The 2024-25 New York state budget features $500,000 allocated for the review and update of Holocaust curricula in schools, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Assemblymember Nily Rozic announced.

What You Need To Know

  • The state budget for FY 2024-2025 allocated $500,000 toward updating the Holocaust curriculum

  • Schools are already required to teach students about topics including genocide, human rights issues and the Holocaust

  • According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents rose by 110% last year

This comes roughly two years after legislation was passed requiring the state Department of Education to examine whether the Holocaust is being properly taught in schools. That survey showed all school districts that were required to include Holocaust education in its curriculum did so. The 2022 review also showed most districts taught students about the Holocaust in social studies and English Language Arts (ELA) classes, not through specialized courses or events.

Wendy Weisbrot, co-chair of the Holocaust Education Resource Organization, said this funding is crucial to ensuring upcoming generations do not repeat history.

"You have to know your past to go to the present," said Weisbrot. "And we would hope that hearing from survivors, hearing from second and third generation, learning the history, would instill in these young people a voice."

According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents rose by 110% last year. In New York state, incidents of harassment are up by 226%.

For more information about educational resources and programming, visit HERO’s website.