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Holocaust Education, Hate Crimes Addressed at Hearing

"We need financial support," experts tell U.S. lawmakers

Successful programs aimed at battling anti-Semitism and intolerance in Europe and Eurasia could be in jeopardy if they do not receive more funding, according to experts who testified before a congressional committee May 9.

"We need financial support," said Paul Goldenberg and Kathrin Meyer, both of whom are advisors to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR).

Goldenberg, the former chief of New Jersey's hate crimes unit, emphasized the special threat such crimes pose to a democracy. "The consequences are infinitely more far-reaching than other types of crimes, for these are the events that can divide communities, neighborhoods and states," he said. Hate crimes "can create tension where none had existed, and breed dissent where once there was harmony, and incite distrust where once there was collaboration."

"In short, these are the crimes that threaten democracy and democratic institutions," Goldenberg said.

Goldenberg led a team that developed a law-enforcement training program that assists police in recognizing and responding to hate crimes and in helping communities and individuals recover from the effects of hate crimes.

He said his team begins each training program by consulting with human rights advocates, legislators and police services in the community, and with groups that have been victims of hate crimes and groups who see themselves on the fringes of society. "We have been successful in using this process to build strong partnerships between governments and their people," Goldenberg said. The consultation process is followed with direct training of the police.

Goldenberg's training team comprises experts in the field of hate crimes from police services in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Hungary and Spain, with new members soon to join from Croatia and Ukraine. Training has taken place in Hungary and Spain, and is under way or planned for Croatia, Ukraine and Serbia and Montenegro.

PROMOTING REMEMBRANCE, EDUCATION

Meyer, who is an advisor to the ODIHR on anti-Semitic issues, described the work of her office to promote remembrance and education on the Holocaust. Her office is an outgrowth of the Berlin conference on anti-Semitism in April 2004. (See related article.)

Meyer described the results of a study recently completed by her office, Education on the Holocaust and on Anti-Semitism in the OSCE Region: An Overview and Analysis of Educational Approaches. The study shows that interest in the history of the Holocaust is growing in the OSCE region and that subject is taught not only in history classes, but also in classes on literature, languages, civic education, ethics and theology. Of the 55 OSCE participating states, 33 observe commemoration of the Holocaust on special days.

The study also identified obstacles. "There is a lack of official directives specifically related to Holocaust education. There is a lack of appropriate teaching materials for Holocaust education, but especially to address contemporary anti-Semitism. And there is a lack of teacher training in many OSCE countries," Meyer said.

She expressed the hope that the teaching tools her office is creating will help encourage more governments to incorporate Holocaust education into their national curricula.

Representatives from three nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) also testified before the committee, the U.S. Helsinki Commission, a congressional human rights watchdog.

Over the past few years "there has been a remarkable set of achievements in getting the OSCE to address this issue" of anti-Semitism "seriously and substantively," said Rabbi Andrew Baker of the American Jewish Committee. "But right now, at this very moment, we are in danger of losing these gains."

Baker called for more funding for police training and for the work of ODIHR's special expert on anti-Semitism. In addition, "we need to maintain the pressure in the political arena," he said.

Baker also sounded a theme picked up by other witnesses, urging the United States to continue to seek to treat anti-Semitism separately from other forms of intolerance.

Liebe Geft, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance, explained the rationale for this special treatment for the Holocaust and anti-Semitism: "[O]ur basic assumption is that learning about Europe's historic persecution, culminating in the Holocaust, of its archetypal minority, the Jews, can educate other minorities, including today's Muslim immigrant communities in Europe, about the dynamics of prejudice and discrimination against which they seek to empower themselves."

Stacy Burdett of the Anti-defamation League told the committee, "We really need almost a new generation of Holocaust education tools."

The full text of the ODIHR study is available on the OSCE Web site.

A transcript and prepared remarks from the hearing are available on the Web site of the U.S. Helsinki Commission (also known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe).

Source: U.S. Department of State

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