate tens of millions of dollars to support Holocaust survivors and former forced laborers in the Nazi era. In addition to one-time donations to the Claims Conference and individual laborers, the Reimann family’s JAB firm has created a foundation designed to… Read more »

Anti-Semitic hate crimes in NYC have risen significantly in 2019

NEW YORK (JTA) — The number of hate crimes against Jews in New York City has risen significantly over the first nine months of this year, part of a citywide rise in such offenses. The New York Police Department has reported 311 total hate crimes through September, as opposed… Read more »

In the wake of another deadly synagogue shooting, we need Holocaust education more than ever

A gate with the inscription "Work Sets You Free" at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial in Oranienburg, Germany, Jan. 25, 2019. (Omer Messinger/Getty Images)

(JTA) — On the Shabbat morning of April 27, Hadassah member Lori Gilbert-Kaye was murdered while celebrating Passover at the Chabad of Poway. The synagogue’s rabbi, a male congregant and an 8-year-old girl were wounded as well by the self-avowed white supremacist shooter. We know that anti-Semitism is on the… Read more »

Holocaust survivor tells story to thousands of children via global talks, book

Sidney Finkel, a Holocaust survivor who lives in Tucson, with his memoir, ‘Sevek and the Holocaust: The Boy Who Refused to Die.’ (Debe Campbell)

Sidney Finkel ended his self-imposed silence in 1993 about Holocaust survival as a child. At the insistence of his daughter, Ruth, he shared the story with his family of the young boy born Sevek Finkelstein. Born in Poland to a well-to-do family of seven, he lived an idyllic childhood… Read more »

Former resident continues Holocaust education in Austria

[L-R): Holocaust survivor Walter Fantl, former President of Austria Heinz Fischer, Holocaust survivor and former Tucsonan Alfred Schreier at the imperial palace in Vienna, Austria, in 2017.

As a former member of the Southern Arizona Holocaust Survivors Group, I was touched by the article about Fort Huachuca (“Army dedicates plaque to survivors at Fort Huachuca Holocaust ceremony,” AJP 4/20/18). I had the privilege of attending the ceremonies on two different occasions while I lived in Sahuarita,… Read more »

Pinning of yellow star on 3-year-old reignites Israeli education debate

(JTA) — On April 19, Keren Zachmi’s daughter returned from her kindergarten near Tel Aviv wearing a yellow patch emblazoned with the word “Jude.” A teacher had put the yellow star on 17 kindergarteners so they would feel like Holocaust victims during Yom Hashoah, Israel’s national Holocaust commemoration day. Appalled,… Read more »

With fewer survivors around, Holocaust education is in transition

BOSTON (JTA) – On a recent morning, a group of seventh-graders in Natick, Massachusetts, was absorbed in a video of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s acceptance speech of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize. “Why did he win?” asked their teacher, Tracy Sockalosky. She guided the discussion to the importance of remembrance, a… Read more »