No one can deny that the levels of anti-Semitism in the United States have increased since the attacks on October 7. In the past year and a half, anti-Semitic incidents have skyrocketed, particularly among younger generations. It is increasingly fashionable to echo some of the most vile conspiracy theories and lies about Jews, both online and in person. What is causing this increase, and what can be done to stop it, is still very much up for debate.
Dozens of states around the country have mandated Holocaust education as part of the school curriculum for decades. New York, the state with the highest population of Jews in the country, has had Holocaust education in public schools since 1994. California has mandated it since 1985. These two states also ranked highest in anti-Semitic incidents and attacks in the country last year. That could be chalked up to the high populations of these states yielding higher numbers, just like higher-crime areas have more police interactions. Or it could be that the anti-Semitism education is in direct conflict with how we educate students on prejudice and bigotry.
While there is no denying the value of teaching about the Holocaust from a historical perspective—as it is one of the defining aspects of the first half of the 20th century—using the Holocaust as a method of fighting anti-Semitism may do more harm than good. Every student must know about the Holocaust, just like they must know about slavery, apartheid, and other atrocities around the world. Holocaust education, however, will not translate to a reduction in anti-Semitism because the bigotry itself has changed.
The Holocaust fits within the way that good and evil are taught in today’s society. It used to be that good and evil were differentiated by actions, motivation, and philosophy. The Holocaust was evil because of the laws enacted, the rounding up of Jews, and the systematic extermination in concentration camps. The actions were evil, the motivation was evil, and the underlying philosophy of an Aryan nation was evil.
Now, good and evil are taught based on power dynamics—or the oppressor-oppressed matrix. If one side of a conflict is stronger, they are the evil ones. The weaker side is considered the good one. The Holocaust still fits into this matrix because of the military might of the Third Reich compared to the innocent civilians who were rounded up.
This matrix does not apply to the current state of the Jewish people, who are not seen as weak and oppressed but rather strong and therefore the oppressor. Jews earn more per capita, have less family dysfunction, and have higher graduation rates and higher education attendance. Those who attack Jews do not feel they are doing anything wrong; they actually believe they are performing a righteous act by doing so, as they are attacking a power center and not an individual. It’s the same mindset as those who cheer the assassination of a healthcare CEO: a man wasn’t murdered in cold blood, by their logic; rather, a movement to change healthcare in America was pushed forward.
This brings us to the news of the weekend: the viral video of a Barstool Sports event that featured an expletive about Jews. In reaction to that video, the owner of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy (who is Jewish), said that he would send the offenders—who are employed by him—to Auschwitz to learn about the Holocaust. Someone suggested on social media that he send them to the Nova exhibit for a more contemporary example of Jewish slaughter, and he concurred as well.
In response to that offer, the person who uploaded the video, Mo Khan, proceeded to throw the offer back in Portnoy’s face, blame Portnoy, raise money off the incident, and go on neo-Nazi Stew Peters’ YouTube show to blame the whole incident on—you guessed it—Israel. Jew-haters do not want to be educated in the history of the suffering of the Jewish people any more than racists want to learn about the North Atlantic slave trade. The mistake in using Holocaust education as a method of reducing anti-Semitism is a misunderstanding of the issue Jews face today.
Like all political and social movements, there are the true believers in the extermination of the Jewish people, and then there are the useful idiots who go along with the political or social cause because it is the fad of the day. It is all well and good that some of the useful idiots in this particular story may gain more perspective on and sympathy for historic Jewish suffering, but that is not the macro solution to this problem. Holocaust education cannot destroy the myth of the oppressor-oppressed matrix because the Holocaust fits into that matrix. That’s why anti-Semites on the internet casually throw around the claim that Zionism and Nazism are equivalent. To them, it’s not about ideology, philosophy, or tactics that define evil, but rather power. Since Zionism is powerful, and Nazism was powerful, they are seen as the same.
As long as people in society think that it is acceptable to hate the innocent and love the guilty based on an arbitrary set of standards devoid of traditional morality, Jews will continue to be targets of attack. That is, of course, until we reach the point where we are once again viewed as so victimized that we now achieve the status of “oppressed” again. If that ever happens, however, the true believers will continue their quest to destroy the Jews, while the useful idiots will wonder why they have been tossed aside so easily.
Moshe Hill is a political analyst and columnist. His work can be found at www.aHillwithaView.com and on X at @HillWithView.
