'Never again' starts in school - Time to update Holocaust curriculum in Florida

Once only found on the extreme fringes of society, Holocaust denial, revisionism and antisemitism have seeped into our communities, houses of worship and, sadly, into our schools. When the principal of a public school in Boca Raton told a parent that, “Not everyone believes the Holocaust happened,” it made international headlines, and he was fired. It also led many parents and School Board members to ask how the Nazis’ systematic murder of 6 million Jews was being taught in our schools.

The K-12 Floridian Holocaust Standards are currently up for review. A task force of concerned academics, teachers and parents were asked by Florida’s Department of Education to present changes to the syllabus. Those recommendations are currently being assessed, and the assessment revolves around two key ideas.

First, students’ first interaction with Jews or Jewish culture should not be in middle school or high school when they first learn about the “Final Solution.” A syllabus that focuses on Jews as a hated relic of the past is a recipe to fuel the Jew hatred of the future.

If, however, students in K-5 are taught about Jewish culture and the positive impact the Jewish people have had on our shared history, they will be better served to understand the reprehensible magnitude of the Shoah. Our children will not start learning about Jews by hearing that another nation deemed them to be an enemy of its state. Rather, they will first learn of the moral, cultural and scientific contributions made by the Jewish religion and the Jewish people, and later they will learn, in this context, that a supposedly civilized country deliberately, with evil intent, murdered 6 million of these good people. In addition, by demonstrating the unique nature of the Nazis’ war against the Jews, students will be empowered to ensure that hatred against Jews is eradicated.

The idea that our children’s textbooks contain zero references to living Jews does all Americans a disservice. Putting faces to individual members of the Jewish community and building an emotional connection with living Jews during K-5 will enable students better to understand the magnitude of the Holocaust when later taught. This isn’t something new. Other minorities are taught about in this way.

Second, the Nazis’ systematic murder of 6 million Jews was unlike any other event in human history, unmatched even by the previous 3,300 years of persecution of Jews throughout the world. It was unique, and attempts to universalize the Holocaust, or to use it as a passing reference to teach about racism and inequality, are an insult to the memory of those killed. While many atrocities throughout history deserve to be part of the curriculum in other ways, they should never be bundled with the Holocaust.

These changes are long overdue and should not be viewed through a political prism, but many wish to use the Holocaust to push their own political agendas instead of doing their job of preparing our children for a better tomorrow.

As the last survivors of the Nazi atrocities begin to fade away, we must act now to preserve the true memory of the Holocaust for generations to come. Florida has always led our nation in so many ways. Now is the time for Gov. Ron DeSantis to ensure that our Holocaust education becomes the gold standard for the entire country.

Laurie Cardoza-Moore is president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations.