Democrats, District 11 City Council Member Eric Dinowitz, District 13 City Council Member Marjorie Velázquez, both representing parts of the Bronx, and Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, representing parts of Queens, announced on Thursday, Jan. 27, Holocaust Remembrance Day, that a New York City Council resolution in support of Rozic’s bill A472A will be introduced in the City Council. The bill directs the commissioner of State education to audit Holocaust education in New York.

 

In the context of the announcement, Velázquez said the increase in antisemitic attacks across the globe, and specifically in New York City was a reminder that the bigotry of the past still exists in the present. “This Holocaust Remembrance Day is not only about reflecting on the horrors of history, but understanding the continued need to educate those who are ill-informed of the past,” she said. “Knowledge and compassion are our greatest tools in combating hate, which is why I fully support legislation to ensure our children are taught these moments of History.” The resolution is the first that recently elected Velázquez is introducing in the City Council.

 

For his part, Dinowitz, who is chair of the City Council’s Jewish caucus said the country was going through a period of time when there was a disturbing increase in antisemitic hate crimes, and a troubling rise in the number of people who believe the Holocaust did not happen. “This bill will help ensure our children are learning about this terrible period in our history, and taking those lessons to ensure the horrors of the past are not repeated,” he said. “I strongly urge the State to pass S121A/A472A.”

 

When the councilman, a former special education teacher, was running for his seat, which he first won in March 2021 in a special election, as part of a profile we ran on his candidacy in 2020, he spoke to Norwood News on this very topic [lack of education on the Holocaust in schools]. He said he joined an initiative in the school where he once taught to combat this lack of education, following some antisemitic incidents which had taken place at the school.

 

As of Jan. 23, hate crimes are up in the Bronx by 100 percent, year-to-date, compared to the same period last year, according to NYPD data. In April 2021, thirteen years after a foiled plot to blow up a synagogue in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, the NYPD sought the public’s assistance identifying an individual regarding multiple acts of vandalism/criminal mischief targeting Jewish centers and cars in the Northwest Bronx, as reported. The man was later arrested.

 

As also reported, while the NYPD said there were no official complaints of reported hate crimes at the time, the councilman’s father, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81), who, like his son, represents a neighborhood in the Northwest Bronx with a substantial Jewish community, was targeted at both his home and at his constituency office on at least two occasions with antisemitic imagery during rallies late last year, attended by anti-COVID-19 vaxxers. They opposed the assemblyman’s proposed legislative push to include a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for children attending schools which received public funding.

 

Separately, as reported, later in December, the assemblyman was honored by the Van Cortlandt Jewish Center for his public service work over the course of his career.

 

Meanwhile, for her part, Rozic said it was imperative to teach students the dangers of anti-Semitic attitudes and actions, and how to combat Holocaust distortion and trivialization. “I am grateful that Council Members Dinowitz and Velázquez are highlighting this issue at the city level to make it clear that hate has no place in New York – past, present, or future,” she said.

 

Dr. Shay Pilnik, director of the Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and genocide studies at Yeshiva University in Washington Heights, also welcomed the move, saying, “In a world rife with antisemitism, racism and hatred, education is our most powerful tool to open the minds and hearts of the young.” Pilnik added, “I cannot thank Assemblymember Nily Rozic and Council Members Eric Dinowitz and Marjorie Velázquez enough for forwarding our mission at the Fish Center of ensuring that future generations never forget the damage, violence and heartbreak that hate and intolerance visit upon the world.”

 

According to a 2020, 50-state study by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference), a nonprofit organization with offices in New York, Israel and Germany, which secures material compensation for Holocaust survivors around the world, claims New York is among the states with the lowest Holocaust knowledge scores, with 58 percent of millennials and Gen Z unable to name a single concentration camp. The study also found that 60 percent of young people did not know that six million Jewish people were murdered in the Holocaust.

 

In 2017, the BBC published an article entitled: ‘Yolocaust’: How should you behave at a Holocaust memorial? in which reported on a trend of visitors acting disrespectfully at Holocaust memorial sites.

 

Meanwhile, as reported by 60 Minutes, a retired FBI special agent and a team of investigators believe they’ve solved one of the world’s most well-known and tragic cold cases, involving Dutch teenager and Holocaust victim, Anne Frank, whose diary was published posthumously on June 25, 1947, and has since been read by millions around the world.

 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced, also on Thursday, that City Hall and other municipal buildings would be lit in yellow in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and all those who lost their lives in the Holocaust.

 

“Today, we remember the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, and vow to Never Forget,” said Adams. “As home to the largest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel, New York City stands united in our opposition to antisemitism in all its forms and will always stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our Jewish brothers and sisters against hate.”

 

First designated by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2005, International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. Adams acknowledged the solemnity of the day, and the importance of Holocaust education especially in a time of rising antisemitism.

 

In addition to City Hall, the following city buildings were due to be lit up in yellow across the City, starting at sundown:

• The David N. Dinkins Manhattan Municipal Building: 1 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007
• Bronx Borough Hall: 851 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10451
• Staten Island Borough Hall: 10 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY 10301
• Queens Borough Hall: 120-55 Queens Boulevard, Queens, NY 11424

 

When announcements have been made in the past about Bronx public buildings being lit up in designated colors to mark certain occasions, it has not always happened. For example, Yankee Stadium was due to be lit up in purple on Oct. 21, 2021, to mark Domestic Violence Awareness Month, but it did not appear to happen. Similarly, the Bronx County Courthouse was due to be lit up in orange in 2020 to mark the “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” campaign but was not. The Bronx was later excluded from the list of buildings when the annual commemoration came around again in 2021. Norwood News has highlighted the point with City officials.

 

In a borough that is home to a substantial Jewish community, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, it would seem important that history does not repeat itself.