Teaching the Holocaust: NYS unveils new curriculum amid rise in antisemitism

With reports of antisemitism and other forms of bigotry on the rise, New York State's top education officials on Monday unveiled a new curriculum aimed at teaching students about the Holocaust and other mass murders.

The educational materials, called, "Teaching the Holocaust and Other Genocides," were introduced at a meeting in Albany of the state Board of Regents, which oversees New York’s educational institutions. The new resources will be optional for educators.

New York public schools are already required by law to teach about the Holocaust, but lesson plans vary from district to district, ranging from reading excerpts of the play "The Diary of Anne Frank" to visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., according to a 2022 survey. The survey also found dramatic variations in how much time districts devote to Holocaust education, with some spending “minutes” and others devoting months, Regent at-large Roger Tilles said at Monday's meeting.

Members of the Board of Regents praised the new resources — available online — as powerful, while also raising questions about whether they adequately address Holocaust misinformation, including outright denials.

One regent, Susan Mittler, said as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, she worried about whether teachers have enough guidance about responding to inaccurate or biased statements.

“What kind of support do we provide to these educators?” she asked.

The resources include “red flags” to watch out for when students and teachers assess information about the Holocaust, said Diane Wynne, executive director of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the state Education Department. The lessons, Wynne said, include “teaching students how to really be cognizant of historically accurate information.”

Tilles said the state should repeat its Holocaust education survey in about a year to see if the new materials make a difference.

“There needs to be some kind of monitoring, if not enforcement,” he said.

Teaching genocide

The new materials include videos, photos and readings about the murder of 6 million Jews and millions of others in Europe during World War II, as well as materials on more recent genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda and other areas.

Artifacts such as driver’s licenses seized by Nazis are powerful evidence of the “dehumanization that ultimately leads to genocide,” said Steven Goldberg, director of education at the White Plains-based nonprofit Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center, which created the resources along with state education officials and the nonprofit New York State Archives Partnership Trust.

In interviews with Newsday, Holocaust educators called the materials well-designed and timely, though some also asked whether teachers have enough support in guiding sensitive conversations.

The new resources include tips on how to address "social-emotional considerations," such as establishing "norms regarding respectful discussions," and acknowledging and validating students' discomfort.

“It looks like it was very thoughtfully planned out and executed,” Deborah Lauter, executive director of the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights in Manhattan, said after reviewing a 28-page presentation about the materials.

Lauter, whose institute offers multiday seminars on Holocaust education, said it is important to provide information to counter "Holocaust denial and distortion."

Alan Singer, director of secondary education social studies and teaching learning technology at Hofstra University in Hempstead, said the goal of Holocaust education is not to guide students to a particular conclusion, but to “engage students in research, in discussion, examining data, trying to reach conclusions about the past and present.”

Mary O’Meara, the Plainview-Old Bethpage schools superintendent, said her staff will review the new materials and “weave them into our Holocaust units of study." The district’s programs include lessons designed to counter antisemitism and other bias, based on lesson plans created two years ago by teachers throughout Nassau County, as well as documentaries made by middle schoolers that include interviews with Holocaust survivors, she said.

There are “very few” Holocaust survivors left, she said, and “capturing their stories with students as the reporters, journalists, videographers, is really important.”

By Maura McDermott

maura.mcdermott@newsday.commauramcdermott

Maura McDermott covers education. Since joining Newsday in 2012, she also has worked on the investigations team and covered real estate and the business of health care.