The Oregon state legislature passed a bill requiring Holocaust education to be taught in all schools throughout the state after months of lobbying from a 14-year-old high schooler.
Claire Sarnowski, a Catholic student at Lakeright High School in the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego, had been lobbying for the bill since August. In 2014, Holocaust survivor Alter Wiener, spoke at Sarnowski’s elementary school and the two remained in contact ever since. Wiener died in December from a car accident.
“Even people who know me were skeptical at first, saying, ‘You’re not Jewish, and you’re a young girl,’” Sarnowski told the Los Angeles Times. “But I could do this because it’s for the future generations of Oregon students, for people to hear these lessons of tolerance and respect.”
According to The Week, the Oregon House unanimously passed the bill on May 28 after the state Senate unanimously passed it in March. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) is expected to sign the bill on June 4. The bill will go into effect in 2020.
Brown said in a June 3 statement, “I am so proud of Claire for her advocacy and work to get Senate Bill 664 passed on behalf of her friend and Holocaust survivor Alter Wiener, and all of those who were impacted by this horrible chapter of history. I hope Claire inspires other young people to get engaged in the legislative process.”
Oregon will become the 11th state in the country to mandate Holocaust education. The World Jewish Congress tweeted, “In the wake of the shootings at synagogues in Pittsburgh and San Diego, we think all states should follow suit. American citizens… write your representative today.”
Last week, Oregon became the 11th state to require Holocaust education in public schools. In the wake of the shootings at synagogues in Pittsburgh and San Diego, we think all states should follow suit. American citizens… write your representative today.https://t.co/y1HGpuqERQ
— World Jewish Congress (@WorldJewishCong) June 3, 2019
There is currently a bipartisan bill in Congress called the Never Again Education Party that would provide grants to schools providing Holocaust education. Israeli-American Council Program Manager and National Museum of American Jewish History board member Bryan Leib and Endowment for Middle East Truth board member Naomi Levin wrote in a May 15 Journal Op-ed that the aforementioned bill was proposed in April 2018 after “an alarming survey by the Claims Conference asserting that more than two-thirds of American millennials have never heard of Auschwitz” was released at the time. Additionally, the survey found that “more than 45% of those surveyed couldn’t name one of the ghettos or concentration camps.”
Leib and Levin argued that the aforementioned survey is evidence “that the memory of the Holocaust is quickly fading while anti-Semitism around the world is on the rise. I (Leib) am the grandson of a Holocaust survivor and I (Levin) have relatives who survived the Holocaust. We will never forget about the Holocaust and we are personally invested in seeing Holocaust education rolled out nationwide. But what about the millions of Americans who don’t have grandparents or relatives who are Holocaust survivors and can’t name a single concentration camp?”
