A FEW WEEKS ago, the world recognized International Holocaust Remembrance Day, reminding us of what can happen when a group is targeted as undesirable, and citizens stand by, allowing autocratic leaders to take control.
“The Holocaust illustrates the consequences of prejudice, racism and stereotyping on a society. It forces us to examine the responsibilities of citizenship and confront the powerful ramifications of indifference and inaction,” former U.S. Rep. Tim Holden said.
Jews are especially aware of what can happen when people forget, ignore, deny or whitewash the past. The Holocaust is always in the back of our minds when we see children ripped from their mothers’ arms by government officials, neo-Nazis referred to as “very fine people,” immigrants portrayed as rapists, murderers and animals, or politicians eliminating school curricula that helps students see things from a different perspective, thus teaching them to show compassion and kindness to those who have faced generational oppression.
Though these lessons may make people feel uncomfortable, they eventually lead to understanding and healing.
For many years, I taught a two- to three-week unit on the Holocaust to my U.S. History students, because the text only covered it in a couple pages. I explained that I was doing this not because I was Jewish, but because the pattern exhibited by people in discriminating against a certain category of citizens follows the same escalation process, ending in violence against the targeted group.
I wanted my students to recognize the signs to help prevent it from happening to other groups.
They watched black-and-white footage filmed by the Nazis as they executed innocent civilians, and the unit ended with the watching of “Schindler’s List.”
If there was ever an experience which could make someone uncomfortable, it would be witnessing those atrocities.
I also taught my students in depth about the plight of African Americans throughout American history, including actual documentaries of the violence perpetrated in the past.
My students learned about Emmet Till, and saw his battered face — which his mother demanded be shown in his open casket. They saw the video of the beatings endured by the marchers in Selma.
We discussed how those fighting for change brought it about little by little, and often at great cost to themselves. I imagine some felt uncomfortable, but I still hear from my students from years ago, thanking me for showing them the reality of our history.
Sadly, if I were teaching in some places in our country today, I could very well lose my job because my lessons would be too “woke.” Teachers have been told to hide or cover the books in their class libraries because some might be on a list of books not approved by the state. By simply having these books in their classrooms, teachers can risk being charged with a third-degree felony. In what country are we living?
Judaism places an extremely high value on education, and Jews have always been fully supportive of public schools as the way to have students experience equity, inclusion and diversity. This is how children in a democracy can thrive.
So we Jews find it heartbreaking to hear about attacks on fact- and truth-based education, no matter how uncomfortable it makes people feel.
It can be a very short road from this kind of government control to the targeting and oppression of certain “undesirable” groups.
If you think this is an exaggeration, read the Nuremburg laws instituted as the Holocaust began. They are chilling.
The lessons of the Holocaust show us how easy it is to embark on a slippery slope, and how a combination of events and attitudes can erode a society’s democratic values.
All faith traditions encourage their followers to be awakened to the needs of others, to take care of the less fortunate and oppressed.
To be well informed, thoughtful, compassionate, humble, kind and eager to make the world a better place for all people. This is the very definition of “woke.”
It’s time for those of us in faith communities to reclaim that term and talk about it as an important and crucial spiritual trait we should all embrace.
We must awaken our souls. Be “woke” and celebrate the quality as something to which we should all aspire.
Kein yehi ratzon … may it be God’s will. Shalom.
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Issues of Faith is a rotating column by religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. Suzanne DeBey is a lay leader of the Port Angeles Jewish community. Her email is debeyfam@olympus.net.
