Facing a growing number of antisemitic incidents in New York City, new City Council Speaker Julie Menin unveiled on Friday a plan to combat antisemitism, including education, security and funding.
Photo by Claude Solnik
Jan. 27, 2026, marks the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi death camp where more than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were exterminated. Auschwitz would not only become the ultimate symbol of the horrors of the Holocaust; it would also serve as an eternal reminder of the true dangers of hate in our society.
The gas chambers were not the start of the Holocaust; they were its tragic end. The Holocaust began when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers injected their hatred for Jews and “non-Aryans” into society. It started with verbal, then physical assaults; it continued with antisemitic laws, deportations, and resettlements; it ended with concentration camps, summary executions, and mass extermination.
Auschwitz was left to stand as a reminder to the world to “never forget” the horrors of the Holocaust, and to “never again” let such horrors occur. But more than eight decades later, antisemitism is again rearing its ugly head in our society — and a large portion of the population either does not understand the true meaning of the Holocaust or, worse, denies its very occurrence.
The gas chambers of Auschwitz were not the start of the Holocaust; they were its tragic end. The Holocaust began when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers injected their hatred for Jews and “non-Aryans” into society. It started with verbal, then physical assaults; it continued with antisemitic laws, deportations, and resettlements; it ended with concentration camps, summary executions, and mass extermination.Public domain
That is why education on the Holocaust is so critical to the education of all youth in the city and country. And that is why a package of bills that City Council Speaker Julie Menin is reintroducing must be passed this year and enacted into law.
Menin’s bills, aimed at combating the rise of antisemitism in New York, includes provisions to boost funding for the Department of Education to teach public school children about the Holocaust. The funding bill would also support other programs aimed at teaching the youth of our city about the dangers of other forms of hate, and how social media can play a harmful role in spreading such hatred.
For Menin, this mission is personal. The first Jewish speaker in the City Council’s history, she is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, and recognizes perhaps better than any of her peers in government today the grave implications of society forgetting the significance of the Holocaust.
People are not hateful by nature; they learn it from the ignorant lies and stupid fears of others. When unchecked, that hateful ignorance evolves into horror and death.
Education is the key to shattering such ignorance among us all. It spares us from the long, horrific road that millions of others have been forced to travel through the generations. It saves lives and leads us to a better society in which none of us are judged by our faith, or skin color, or ethnicity, or gender, or sexual orientation.
It is important that we, as a city, support any and all efforts to combat antisemitism and all other forms of hate, and that we do so with a united voice. We are all truly in this together, and we hope that the City Council and Mayor Zohran Mamdani send that message by approving Menin’s antisemitism package as soon as possible.