On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Senator Stern Seeks to Remedy Rise in Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial with “Never Again Education Act,” SB 693

SACRAMENTO – On Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Senator Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles) called for moving beyond remembrance to action, urging passage of SB 693, the Never Again Education of 2021.  The bill would help address the growing knowledge gap among young Americans about the Holocaust and other recent genocides by offering new teaching methods and enhanced resources for teachers and students, to remedy a recent rise in anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and other acts of hatred.

“As our collective memory fades, and we lose the last generation of survivors, we must redouble our commitment to educate the next generation and refuse to slip into the same apathy and ignorance that allows hatred to take root,” said Stern.

“On January 6, I sat with my father-in-law, who survived Auschwitz as a teenage boy, watching in horror as domestic terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol. One of the men tearing down the Speaker’s door wore a ’Camp Auschwitz’ sweatshirt,” continued Stern.  “A greater horror set in at that moment – that thousands of young people in our community, and across our state and nation, watching this siege unfold, would have no idea what that sweatshirt meant, what Auschwitz was, and that hatred has a history.”

The Anti-Defamation League’s most recent Audit of Antisemitic Incidents in the United States recorded more than 2,100 acts of assault, vandalism, harassment and murder targeting Jewish Americans, the highest level of antisemitic violence ever recorded by ADL.

A nationwide survey last year of millennial and Generation Z Americans, showed a "worrying lack of basic Holocaust knowledge”: 63% of those surveyed did not know that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, and 66% of millennials could not identify the significance of Auschwitz.

To remedy this disturbing education gap, SB 693 (Stern) establishes the Governor’s Council on Genocide and Holocaust Education.  It would assemble leading experts on teaching about genocide, and the Holocaust in particular, to help students confront this complex subject matter and embrace the importance of diversity, human rights, and the roles and responsibilities of citizens in democratic societies to combat misinformation, indifference, and discrimination.

SB 693 is a priority bill for the Jewish Caucus and will be heard in the Senate Education Committee on April 14, 2021.

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