The West Virginia Senate Education Committee met on Feb. 5 and advanced a bill that would update the West Virginia Commission on Holocaust Education “in light of the passing of Holocaust survivors and second-generation witnesses.”
It will also include contemporary manifestations of antisemitism, including post-Oct. 7 references.
SB 633, introduced on Jan. 27 by Republican state senator Jack Woodrum, modernizes commission membership and “strengthens safeguards for historical accuracy and mission integrity.”
Republican state senators Mike Oliverio, Patricia Rucker and Vince Deeds, and Democratic state senator Mike Woelfel, are listed as co-sponsors on the bill. A section of West Virginia Code would be updated “to ensure continuity of expertise, protection of historical truth and fidelity to its mission, while maintaining the Holocaust as the central and primary focus of its work.”
The proposed legislation notes that in light of rising Jew-hatred in the United States and around the world since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, “Holocaust education concerning contemporary manifestations of antisemitism is necessary to understand the enduring relevance of Holocaust education.”
Under the prior statute, the commission consisted of 11 members drawn largely from state government and education officials, including two members from the board of education, the state superintendent of schools, the director of the division of veterans’ affairs, a lawyer from the Attorney General’s office’s civil-rights division and a teacher who has “completed professional development related to Holocaust education” at the high school level.
It also included “four state residents” who are Holocaust scholars or experienced individuals in the field, or survivors, members of the second generation, eye-witness/liberators or individuals recommended by the chair of the commission.
SB 633 states that “due to the passage of time, most such individuals have now passed away, and those who remain are often advanced in age, geographically dispersed or otherwise unable to participate regularly in commission duties.”
The revised code expands the commission to 13 voting members. It further restructures membership categories—reducing reliance on survivors and witnesses—and adding representatives from Jewish community organizations, national Jewish educational and civil-rights organizations, civil-rights enforcement, interfaith councils, higher education and nationally recognized Holocaust-education institutions.
