Holocaust education in the New York City public schools, “is no longer a growing phenomena,” according to Albert Post, the assistant director for Social Studies at the city’s school system.
Post, who helped prepare the 461-page curriculum guide that was introduced in October, 1977, contends that most of the teachers who are committed to teaching the Holocaust have already been reached. He estimates that about 600 teachers have taken the courses that have been made available on teaching the Holocaust. However, the last course that Post himself was to teach had to be cancelled because of lock of enrollment.
A further disappointment to Post, who has personally instructed 250 teachers on the subject, is that over 98 percent of the teachers who take these courses are Jewish. Of the number he has brought, only five were non-Jews and only one teacher was Black.
Though it is now mandatory in the New York City public schools to include the Holocaust into the 10th grade History curriculum as part of the study of World War II, it remains at the teachers discretion whether to spend two months or two minutes on the subject.
EFFORT TO ‘UNIVERSALIZE’ HOLOCAUST
Some opponents of Holocaust education perceive the Holocaust as strictly a Jewish problem that, if dwelled upon, denies equal treatment to other groups that have also been victimized by genocide. The New York City Board of Education was sensitive to that charge even before any program was begun. In preparing the curriculum guide, great effort was made to “universalize” the phenomena of the Holocaust.
General issues such as bigotry, persecution, and genocide are treated as recurring themes. The genocidal treatment of the Armenians and other nationals are referred to throughout the guide in order to show how the aspects of the Holocaust are part of a continuing series of “man’s inhumanity to man.” The student is also asked to compare and contrast our own times with that of Nazi Germany; to learn how the toleration of injustice could lead to the toleration of genocide.
Student response has been very positive. Iro Zornberg, who has been teaching the Holocaust at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn for five years, said that his own students, most of whom are not Jewish, are very responsive. Interest in his eight-week elective course has been so high that he is presently teaching four such classes.
Another teacher mentioned that the Black and Puerto Rican students relate easily to the Holocaust because of their own plights. “They can identify with the feeling of powerlessness.”
New York City is neither the first nor the only public school system to have a program for teaching the Holocaust. Philadelphia had its own program a year before New York. Other major school systems which have Holocaust programs include: Baltimore; Brookline and Great Barrington, Massachusetts; Chicago and Evanston, Illinois; Los Angeles; the state system in New Jersey; Pittsburgh; San Diego, and San Francisco.
INTEREST CONTINUES TO GROW
Around the country, the interest in Holocaust education has not peaked and continues to grow, according to Judy Muffs, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith’s national director of research and curriculum. The ADL’s 26 nationwide offices are all actively involved in bringing Holocaust education into schools around the country. They have had a tremendous response with remarkably little opposition. Ms. Muffs said that calls come in constantly for materials, for consultations and from publishers. She cites the TV special, “Holocaust” as a major stimulus to this interest.
When asked to comment on Post’s view that the interest in Holocaust education in New York City has peaked, she agreed, but added that though the political interest may be slackening, and most of the committed teachers already reached, the real work continues to be done among the many teachers that are presently involved.
The ADL’s director of education, Eleanor Blumenberg, attributes some of the resistance in the New York City’s school system to what she calls the “me-too phenomena” where every ethnic group is zealous of getting their fair share of curriculum attention. However, ADL officers are pleased with the progress that has already been made in New York City and seem even more optimistic when they look at the national picture.
The ADL emphasizes that the crucial need now is for competent teacher-training in the subject. In a review of over 60 syllabi prepared by teachers teaching the Holocaust, the ADL found a disturbing consistency of presenting the Jew as a passive victim. Ms. Muffs worries that in addition to that being historically incorrect, it raises an inevitable question in the student’s mind that if the Jews suffered so much throughout their history, then perhaps there was a reason why they deserved it.
It also revives an image of the Jew as one who wrings his hands at the prospect of persecution, she noted. For this reason and others, the ADL has periodically held nationwide conferences for teachers who are engaged in Holocaust education.
The political obstacles to teaching the Holocaust seem to have been overcome. What remains to be done is to continue to attract devoted, and competent teachers to carry on the work. Jay Schecter, a Brooklyn high school teacher and a pioneer in Holocaust education, has called the response to Holocaust studies, “one of the most wonderful surprises in American education.” Though the big fuss has passed, the work goes on.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
