Teaching about the Holocaust and Challenging Antisemitism
by Cynthia Vitere
For more than a decade, I have been teaching an International Baccalaureate curriculum focusing on authoritarian states and twentieth-century wars. As part of this class, I lead students through a months-long exploration of the emergence German fascism, its promotion and weaponization of antisemitism as a means for consolidating power, and the implementation of the Holocaust within the broader context of World War II. Over the years, I have found my students to be curious and willing partners in our exploration of this essential subject. Our study of Nazism, antisemitism, and the Holocaust has included hosting in-person survivor testimonials and expanded to include a comparative analysis of the Rwandan genocide. This year, students and teachers participated in a three-day workshop with Carl Wilkens, the only American to remain in Rwanda during the genocide. While grounded in historical understanding, this workshop emphasized the possibility of peace and reconciliation through restorative justice practices. Students were eager to engage with history and to imagine peaceful outcomes through direct interaction with those who experienced it firsthand.
New York State’s mandate for Holocaust education and the requirements of the IB curriculum has made this work possible. In its absence, teachers would find it difficult to address antisemitism in a sustained and substantive way. Long Island communities have a proud history of supporting the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. However, as that era grows more distant and our demographics shift, that support has evolved in complex ways. In my own classroom I have witnessed student discomfort, especially among Jewish students who are in the minority, when these topics are addressed. Cast as representatives of Jewish identity within their peer groups, they sometimes encounter subtle antisemitic comments or assumptions.
In the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the ongoing war involving the Unted States, Israel, and Iran, the potential for such dynamics have intensified. While students filter their assumptions and comments within the classroom, it is clear that beyond the classroom, they are being exposed to the familiar conspiracy theories of the “Jewish banker” and “international globalist” that are circulating across their social media feeds. In a recent poll I conducted with my own students, more than 65% acknowledged that they had regularly encountered these types of posts.
Educators must recognize the powerful role these online narratives play in the lives of our students. Their continuous exposure to misinformation and antisemitic tropes requires more than historical instruction alone. We must help students identify and deconstruct these viral feeds – treating digital content as a modern form of antisemitic propaganda, in the same way that we challenge the work of Goebbels and Hitler.
This work calls for a curriculum that connects media literacy and historical study to the students’ lived experience. I recognize that this work is fraught with pedagogical and political hurdles, but it is a task worth addressing. Teachers, working collaboratively, can and must create safe spaces to examine these controversial issues, past and present. Within these spaces, students may express conspiracy theories and biases, but we cannot ignore them. Rather, these teachable moments are ripe for critical engagement. Together, we can examine the history and contemporary dangers of scapegoating and practice a civic minded response that nurtures our democracy.
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