Following an uptick in anti-Semitic incidents in 2019, the New York City Department of Education is rolling out new efforts to increase understanding of Jewish culture among the city’s students. The DOE has partnered with the Museum of Jewish Heritage as part of this effort.
8th and 10th grade students from three Brooklyn neighborhoods with large Jewish populations will be attending DOE-sponsored field trips to the Museum of Jewish Heritage. The museum will provide all NYC public school students over age 12 with a four free tickets to the museum. Through this partnership, the museum will also create a new Holocaust curriculum and provide professional development resources for public school teachers.
In a statement about the effort, School Chancellor Richard Carranza emphasized the importance of historical knowledge in understanding current events. “As a former social studies teacher, I know how important it is for students to learn about the past in order to understand the world around them,” he said.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage sees more than 60,000 student visitors each year. The institution is dedicated to using memory to teach these visitors about the dangers of intolerance.