U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan (R-NY) renewed his efforts around strengthened education in America on the Holocaust following the Oct. 27 shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh that killed 11 Jewish members and injured several others.
Rep. Donovan this week formally requested that the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee hold a hearing on the bipartisan Never Again Education Act, H.R. 5460, which would authorize the U.S. Secretary of Education to award grants to eligible entities to carry out educational programs about the Holocaust, among other purposes, according to text of the bill in the congressional record.
Rep. Donovan is the lead original cosponsor of H.R. 5460, introduced on April 10 by U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who joined Donovan in requesting a hearing on the measure in an Oct. 31 letter sent to U.S. Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Bobby Scott (D-VA), chairman and ranking member, respectively, on the House Education and the Workforce Committee.
“As we condemn this horrendous attack and the anti-Semitism that caused it, we also must ensure that our children and students understand the dangers of rising anti-Semitism and that they know its history. For if we do not learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it,” the representatives wrote.
The lawmakers want H.R. 5460 to “finally move forward” to give teachers the necessary resources and training that would enable them to teach students about “the important lessons of the Holocaust and the consequences of intolerance and hate.”
H.R. 5460, they wrote, would establish a fund at the U.S. Department of Education to provide the grants at both public and private middle and high schools.
Reps. Donovan and Maloney called the murders at the Tree of Life Synagogue “horrific and unconscionable” and said they coincided with rising anti-Semitic incidents and online harassment across the United States.
“The Anti-Defamation League reports that anti-Semitic incidents were up 57 percent in 2017, from the previous year,” according to their letter.
The members wrote that while they considered the Holocaust a vital part of education, “far too many students in our country grow up without basic knowledge of the events during the Holocaust.”
“By holding a hearing on H.R. 5460 and moving this important bill, Congress can reiterate the importance of teaching our children the history of hate and the horrors to which it leads,” Reps. Donovan and Maloney wrote. “Now more than ever, we need that reminder.”