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Bill Would Require That The Holocaust Be Taught In North Carolina Schools

Survivors of Auschwitz gather on the 74th anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi German death camp in Oswiecim, Poland, on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowsk)

North Carolina lawmakers are considering legislation requiring that the Holocaust be taught in schools. 

House Bill 437 would require the State Board of Education to include instruction of the Holocaust and genocide in English and Social Studies standards used in middle and high schools.

The News and Observer reports the bill is backed by the state House Education Committee, whose members agree that learning about the Holocaust is essential, especially now that remaining survivors are dying off.

Richard Schwartz, vice chairman of the N.C. Council on the Holocaust, told the committee the state needs to ensure “we live up to the mantra of ‘Never again,'” warning that “we're doomed to repeat history if we don't teach it.”

20 other states currently require teaching of the Holocaust.

The North Carolina legislation is named after Gizella Abramson, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor who relocated to Raleigh and died in 2011.

The bill, which has bipartisan sponsorship, now goes to the House Rules Committee.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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