I have written in the past about the schools I attended growing up. The district was considered one of the most rigorous in New York, if not the country, and I was a beneficiary of that rigor. One of the things I remember most clearly was learning about the Holocaust. We had regular classes and guest speakers, many of whom were the grandparents of some of my classmates. I even took a class about the Nuremberg Trials! In the same way, we are told in Deuteronomy 15 to give liberally of what we own to those in need because we have to “remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and God saved you”, so we who are lovers of God are also supposed to be lovers of humanity. Not forgetting the bad things that happened is necessary to be a good citizen. And a good person.
And yet, there are school districts – even states – changing the way history of enslaved people in America is taught. Why? Some say it’s because teaching the truth about the way we treated people from Africa will make white children feel guilty. A Monmouth University poll found that 46 percent of Republicans disapprove of teachers educating students on the history of racism, while a slim majority (54 percent) of Republicans approved. When asked about teaching critical race theory in public schools, only 16 percent of Republicans said they approved, compared with 40 percent of Independents and 75 percent of Democrats. And I agree that nobody alive today should be made to feel guilty about who they are or what their ancestors did wrong. There were a few kids who called me a Nazi because I have a German last name, but I wasn’t stupid enough to take them seriously.
Imagine if we didn’t learn about Anne Frank or Elie Weisel! Imagine if we didn’t learn about Rosa Parks or Ruby Bridges! In the same way that anti-Semitism grows when the history of the Holocaust isn’t told, so racism grows when we aren’t reminded of the lasting effects of enslavement in our history. Every year, Jews around the world are reminded of something that happened thousands of years ago to people long dead, yet the memory holds them close to the event, reminding all of us just how easily we can do evil to others. It seems to me that the people who don’t want us to remember the evil of slavery are the same people who would keep our country segregated. They are the same people whose parents tried to keep Ruby from attending an only white school and Martin from telling his truth. Not forgetting our sins of the past will guarantee our repeating them. Only knowledge and truth will keep us moving forward. Ignorance will ruin us. It already is.
Prayer – We will never forget, God, how we have misused Your words for our benefit. We will never forget the sins of our past, but we will always be grateful for Your grace and forgiveness. Amen.
Today’s art is from the Yad Vashem Art Museum in Jerusalem.