Utah schools encouraged to increase Holocaust education in new resolution
Governor of Utah Spencer Cox signed the resolution on Thursday, which he hopes will help students "make informed choices as citizens."
By TOBIAS SIEGALPassover in Utah 370(photo credit: Jeff Finkelstein)
The US Senate has recently passed a resolution calling on all educational institutes in the state of Utah to teach students about the Holocaust, local media reported Friday.Governor of Utah Spencer Cox signed the resolution on Thursday, which he hopes will help students "make informed choices as citizens" and will "help root out despicable acts of hatred, antisemitism, and other forms of prejudice,” the resolution read.While Holocaust education is already expected in Utah schools, a survey conducted by the Schoen Cooperman Research firm in late 2020 revealed major gaps in Holocaust education and awareness among most American youth.The survey revealed that as many as 63% of millennials in the US did not know that six millions Jews were killed during the Holocaust. 23% either said they believed the Holocaust was a myth or believed that the number of Jews who were killed was greatly exaggerated.The resolution calls on schools and other educational facilities in Utah to use age-appropriate materials in order to teach students about the atrocities carried out by the Nazis and hopefully help them better understand local societal issues like racism and discrimination.The resolution stresses the importance of being able to "confront the issues of moral dilemmas" and to "illuminate patterns of human behavior by individuals and groups and their choices of roles, including perpetrator, collaborator, bystander, victim, resister, and rescuer," which the document describes as "universal lessons." Member of the Utah State Senate, Evan J. Vickers, whose father was a World War II veteran, sponsored the resolution. In an interview given to The Salt Lake Tribune, he said that “(We are) starting to hear people say ‘well I don’t think that ever happened,’” noting the importance of the resolution and its timing. However, the resolution does not carry any legal obligation and is considered more of a symbolic gesture than a binding directive, meant to encourage schools to address Holocaust education rather than force them into anything concrete. Whether it manages to confront the issue of Holocaust memory among Utah's youths is left to be seen.
