Pod Save America Hosts Call on Democrats to Cut All Israel Military Aid, No Longer Accept AIPAC Funding
Jews, Israelis Targeted in Austria Amid Surge in Antisemitic Incidents; Local Jewish Community Calls for Action
‘All of Our Strength’: Over 1,000 Pro-Israel Activists Gather in DC for Solidarity Conference
‘Devastated’: Wesley LePatner, Killed in Manhattan Mass Shooting, Was a Jewish Communal, Philanthropic Leader
Sen. Angus King Vows to No Longer Vote for Israel Military Aid Until Gaza Conditions Improve
Europe Won’t Pressure Israel to ‘Commit Suicide’ Amid Gaza Backlash, Palestinian State Push, Says Israeli FM
Israel’s National Soccer Coach Attacked in Athens Before Soccer Fans Chant ‘F–K Israel, Free Palestine’ at Match
New York Judge Sentences Neo-Nazi to 5 Years for Livestreaming Bomb Threats Against Jewish Hospitals
US Pressures Lebanon to Issue Cabinet Decision to Disarm Hezbollah Before Talks Continue
UK Plans to Recognize Palestinian State in September Unless Israel Meets Conditions, Starmer Says
Australian Lawmakers Call For Holocaust Education
by Dion J. Pierre
The skyline of Melbourne, Australia, the capital of Victoria. Photo: Alex Proimos/Wikimedia Commons.
An Australian parliamentarian has proposed a motion to require students throughout the commonwealth to be educated about the Holocaust.
Labor Party MP Josh Burns proposed the measure on September 5. According to The Australian Jewish News, it was co-sponsored by MPs from several parties.
The motion denounces antisemitism, including Holocaust denial and equating covid restrictions with anti-Jewish legislation in Nazi Germany, and implores “all states and territories to follow the lead of Victoria and New South Wales and make Holocaust education a mandatory aspect of their school curriculum.”
Holocaust education became mandatory in Victoria in 2020 after the state’s education minister James Merlino set out to address bigotry in its schools.
During a speech on the motion, its co-sponsor Labor MP Mark Dreyfus noted that the Holocaust “is only recent history.”
“I acknowledge that there are other members in this place, on both sides of the chamber, who, like me, owe their lives to the fact that one or more of their family members managed to escape the Nazis and find refuge in Australia,” he said.
“Antisemitism is on the rise around the globe, and sadly we’re not immune from it in our own Victorian community,” Dreyfus added an Australian ABC affiliate that February. “Most kids today wouldn’t be able to explain what the Holocaust was, and I think it’s vital that each generation understands the horror of the Holocaust to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Burns’ remarks, AJN said, were in memory of his recently deceased grandmother who emigrated from Germany to Australia just one week before the Kristallnacht.
