Spiegel: Increase in antisemitism shows Holocaust education is failing us

Ottawa Citizen

14-06-2025

This week, the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa was defaced — a stark and shameful reminder that even memory itself is under attack. The monument stands not only to commemorate the past, but to warn the present. Its desecration is not an isolated act of ignorance; it's a symptom of something deeper, more dangerous — and growing.
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We are shocked, but also disoriented. For the past three generations, many Jews in Canada have experienced a remarkable period of welcome. We were invited in, embraced. We took leadership roles, shaped cultural life, became, in a sense, part of the mainstream.
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Now we've been jolted awake by a painful truth: the welcome was conditional.
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We've had an 80-year holiday from history — a brief pause in the centuries-long cycle of exclusion, scapegoating and violence. That holiday is over.
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And while this awakening is most deeply felt in Jewish communities, it cannot remain our burden alone. Antisemitism is a threat to democratic life, not just Jewish life. The integrity of our classrooms and the health of our civic discourse depend on others speaking up. Holocaust education was never meant to be a siloed, Jewish project. It is a call to conscience, and that call must be answered by everyone.
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What's even more jarring is that Holocaust education appears to be faltering.
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Blurring the lines
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A critical mistake was made. In the effort to ensure 'never again,' the Holocaust was universalized to such an extent that its specificity was stripped away. Its horrors were collapsed into broad 'lessons' about tolerance and human rights, applied to issues ranging from bullying to environmental injustice. In the process, the ideological clarity that defined the Holocaust as a distinct and targeted genocide was blurred.
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Holocaust education must be rethought, rebalanced and deepened.
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For many Canadian students, their first, and only, exposure to Jewish identity comes through Holocaust education. While that education is vital, and central to our work at the Azrieli Foundation's Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program, it cannot be the only lens through which we see Jewish people. We must teach Jewish life, not just Jewish death.
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Jewish peoplehood spans thousands of years, across every continent, rich with joy, resilience, tradition and creativity. When students understand the full picture, they're better equipped to recognize and confront antisemitism. They're also more likely to build authentic relationships with Jewish peers and see Jewish experience as part of the broader Canadian story.