What We Can Learn about Learning from Holocaust Education

Abstract

For decades, Jewish education has included the study of the Holocaust in the curriculum of supplementary schools and day schools, as well as in the informal educational programming of synagogues and camps. In this chapter, Schweber asks about the significance of learning from and for extremes. She proposes that one of the goals may be the cultivation of “reasonable Jews,” i.e., Jews with the capacity and disposition to reason even about extreme ideas. Furthermore, Holocaust education ought to immerse students in the “messiness” of lives, to help them resist quick and easy moral judgments. Third, the teaching of the Holocaust highlights the importance of context, especially the context of learning about Jews. Finally, she observes that the teaching of the Holocaust brings to the fore the danger of essentialism and absolutism—not only in politics but in education.