New York middle school students get Holocaust education

For many of the 8th-graders from PS 84 in Williamsburg who toured the museum last week, it was the first time they learned about the Holocaust.

By MARIAL LISELLA
A man points at a gold star inside the Museum of Jewish Heritage in the Manhattan borough of New York (photo credit: CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERS)
A man points at a gold star inside the Museum of Jewish Heritage in the Manhattan borough of New York
(photo credit: CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERS)
NEW YORK - New York City’s Department of Education and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City announced last week they would expand their partnership by taking 8th and 10th-graders from Williamsburg, Borough Park and Crown Heights on field trips to the museum to create a sense of inclusion and to ultimately cut down on antisemitism.
Richard Carranza, NYC Schools Chancellor said the DOE would foot the bill for the middle school and high school field trips while the museum will provide every public school student over the age of 12 with a free ticket to the museum along with three free tickets for family members.
The move comes as the city has seen an uptick in antisemitic crimes. The NYPD reported 234 anti-Semitic crimes were reported in 2019, representing a 20 percent increase from the year before. Many of those incidents involved a swastika.
"Today you're going to understand what that swastika is and why it's a hate ideology and why when Jews and others see it, it creates a lot of fear in our communities," said Deborah Lauter with the NYC Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes.
Lauter’s mentor, Abraham Foxman who is now Director for the Ceneter for the Study of Anti-Semitism has hopes for the new initiative: “History proves that when good people said ‘no,’ people survived.”
For many of the 8th-graders from PS 84 in Williamsburg who toured the museum last week, it was the first time they learned about the Holocaust. One of the leaders of the tour could be overheard saying, “The Holocaust started with name calling and bullying …”