B.C. Jewish groups baffled, say teachers’ union won’t back Holocaust education group

The union representing B.C. teachers is facing pushback after it refused to fund a teachers’ association focused on Holocaust and antisemitism education.

A group of teachers set up the Holocaust and Antisemitism Education Association after the province announced last year that holocaust education would become a mandatory part of the Grade 10 curriculum.

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“They came together to form an association that would help onboard the holocaust education piece, but also to help be a resource and advocate for battling anti-Semitism within the school space,” explained Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver CEO Ezra Shanken. “The spaces this creates is for teachers educating teachers, teachers raising awareness from teachers, colleagues raising awareness from colleagues.”

But in order to host professional development sessions funded by the union, the HAEA first needs to be recognized by the BC Teachers’ Federation as a Provincial Specialist Association, or PSA.

On Wednesday, the association was notified by the Professional Specialist Association Council, a branch of the union, that its application had been denied.

“Despite this decision, PSAC was strongly of the opinion that they would like to find ways to help members of your association feel valued and included, and to support Holocaust education and fight against antisemitism in K-12 schools,” the council said in an email to the association.

“They passed a motion to solicit and encourage collaboration between your association and volunteer PSAs within the Council to support the creation and dissemination of your timely and important resources.”

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Shanken said the decision, which came without an explanation, has left teachers he’s spoken with rattled.

“(One teacher) said we call each other colleagues in the education space, and it feels like my colleagues hate me,” he said.

The BCTF did not make a spokesperson available for an interview on the matter.

The move came despite the association having the backing of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, a key stakeholder working with the Ministry of Education to develop the new curriculum.

“This needs to be reversed,” Shanken said. “There’s no doubt about it. This was clearly a misjudgement on the BCTF’s part.”

The province, meanwhile, was clear that the new curriculum was going forward, with a launch date of fall 2025.

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“Teachers have autonomy about how they deliver education or classroom. What they don’t have autonomy about is whether or not this gets taught,” Premier David Eby said. “It will get taught.”

Education Minister Rachna Singh added that as an internal union matter, the HAEA decision was outside of the province’s control.

But Singh said consultation with stakeholder groups on the curriculum was nearly complete.

“We are implementing holocaust education in our system,” she said. “It is happening and the timelines have not changed for that.”

The province unveiled the plan for high school Holocaust education in October, with Eby citing a troubling rise in antisemitism in the province.

The Jewish community has been calling for mandatory Holocaust education for “many decades,” he added.

The BC Teachers’ Federation issued a statement via social media on Wednesday night regarding the situation.

“The BCTF is actively engaged with our education partners in the work stemming from the decision to make Holocaust education in B.C. curriculum mandatory,” the social media post said.

“We look forward to seeing every B.C. student emerge with a deeper understanding of the global impact of the Holocaust.”

The union said to get initial recognition as a PSA, groups must meet a long list of requirements.

The union said a committee vote was held Tuesday, and that the PSA council did not recommend the formation of the new PSA proposed by the Holocaust and Antisemitism Educators Association.

According to the union, BCTF president Clint Johnston said in a letter that although the policy for formal BCTF recognition has not been met, the union “values the work” of the HAEA.

“The work of the (HAEA) as outlined in your program is important. We encourage you to reach out to partner groups, continue with your plans to create resources on these timely topics, and consider uploading them to TeachBC as a way to share them with your BCTF colleagues,” Johnston said.