By Amy Zewe—
You may all be aware that a few months ago The Jerusalem Connection released a collection of the late Pat Hutchens art series called The Auschwitz Album Revisited.
This album is so special and important for so many reasons–among them is that it is a great educational tool. We now have organizations such as seminaries and congregations requesting bulk orders to share with teachers, students, and congregants. And the proceeds of these booklets go towards our Holocaust Education Fund. The reason this is so vital is that education, whether in schools private, public, or even university levels, seems to be unable–or even unwilling–to teach truth and to teach it effectively about the Holocaust and antisemitism.
The result is that nearly 1 in 10 people under the age of 40 do not know that 6 million Jews were murdered only 80 years ago. Many of today’s world citizens believe the victims of the Holocaust are somehow responsible for their fate. And, teachers and professors who deny the Holocaust, or praise its efforts, hold their positions (while football coaches who pray with students are fired).
What are some updates regarding curriculum?
California’s Ethnic Studies curriculum has been approved and teaches (encourages) supporting BDS, a disdain for Israel, and that Jews are part of a colonizing class of white supremacists.
UC Riverside professor, and department head, Professor Dylan Rodriguez sent a series of tweets recently on the alleged role that Zionism plays at higher education institutions in America. Rodríguez tweeted on January 12 that, “most California public education administrators don’t understand how Zionism politically toxified our schools and curricula.”
The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) is a nationwide student Union and advocacy organization that voted (in 2018) to financially support BDS efforts. Many students, Jewish and non-Jewish are in court fighting that they do not want their dues going towards this effort.
Winfield Myers, Director of Campus Watch within the Middle Eastern Forum has noted the increasing hostility towards Israel (and by default against Jews) on college campuses. Myers stated:
American academe is becoming very anti-Israel. Israel is often presented here as an illegitimate colonialist enterprise that expelled the indigenous population. Some of the professors in the United States even refuse to pronounce the name Israel, as if to imply its inherent illegitimacy. There are already ‘historians’ who claim that there were no ancient Hebrews at all, or that they were just another tribe like the Canaanites, all in order to undermine the connection of the Jews to the Land of Israel and to legitimize attacks on Israel. The method is not new: repeat the lie so many times that the hearers accept it.
This erasure of the Jewish culture, lineage, and endurance is counter to the truth of history we not only see in the Bible, but also in in careful, credible chronicling (including archeology) of the last 2000 years in Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere.
If nothing else, please educate your own family, the children and young people within your own family. Replacement theology we see within the Christian culture from pulpits and within their private school curriculum as well as the revisionist history we are seeing in public school curriculums and within university level courses—we must be vigilant to combat it wherever and however we can.
Shavua Tov, have a great week.