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or exaggerated by Jews as part of a plot to advance
Jewish interests.”
Here’s cause for hope, though: In a 1993
survey of U.S. adults commissioned by the
American Jewish Committee, only a slim majority
identified the word “Holocaust” as referring to the
extermination of the Jews; in the most recent Pew
study, that number had ballooned to 84%.

Finkelman was similarly encouraged.

“That was the one thing in the report that really
surprised me,” he said. “Actually, considering how
big and diverse a country we are, it’s astounding
that 84% of American adults know any single one
thing. I’ll bet 84% of American adults don’t know
that the Kansas City Chiefs are going to be in the
Super Bowl.”
The Pew study asked nearly 13,000
respondents — Jewish and non-Jewish
adults and teenagers — four questions
about the Holocaust.

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36 THE GUIDE 2020/2021
While it’s heartening that most adults now
understand what the Holocaust was, Finkelman said the wording of that
particular question struck him as slightly shallow.

“‘The extermination of Jews’ is a much more vague term than the fact
that between 1939 and 1945, the German government systematically
murdered 6 million people and at least 2 million children,” he said. “So
we still have a long way to go and, again, it all comes back around to
massive education; it comes down to every student, at some point in
their high school career, having a Holocaust education, a Holocaust
program.” As of May, 10 states required their schools provide Holocaust and/
or genocide education: California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois,
Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island.

For the rest, the challenges have been, Finkelman said, “sadly political.”
“Some state legislators don’t like the idea of requiring the school
districts to teach something. They say, ‘We don’t like a mandate because
we in the state capital shouldn’t be telling teachers what they should
teach their kids,’” he said. “I’m not impressed by that argument.”
While Finkelman submits that Holocaust is unique among
genocides “in its scale and the determination of a sophisticated
industrialized country to murder millions and millions of people in
a very short time,” he also pointed out the obvious — that the Jews
haven’t cornered the market on suffering.

“There’s something to be said about the shared horror and trauma
that Jews share with other peoples around the world,” he said. “Sadly,
these are the things that seem to give people a sense of common
humanity. ... It’s important for other people to understand the Jewish
trauma, and it’s also important for Jews to understand other people’s
traumas.” l



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THE GUIDE 2020/2021
37