Poland dispute over Holocaust school trips’ content resolved, says outgoing minister
Shasha-Biton tells successor Kisch that security issues will be fixed within days, students to resume annual memorial trips; both trade barbs over matriculation exam changes
Outgoing education minister Yifat Shasha-Biton on Sunday informed her successor that a dispute had been resolved with Poland over the content of Israeli high school Holocaust education trips which saw the visits canceled, and said the final security issues will be ironed out in the next few days.
For his part, newly installed Education Minister Yoav Kisch announced he will undo a major change to the school matriculation system that Shasha-Biton had fought to introduce, but that had not yet been implemented.
“I have a surprise for you,” Shasha-Biton told Kisch at a traditional handover ceremony held at the Education Ministry in Jerusalem.
“Over recent months we have worked together with the Shin Bet [security service] regarding disputes over content and security on trips to Poland, and we have resolved the content issue,” Shasha-Biton said.
Shasha-Biton said that over the coming days, officials hope to solve the security issues as well.
“I expect that in the near future the efforts will bear fruit and the [high school] groups will be able to go on trips again,” Shasha-Biton said.
Israel in June canceled educational trips to Poland for thousands of high school students.
The Foreign Ministry said at the time the Polish government was trying to control the Holocaust studies curriculum taught to the children.
There was no comment from the Foreign Ministry on Shasha-Biton’s announcement.
In addition, the Polish government had refused to allow Shin Bet agents providing security for the trips to carry weapons while on its territory, as opposed to the practice in previous years, according to a report by the Walla news site.
The cancellation of the Holocaust school trips had reignited longstanding tensions between the two countries over Poland’s treatment of its Jewish citizens during the Holocaust.
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski posted on Twitter at the time that “the current formula of organized trips of Israeli youth to Poland requires changes due to systematic problems leading to the strengthening of false stereotypes, which negatively impacts Polish-Israeli relations.”
The Education Ministry in October warned private firms against trying to organize replacement trips for students.
Young Jewish Israelis traditionally travel to Poland in the summer between 11th and 12th grade, touring former Nazi camps in order to learn about the Holocaust and memorialize those murdered. The trip has long been considered a rite of passage in Israeli education and, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, some 40,000 Israeli students participated each year.
Poland was the first country invaded and occupied by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s regime and never had a collaborationist government. Members of Poland’s resistance and government-in-exile struggled to warn the world about the mass killing of Jews, and thousands of Poles risked their lives to help Jews.
However, Holocaust researchers have collected ample evidence of Polish villagers who murdered Jews fleeing the Nazis, or Polish blackmailers who preyed on helpless Jews for financial gain. Six million Jews, including nearly all of Poland’s roughly 3 million Jews, were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust, and major Nazi death camps were in Poland.
These dueling narratives have been a source of great tension between Israel and Poland.
Education system to ‘strengthen Jewish identity’
Kisch, a Likud party lawmaker taking on his first-ever portfolio as a full minister, spoke of the importance of the Education Ministry to “strengthen Jewish identity,” a key catchphrase of the new coalition.
He also announced that he will reverse a matriculation reform that Shasha-Biton had tried to implement.
“It is no secret that we are not on the same path and the Education Ministry will change direction,” he said.
“I intend to act to cancel the outgoing government’s decision regarding the removal of humanities studies, including Bible and history, from the high school curriculum,” Kisch said. “We will restore these subjects to the teaching programs in high schools and high school matriculation.”
In fact, the subjects were not removed from the curriculum in changes announced last February, but rather the examinations in those topics and some others were to be replaced by internal testing and grading by each school.
During her own speech, Shasha-Biton reprimanded Kisch for not listening to what she had to say.
“You should listen,” she said. “It will save you a lot of time moving forward.”
Kisch, in response, fired: ” We’ve been listening to you for a year and a half.”
Kisch further said he will seek to introduce free education for all children aged 0-3 as stipulated in coalition agreements, and will give particular attention to special education.
He said the matter was close to his heart as his son, who died at the age of 13, had special needs.
