Sen. Henry Stern, D-Calabasas, announced his Senate Bill 693, the Never Again Education of 2021, cleared the full Senate with unanimous support Tuesday.
One of the bill’s goals is to move beyond remembrance to action.
“Hate has a history. Building action-oriented Holocaust and genocide education will give teachers and students the tools to uproot hate when it rears its head in schools across California, so it doesn’t fester and erupt as violence on our streets,” Stern said in a prepared statement.
SB 693 would help address the growing knowledge gap among young Americans about the Holocaust and other recent genocides by offering new teaching methods and enhanced resources for teachers and students, to remedy a recent rise in anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and other acts of hatred, Stern’s statement said.
The bill also would establish the Governor’s Council on Genocide and Holocaust Education to assemble leading experts on teaching about genocide, and the Holocaust in particular, to help students confront this complex subject matter and embrace the importance of diversity, human rights, and the roles and responsibilities of citizens in democratic societies to combat misinformation, indifference and discrimination, the statement said.
The bill will be heard next in an Assembly policy committee in June or July.
