Holocaust studies will be introduced into the Arab and other non-Jewish sectors of the Israeli educational system. PHOTO: Wikipedia.

Arab-Israeli children will be learning about the Holocaust this year, as part of the recent introduction of a new educational program into Arab-Israeli schools, Israel’s Walla news website reported.

The program, entitled “In Memory’s Lanes”, was launched last year by former Education Minister Shai Piron in Jewish schools, and has now been included in the curricula of junior high schools and high schools in the Arab, Druze and Circassian sectors. The program, which highlights Jewish suffering, and the atrocities and genocide that the Jewish People suffered during the Holocaust, will present the humanistic aspects of Zionism to these non-Jewish sectors.

As part of the curriculum, educators will send students from the Arab sector to lectures by Holocaust survivors, including twins who survived the Nazi genocide. They will also be shown photos of the Auschwitz  death camp along with Arabic subtitles and explanations. Educators will direct the students to discuss the ethical issues raised by the Holocaust, with teachers being instructed to discuss concepts like genocide, concentration camps and scientific experiments conducted on inmates, the victims of the Nazi genocide, and racism.

The purpose behind this program is for all students in Israel’s school system to be provided with education aids in order to properly understand the Holocaust, according to the report.

Prior to this, the subject of the Holocaust was not taught at all in the non-Jewish sectors of the Israeli school system. This began to change in 2010, when the State Comptroller’s report examined Holocaust education in the general education system and criticized the fact that it was not being taught to the Arab and other non-Jewish sectors, according to Walla.