Eleanor Dunning said she was shocked when she saw a fellow college student throw up a Nazi signal, and doubly so when the student escaped repercussion from school officials.
State Sen. Jen Day of the Gretna area said she was stunned to learn via recent email that an Omaha area school had tried to teach lessons of the Holocaust but stopped after receiving pushback.
Such incidents underscore the necessity, they and others testified Tuesday, of Legislative Bill 888 ā which would add the Holocaust and other acts of genocide to existing Nebraska statutes that already call for multicultural education to K-12 students in public schools.
Currently, the law requires that multicultural education focus on the culture, history and contributions of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans and Asian Americans.
āDespicableā
Introduced by Day, the broader language had been pushed previously by a former lawmaker but stalled.
Ten people testified Tuesday in support of the resurrected measure presented to the Education Committee. No one spoke in opposition.
The committee took no action, though Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks said she found it ādespicableā ā and a reflection of āthe state of politics todayā ā that the school Day referred to (but did not identify by name) would receive such pushback about Holocaust education.Ā
Day cited a recent survey indicating that 66% of millennials were unable to identify Auschwitz (the Nazi concentration and death camp).
That the Holocaustās systematic murder of six million European Jews occurred relatively recently, during World War II, is further reason to be alarmed, Day said.
āNever Againā
She said she was further concerned that only nine Holocaust survivors remain in Nebraska as a āliving, breathingā tool that can equip students with the knowledge to identify and reject discrimination and hate.
āWeāre really missing those human to human stories,ā said Day. āIgnorance will only increase as (the Holocaust) falls further into history.ā
Gary Javitch of Bānai Bārith Omaha said a spike in anti-Semitism is āreason enoughā to increase Holocaust education. He said Nebraska should become the 24th state to adopt the legal language.
Said Javitch: āThe phrase ānever againā needs to be more than just a slogan.ā
Nebraska Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on Facebook and Twitter.