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    Teaching the Unspeakable: The New Jersey Story of Holocaust & Genocide Education
    Teaching the Unspeakable: The New Jersey Story of Holocaust & Genocide Education
    Teaching the Unspeakable: The New Jersey Story of Holocaust & Genocide Education
    Ebook158 pages1 hour

    Teaching the Unspeakable: The New Jersey Story of Holocaust & Genocide Education

    By Dr. Paul Winkler

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    This book presents the thirty-year history of the State of New Jersey’s involvement in Holocaust and Genocide education with the establishment of a Council/Commission by Governor Tom Kean and the passage of the legislative “Mandate” in 1994 that students in all grades must learn about the Holocaust and genocide.

    The book highlights many of the programs and curriculum developments over the years and the importance of the network of Holocaust and Genocide Centers throughout the State and concludes with activities and concerns for the future to ensure that Holocaust and Genocide activities become an integral part of the education of our students.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateOct 1, 2012
    ISBN9781935232742
    Teaching the Unspeakable: The New Jersey Story of Holocaust & Genocide Education

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      Book preview

      Teaching the Unspeakable - Dr. Paul Winkler

      schools.

      CHAPTER ONE:

      2045 & Today

      The year is 2045. Thousands of adults between the ages of thirty and fifty are engaged in very meaningful activities. These individuals whether they are in New Jersey, around the country, or living internationally, are telling their colleagues, students, co-workers, parents, family, friends, etc., about the interaction they had with a survivor of the Holocaust when they were in school.

      Why 2045? That will be the 100th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps in Europe in 1945. Many of the adults celebrating the anniversary would have participated in Holocaust and Genocide Programs sponsored by the New Jersey Commission for Holocaust Education when they were students. In those years, from the late 1980s onwards, New Jersey was renowned for its quality statewide educational programs.

      How did New Jersey come to be recognized by many individual organizations and groups as having a quality statewide Holocaust and genocide program? Bill Shulman, Director of the Association of Holocaust Organizations (AHO), ascribes the passing of the Holocaust and Genocide Mandate, the enforcement of the Mandate, and the funding of teacher training as the reasons for New Jersey’s success. In Hadassah Magazine, 2000, Shulman wrote the following:

      The promotion of Holocaust education in New Jersey is the work of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, created in 1991 by Governor James Florio. It grew out of the [Advisory] Council on Holocaust Education, the first of its kind in the United States that had been formed nine years earlier by Florio’s predecessor, Thomas Kean. In 1994, the legislative mandate was signed into law. Only four other states—New York, Illinois, California, and Florida—have such mandates, though several states recommend Holocaust education. Of the five, New Jersey is the only one requiring Holocaust education at all grade levels of elementary and high school, says Bill Shulman, Executive Director of the Association of Holocaust Organizations (AHO). Along with Florida, New Jersey not only has the best record in the country in enforcing the mandate, but it funds teacher training, too, Shulman explains. It also has more Holocaust centers than any other state.

      Michael Berenbaum, Holocaust scholar, writer, lecturer, teacher, consultant in the conceptual development of museums and the development of historical films, director of the Sigi Ziering Institute at the American Jewish University where he is also Professor of Jewish Studies, and executive editor of the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, writes praising the work of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education:

      New Jersey has been a pioneer in Holocaust education. More than thirty years ago one of the first teaching curricula for high school students was developed in the state of New Jersey; its MA programs in teaching the Holocaust and Genocide both at Richard Stockton College and at Kean University are widely respected. The New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education has been a model for other states of the Union. I have always appreciated the wisdom and professionalism of the Commission staff led by the indefatigable Paul Winkler.

      These educational efforts have been carried out in the most densely populated state in the United States and one of the most diverse states—with over 130 languages spoken and with many different racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds. The state is as well number two in the most hate crimes, carried out mainly by young people of school age, and is a segregated state educationally. In fact, only four other states in the nation are more educationally segregated than New Jersey. The housing patterns in New Jersey cause the over 600 school districts to be educationally segregated.

      Why did New Jersey need to mandate Holocaust and Genocide Education? The explanation has to do with the atmosphere that produces these hate crimes, the bias-motivated criminal incidents in New Jersey. Prior to 1999, hate crimes were not reported in total; however, evidence indicated many incidents of bias were occurring at the local level and statewide.

      New Jersey Bias-Motivated Criminal Incidents between 1999 and 2010¹

      Although the number of hate crimes reported has remained fairly consistent since the reports began—with the exception of a spike in ethnic biased crimes in 2001, and a high for disability biased crimes in 2010, New Jersey has the highest rate of hate crimes, second only to California. According to a 2009 article, NJ Hate Crime Rate Doesn’t Tell Whole Story, by Matthew E. Berger, some ask, Is New Jersey the hate crime capital of America?² Berger writes that the Anti-Defamation League reported that nearly one out of ten hate crimes reported in the U.S. in 2008 was from New Jersey and also that New Jersey had the most incidents of antisemitism in 2008. New Jersey officials agree that the numbers are high; however, they claim that these numbers reflect New Jersey’s commitment to monitoring and reporting bias crimes. Detective David D’Amico of the Monmouth County prosecutor’s office said,

      All police officers in New Jersey receive two hours of bias crime training while in the police academy, and all 21 county prosecutors have bias crime units. New Jersey was one of the first to mandate the training in 1993, and also led the way in gathering data on bias crimes statewide. The laws are so strict that anytime a police officer becomes aware of a bias motive, he must report it, even if it does not rise to the level of a crime. That’s why the state calculates bias incidents instead. (Berger)

      New Jersey officials continue, explaining that one problem is underreporting of hate crimes in other states:

      While New Jersey reported 744 incidents last year, Mississippi reported the fewest, recording just four. Three other states—Georgia, New Mexico, and Wyoming—are in the single digits as well, while 24 states, plus the District of Columbia, reported less than 100 incidents. (Hawaii does not participate in the reporting efforts.) (Berger)

      Despite the high rate of New Jersey’s hate crimes as compared to other states, the rate has been stable over the last decade even though New Jersey’s population has increased. New Jersey’s Census 2000 Population Counts: State Highlights reported, The estimated increase of 684,162 residents in New Jersey since the 1990 Census represents a faster rate of population growth (8.9%) than in the 1980s (5.0%).³ The 2010 Census reported that New Jersey’s population increased from 8,414,350 to 8,791,894, an addition of 377, 544, or 4.5%.⁴

      Thus, while New Jersey’s population has increased, the rate of hate crimes based on race, religion (antisemitic and others), sexual orientation, and ethnicity has not increased. Education, such as is mandated for New Jersey’s schools, police, and other agencies, seems to have been instrumental in combating hate crimes of all types.

      The New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education has been working with schools and colleges since the 1980s, even before the Holocaust and Genocide Mandate of 1994. New Jersey students have been taught lessons focused, in the lower grades, on understanding differences and being kind to one another, and on Holocaust and genocide in the higher grades. Our students are aware of the pyramid of hatred and understand the pain caused by bias and how prejudiced attitudes and behavior can escalate leading to discrimination, violence, and sometimes even to genocide.⁵

      Students throughout the state have also been involved in Commission programs that encourage their interaction with Holocaust survivors as well as survivors of other genocides. Indeed, students state that these programs have the most impact on them. Over the years—from the 1980s to the present—The New Jersey Commission for Holocaust Education has sponsored the following exceptional programs: Adopt a Holocaust Survivor, Writing as Witness, Survivor Prom, Certificate Program, Luncheon Programs, Survivor Anthologies, Portraits of Survivors, Bar and Bat Mitzvah Programs, Survivor Trunks, and Computer Training for Survivors. These are just a few of the activities Holocaust survivors and students participated in during those years. They will be discussed more fully in Chapter 2.

      Therefore, by 2045, the 100th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust, hundreds of thousands of New Jersey students will have learned lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides and will have had the opportunity and honor of interacting with survivors.

      ¹ Statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation Hate Crimes Statistics, 1990-2010

      http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010

      ² Berger, Matthew E. NJ Hate Crime Rate Doesn’t Tell Whole Story. AOL News. 15 Dec. 2009. Web. 21 Jan. 2012.

      http://www.aolnews.com/2009/12/15/n-j-hate-crime-rate-doesnt-tell-full-story/

      ³ New Jersey’s Census 2000 Population Counts: State Highlights. Office of Labor Planning

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