Bill looks at status of Holocaust education in Vermont schools

By Jim Sabataso
RUTLAND HERALD
MONTPELIER, Vt. — A new bill proposes to explore the status of Holocaust education in Vermont’s K-12 schools.

The bill, S.189, which has tripartisan support in the state Senate, was sponsored by Sen. Joshua Terenzini, R-Rutland. It aims to require the Agency of Education to report to lawmakers on the status of Holocaust education in the state’s public schools.

“As we raise up the next generation, it’s important that we learn from critical mistakes of the past,” said Terenzini.

He said he hopes the bill will move the state in the direction of establishing standards for Holocaust education in Vermont schools.

An identical bill, H.457, recently was introduced in the House.

Terenzini said the legislation could be seen as complementary to S.17, a bill he co-sponsored last year that would require high school students to pass a civics course in order to graduate.

“Wrapping a civility and civics class into a world history class with the Holocaust would make a lot of sense to me because, civics, democracy, tolerance and acceptance, those are all key components to a good history class, in my opinion,” he said.

He noted the bill is not pro-Israel nor anti-Palestine.

“This is totally to do with the fact that we want to teach our kids the true history of the Holocaust and ensure it doesn’t happen again … and teach tolerance and acceptance and respect of all beliefs, all world religions,” he said.

Terenzini credited Maya Sobel, a 2020 Rutland High School graduate and sophomore at the University of Vermont, as the impetus for S.189.

Sobel met with Terenzini and other members of Rutland’s legislative delegation last summer to advocate for a more comprehensive teaching of the Holocaust in schools.

“Her fear of a future Holocaust and (for) those of the Jewish community … with antisemitism on the rise in this country and around the world, it really pulled at my heartstrings,” he said.

In a recent interview, Sobel said she was fortunate to have teachers at RHS who provided in-depth lessons about the Holocaust, however, she acknowledged that not all students have the same opportunity.

She noted that she’s encountered many people her age who have little to no context for that period of history.

“I think people like to think of the Holocaust as something very far away … like it’s not really connected to today,” she said.

For Sobel, whose grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, the Holocaust was not some far-off thing — it happened to people she knew.

“I want people to know this can be anybody. It’s not just a story,” she said.

While a lack of historical awareness is a concern for Sobel, more troubling is the rise in antisemitism she has observed among people her age — especially on social media, where she has seen her peers post content that perpetuates antisemitic tropes.

Indeed, antisemitism is on the rise nationally.

According to the FBI’s 2019 Hate Crimes Statistics Report, incidents related to religion increased 7 percent from 2018, with 1,521 total incidents reported. Antisemitic incidents were the largest single category, with 953 incidents reported in 2019 — up 14 percent from the previous year.

And while reports of religious bias were down slightly overall in 2020, antisemitic incidents held steady at 963.

According to the Anti-Defamation League’s heat map, 8,366 incidents of extremism or antisemitism were recorded nationally in 2020 and 2021. Incidents include: white supremacist events and propaganda, terrorist plots and attacks, murders and police shootouts.

In testimony to the Senate Education Committee on Jan. 12, Sobel recounted instances of antisemitism on the UVM campus, including swastikas being drawn on objects and Jewish students being told by others to downplay their faith for political reasons.

“What happens to antisemitic students when they graduate? They enter the workforce as the world’s next generation of teachers, politicians, doctors and lawyers,” she said.

“I strongly believe that the most effective way to combat prejudice and hate is through education. We need to start at a high school level to teach students the facts of the Holocaust and train them to critically think about the information they are consuming surrounding ethnic and religious minorities.”

But while the bill, if passed, would require the Agency of Education to produce a report of what is currently being taught in schools, some advocates for Holocaust education argue an inventory is unnecessary.

Heidi Fishman, a board member at the Vermont Holocaust Memorial — a nonprofit the mission of which is to promote Holocaust education across the state — is one such critic.

“I think the data is already there. If we spend a year collecting data, we’re wasting a year,” she said, arguing that the state should simply move forward with setting educational standards for the subject.

Fishman pointed to a survey conducted last year by the Claims Conference — a nonprofit that secures material compensation for Holocaust survivors — which revealed a lack of basic Holocaust knowledge among Millennial- and Generation Z-aged Americans.

According to the 50-state survey, respondents demonstrated “virtually no awareness of concentration camps and ghettos overall.”

While 56 percent were unable to identify the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, awareness of other camps, like Dachau, Buchenwald and Treblinka was in the single digits.

Holocaust denial also seems to be spreading on social media. About half of respondents reported witnessing Holocaust “denial or distortion” while online. And 30 percent reported encountering Nazi symbols on social media or in their community.

In Vermont, the survey found that 42 percent of Vermont youth couldn’t name a single concentration camp or ghetto, 29 percent believed fewer than 2 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, 43 percent had witnessed Holocaust denial or distortion online, and 52 percent had seen Nazi symbols online in the past five years.

It also revealed that 79 percent of Vermonters surveyed agreed it was important to teach about the Holocaust.

Fishman, whose mother was a Holocaust survivor, said the state needed standards. She said the texts teachers use need to be at the appropriate developmental level for students.

For example, she said while Elie Wiesel’s “Night” is an important text, it can be “too intense” for younger audiences.

“It’s not just having students read a book. There’s a lot more to it. You got to dig deep and answer questions,” she said.

Recognizing that need, Fishman said she wrote a book about her mother’s experience, which is appropriate for middle school-aged students.

In considering approaches to Holocaust education, Fishman noted lessons often focus on disturbing aspects, like gas chambers, concentration camps and human experimentation. She argued, however, that more attention needed to be paid to the propaganda that got people to turn on their own neighbors in the first place.

She paraphrased Rabbi Abraham Heschel, stating, “the Holocaust didn’t start with gas chambers, it started with words.”

To that end, she argued that it’s imperative to help young people learn to identify propaganda and how it’s being used against groups of people — particularly on social media.

“This is not a new phenomenon. It’s just a new medium. And I want kids to be able to tear that all apart and see it,” she said.

Fishman said the lessons of the Holocaust are far reaching.

“To stay focused, to stay moral, to stay democratic,” she said. “It’s not just about Jews, it’s not just about antisemitism. It’s much broader.”

Debora Steinerman, president and co-founder of Vermont Holocaust Memorial, also would like the state to move forward with setting standards.

In testimony on Jan. 12, she called the report “redundant,” arguing the Claims Commission report has demonstrated more education is needed.

Steinerman said learning about the Holocaust “helps students to develop an expanded view of humanity.”

She added that students who receive Holocaust education “are more open to different viewpoints or comfortable with people of a different race or sexual orientation, have a willingness to challenge incorrect or biased information, are more apt to confront intolerant behavior, and are more likely to stand up to negative stereotyping.”

S.189 comes as other states are placing restrictions on what texts can be used to teach about topics such as race and LGBTQ identity. Holocaust education also seems to be raising concerns.

In Tennessee earlier this month, a school board voted unanimously to ban the graphic novel “Maus” by Art Spiegelman, deeming some of the language and images in it “inappropriate.” The book, which depicts Jews as mice and Nazis as cats, has been a longtime tool for teaching the Holocaust.

The U.S. Holocaust Museum decried the decision on Twitter earlier this week, stating, “Teaching about the Holocaust using books like ‘Maus’ can inspire students to think critically about the past and their own roles and responsibilities today.”

jim.sabataso @rutlandherald.com