Shooting Stresses Holocaust Education
By Joyce Moed South Florida Sun-Sentinel
2009

The recent shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., which resulted in the death of a security guard, has local Holocaust outreach organizations stressing that now more than ever, education is key.

As of Jewish Journal press time, the 88-year-old assailant, James Von Brunn, is in critical condition after shooting security guard Stephen Johns, and then being shot himself. Von Brunn is reportedly a suspected white supremacist who operates an anti-Semitic Web site. Johns was on the security staff of the museum for six years. A third man was injured by shattered glass, and was treated at the scene. "This re-emphasizes the work we do here at the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center," said Rositta Keningsberg, executive vice president of the organization, and the child of a Holocaust survivor. "We need to stand up, speak up. Every survivor will tell you that they don't want this to be in their child's or grandchild's future."

Though this incident may seem isolated to some, Keningsberg said "we really feel it all the time. This anti-Semitic prejudice is happening all the time."
She said an incident such as this brings light to that situation.

"I am happy there is conversation going on," she said.
As to why this outright attack took place now, she said she really doesn't have an answer.

"Is it just the time? Is it the economy," she asked.

This attack makes the importance of Holocaust education even stronger, agreed Avi Mizrachi, executive director of the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach.

"This does two things for us," Mizrachi said. "It reiterates the importance of Holocaust institutions in our country and in other places, and the continued focus to educate the younger generation."

Mizrachi said that although "this person who acted on his hatred has captured all the headlines," he feels it may be more important to focus on the students who are learning about the Holocaust, and about tolerance.

"I want to focus on the students who have visited here and Holocaust museums everywhere who have walked away humbled," he said. "This was a powerful reminder of what can happen when people are consumed by hatred. This is exactly what the did, but on a much smaller scale."

Like Mizrachi and Keningsberg, Ed Lefkowitz, of the Holocaust Survivors of the Palm Beaches, said education should never be stopped.

"What can we say? We can say nothing. All we can do is sit down and cry. You have to teach children from the time they start understanding," he said.

Lefkowitz said this should begin in about third or fourth grade, "once they understand what is killing your neighbor."

"To them the Holocaust is just a story," he said.

He said the lesson of the Holocaust being real, and not "just a story," should be taught to all children.

"Not just Jewish," he said. "I'm talking in general."

But perhaps even a more important less for today's younger generation is that of tolerance, Lefkowitz said.

"Hate should not be in the English language. We are supposed to all get along."