Gov. Hochul Signs Legislation to Deepen Holocaust Education in NY’s 700 Schools

By Yehudit Garmaise

“We are teaching about the Holocaust in schools, supposedly, but how is that that in 2020, 58% of young New Yorkers couldn’t name a single concentration camp?” Gov. Hochul asked today before signing new legislation that aims to ensure that all school children in New York receive “high-quality Holocaust education.” 

In the same study, 60% of New York students were unaware that 6 million Jews were murdered during World War II.

“Doesn’t seem like [those lessons] sunk in very well, does it,” Gov. Hochul said about the Holocaust education public school students receive, 

Assemblymember Simcha Eichenstein pointed out that most New York students, “lack basic knowledge about the Holocaust.

“We must ensure that our young people learn it and understand it,” said Assemblymember Eichenstein who sponsored one of the new bills signed into law today, along with State Sen. Zellnor Myrie.

Since 1994, New York state law has mandated Holocaust education in our schools, but the governor said, “I don’t remember being taught it, and my kids were not taught it.”

While some public-school students may remember one sentence in history books dedicated to Nazis’ slaughter of 6 million Yidden, Gov. Hochul asked, “Were students told how people turned on their neighbors and the stories behind that?” 

Today the governor directed NY Commissioner of Education Betty A. Rosa to survey the state’s 700 schools and ask the question, “What are you really doing to teach the Holocaust?” 

“How much are you sharing, and in what grades?” Gov. Hochul wants to know about the education in a state in which 1.77 million Yidden live. “We have to make sure that Holocaust education penetrates the mind of our young people because that is our best hope to stop their hearts from being penetrated with the hate they are likely seeing online.”

The Internet spreads hateful propaganda much more easily than the newspapers, books, films, and rallies that the Nazis used to spread their murderous ideologies.

This makes today’s environment potentially even more dangerous than 80 years ago, the governor pointed out.

“Social media platforms further spread hateful ideas and videos by pushing out content similar to what users have previously sought,” said Gov. Hochul.

Another way that Gov. Hochul acted to provide Holocaust education “in everyday lives” is to require New York museums to prominently mark with signs the 600,000 paintings that were stolen during the Nazis’ reign of terror.

Today, the governor took another step in her efforts to help Holocaust survivors, 40% of whom live in poverty, by ensuring that banks waive the fees of reparation payments.

“Banks should not be profiting off the pain of these survivors,” the governor said.