Connecticut Legislature Passes Law Requiring High School Holocaust Education
Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — Legislation that would require Holocaust and genocide education in Connecticut high schools starting with the coming school year unanimously passed the state legislature.
The Connecticut House of Representatives on Monday voted 147-0 in favor of the bill. It had unanimously passed the Senate on April 24.
The bill will now go to Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for his signature.
The legislation requires local and regional school boards to include the Holocaust and other genocides in their social studies curriculum beginning with the 2018-19 school year.
Rabbi Philip Lazowski, the state Senate’s chaplain and a Holocaust survivor, visited the House after the vote to thank the lawmakers, the Connecticut Mirror reported.
“I thank you from the bottom of my heart. This is a very important bill. In this, an election year, I wish you all good luck,” Lazowski said. “May God bless you for many years — and be with your family, your friends and have the joy of serving the people of Connecticut. God bless you.”
In March, the Kentucky legislature passed similar legislation. New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and California are other states that require some measure of Holocaust and genocide education.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
