WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved $10 million over five years to fund Holocaust education in American schools.
The vote Monday was timed for International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi camp.
The money will be administered by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which will disseminate curriculum materials, in part through a centralized website.
“If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who initiated the bipartisan bill with Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. “I urge the Senate to act quickly on this bill.”
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House speaker, spoke in support of the bill and noted her visit last week to Auschwitz.
“At Auschwitz, we walked on ground scarred by almost unspeakable evil where more than one million innocents were murdered,” she said.
Hadassah and the Jewish Federations of North America led the lobbying for the measure.
“It is imperative that we make every effort to push back against the hatred, bigotry, anti-Semitism and extremism fueling violent attacks,” Hadassah said in a statement.
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