Charlie Kirk was right.
Antisemitism is brain rot.
One need not look far to see the results. That is, if one is unfortunate enough to tune in to the latest Tucker Carlson or Candace Owens podcast. Watching clips of these shows at random, the Winston Churchill quote comes to mind of the fanatic as someone who can't change their mind and won't change the subject. Hatred and the conspiracy mindset are the pervasive feature of these two shows.
As Christians, we're called to pray for those who persecute us and if we claim the name of Christ we must walk as Jesus walked. This starts with forgiving those who wronged us and loving our fellow brothers and sisters. Hatred has no place in the life of the Christian. Yet there are some who claim the name of Christ and frequently
say "Jesus is King." He certainly is, but we don't use this as a slogan or to throw it in someone’s face. Those who do are carrying the Lord's name in vain. Against God’s covenant people no less.
Hatred is like battery acid that eats one from the inside out. Antisemitism started to emerge on the left several years ago but these days is increasingly coming from the right, albeit what we can only hope is from a vocal minority. The real concern is the next generation.
Yet there is reason for hope.
The Anti-Defamation League released a report this past week where they found students who participated in just one 45-minute lesson on contemporary antisemitism were "significantly less likely to endorse antisemitic conspiracy tropes." That’s encouraging.
Further, the Holocaust Education Center is currently being built right here in Phoenix to help schools in their endeavor to help us never forget. They're committed to opening their doors in December 2027.
This couldn't be more timely as we’re losing more and more Holocaust survivors given how much time has passed and the age of the survivors. Dwight D. Eisenhower, then Supreme Commander of the AEF in Europe, for this very reason insisted on filming and documenting the evidence from the concentration camps. In a letter to George Marshall, he wrote, "The things I saw beggar description… I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.'" He was prescient enough to know that there would be those who denied it ever took place.
Which is why we passed mandatory Holocaust education in 2021. Every Arizona student must now learn about the Holocaust at least two times between seventh grade and their senior year of high school. Students need to know Rudolf Höss, commandant of the Auschwitz extermination camp, on April 5, 1946, in his sworn affidavit at Nuremberg stated "The 'final solution' of the Jewish question meant the complete extermination of all Jews in Europe." He details how he oversaw "2,500,000 victims were executed and exterminated there by gassing and burning." This was one concentration camp.
The word "holocaust" itself comes from the Greek words holos + kaustos meaning "burnt entirely" or generally, "complete or great destruction." That’s what the Nazis would have done had they won the war. They put it in writing during their Wannsee Conference on Jan. 20, 1942, when they bureaucratized the term "Final Solution."
Never again.
This is what those of us who love and support the Jewish people say in any reference to the Holocaust.
We can only do this by examining history with the next generation and calling out those who monetize lies.
Paul Boyer represented Glendale and north Phoenix in the Arizona Legislature from 2013-2023 and was a 2021 Arizonan of the Year. He teaches Greek and Latin.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why Holocaust education still matters in Arizona | Opinion
