I was pleased to learn recently, from a news story in the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle: “In the next three years, all Missouri school districts must have a plan in place to annually instruct students about the Holocaust. They must also designate the second week in April as ‘Holocaust Education Week’ for grades 6-12.”

I was raised in Kansas City, Missouri and feel Holocaust Education Week is a valuable tool in the teaching of the Shoah, the Holocaust. I believe that the intention of Holocaust Education Week is to educate students on its history but also to inspire in students a sense of responsibility to recognize and uphold human value and to prevent future atrocities.

I am passionate about preserving the memory of the Holocaust — but not in the way it’s been done in the past. The Holocaust can no longer be only about the brutality, the murder of 6 million, the murder of 1.5 million children, all the horrors that go along with it. It also needs to be about what these brave souls went through, what we can learn from it. We need to charter that into education about love, about caring. If we take from it only the horrors and the murders, that will destroy the relevance of the Holocaust.

The younger generation of Jews does not wish to become mired in the pain of the past. We want to take these lessons and apply them to a more positive, generous future of Jewish being. When the personal touch of survivors dies out, the emphasis on courage and faith in the face of death, not the affliction of being singled out for being Jewish, is the lesson that needs to be passed on.

Rabbi Dr. Bernard Rosenberg
Edison