Issues@Hand

AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs

Photo above, the entrance of Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland

August 2021 – In 1978, the U. S. Congress established national Days of Remembrance to commemorate and reflect on the atrocities of the Holocaust. The event runs in conjunction with international Holocaust Remembrance Day on the Hebrew calendar.

Sadly, a 2020 Pew Research study reported that more than half of Americans polled did not realize that more than 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. With the dramatic increase in nationally reported incidents of antisemitism, America’s Days of Remembrance reveal the need for Holocaust instruction at every level of America’s public education.

Before 2021, only 18 states mandated such instruction while 3 states encouraged and endorsed Holocaust education, with few schools required to document compliance. Nine additional states proposed legislation this year to combat antisemitism through Holocaust education, some even at the primary level.

According to Aaron Fruh of Israel Team Advocates and host of AFR’s Israel and You, “Holocaust education is vital because if we fail to remember the past, we are doomed to repeat it.”

ednote.ecs.org, 4/14/21; jewishvirtuallibrary.org, 4/29/21