Yesterday, the radio opera was “Idomeneo,” an early piece by Mozart, based on the trans-cultural legend of the person away from home, in peril of their life, who vows to sacrifice the first living thing they see when they get home if they can only get there alive. Of course, the first living thing they see is their son (or, if they’re Hebrew, their daughter – cf. Jephthah.) Idomeneus was the king of Crete who went to fight at the Trojan War. That war took ten years from start to finish, and both sides pretty much stayed at Troy the full time, though there were things that happened elsewhere (e.g. Philoctetes), and there were some refugees. One of the characters is Elettra, a jealous (and somewhat nationalistic) princess who is a refugee from Argos and who falls in love with Idomeneus’s son Idamante, who is already in love with Ilia, a Trojan princess who is a POW. So Idomeneus has quite a kettle of serpents to untangle. At the end, Neptune relents – Idomeneus must give up the throne to Idamante with Ilia as his queen, but may live. Only Elettra is left out in the cold, but she has been driving people nuts with her jealousy, so no one much cares. The opera was a great favorite of Pavarotti (if the opera you wrote isn’t getting as many performances as you would like, if you can sell it to a diva or a divo who has the clout to talk an opera company into staging it, you will at the very least get a second chance. This is actually not a bad thing.) Today I’m off to see Virgil. Yes, I’ll pass on all your greetings and I’ll post a comment when I get back safely
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Letters from an American – April 20, 2023
Quote – There were a whole bunch of seemingly unrelated stories in the news that all seem to point to an important theme…. It hit me as I read through all this news that a key theme seems to be a new shift toward transparency and accountability. It jumps out at me that people are talking to lawyers and to the press about illegalities, irregularities, and, in the Sandy Hook case, horrors that in the past they have kept quiet. Whether it comes from disgust at the excesses of those who are attacking our democracy or from fear of the law, that transparency reminds me of the pivotal importance of McClure’s Magazine in the early twentieth century. Click through for full letter. From Heather’s keyboard to God’s smartphone! I haven’t seen anyone else make this connection, but I hope she is correct.
Colorado Public Radio – As Colorado considers upzoning, here’s a look at how it’s gone in other states and cities
Quote – Democrats’ controversial land use bill aims to rewrite what kind of housing gets built in many of Colorado’s fastest-growing communities. But while it’s a new idea for this state, Colorado wouldn’t be the first place in the country to embrace this approach. States like Oregon and cities like Minneapolis have adopted similar laws over the last five years, often in the name of enabling construction and driving down housing costs — the same goals shared by Colorado’s bill. In New York, officials upzoned more than a third of the city nearly 20 years ago, a change that sparked a big building boom. Click through for what is actually several (short) related articles and links to more. I get it. People don’t want to lose the kinds of housing which have “always” existed. But single-family dwellings on fair-sized lots are not only pricey for those who live in them, but also wasteful of resources which will be more and more critical as climate change continues to evlove. Cutting down on land use for housing will not solve all problems, but if it helps cut fossil fuel use, and also makes more land available for farming and wilderness, it can’t hurt.
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
Holocaust Remembrance Day was this week. The present day is a time in which Holocaust denial is at an all-time high (and trending higher.) I’m reminded of a remark by C. S. Lewis, that we often fall into the error of thinking of a societal change as a moral improvement (or the reverse) when in fact is is merely a change in common knowledge. For instance, some people think we are better than our ancestors because we no longer kill witches. But that is because we no longer believe witches exist. If we still believed that there were people who had teamed up with the devil to do as much harm as possible, we might well agree that, if anyone deserved the death penalty, these traitors to humanity did.
So it is critical, in order to be a good person, to be knowledgeable about facts, and not to believe lies. The number and the nature of deaths we have experienced from CoVid demonstrates that convincingly – to anyone who knows the facts. The suggestions here are valid for anyone who does not want to be deceived, and for educators who do not want their students to be deceived.
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Combating antisemitism today: Holocaust education in the era of Twitter and TikTok
Technology is increasingly important in Holocaust education – seen here in ‘The Journey Back’ within The Richard and Jill Chaifetz Family Virtual Reality Gallery at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Courtesy of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, CC BY-NC-ND
In the era of social media, antisemitism and Holocaust denial are no longer hidden in the margins, spewed by fringe hate groups. From Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – and NBA player Kyrie Irving to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, well-recognized personalities have echoed antisemitic ideas, often online.
Beyond high-profile figures, there are clear signs that antisemitism is becoming more mainstream. In 2021, using the most recent data available, the Anti-Defamation League reported that antisemitic incidents in the U.S. reached an all-time high. Eighty-five percent of Americans believe at least one anti-Jewish trope, according to another ADL survey, and about 20% believe six or more tropes – a sharp increase from just four years before. In addition, Jewish college students increasingly report feeling unsafe, ostracized or harassed on campus.
Rather than teaching the Holocaust as an isolated event, educators must grapple with how it connects to antisemitism past and present. That means adapting to how people learn and live today: online.
Toxic information landscape
The online ecosystem where today’s antisemitism flourishes is a Wild West of information and misinformation that is largely unmonitored, distributed in an instant, and posted by anyone. Social media posts and news feeds are frequently filtered by algorithms that narrow the content users receive, reinforcing already held beliefs.
According to a 2022 report by the United Nations, 17% of public TikTok content related to the Holocaust either denied or distorted it. The same was true of almost 1 in 5 Holocaust-related Twitter posts and 49% of Holocaust content on Telegram.
An emerging danger is artificial intelligence technology. New AI resources offer potential teaching tools – but also the menace of easily spread and unmonitored misinformation. For example, character AI and Historical Figures Chat allow you to “chat” with a historical figure, including those associated with the Holocaust: from victims like Holocaust diarist Anne Frank to perpetrators such as Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s minister of propaganda.
These sites come with warnings that characters’ responses could be made up and that users should check for historical accuracy, but it is easy to be misled by inaccurate answers.
Another potential AI hazard is deepfake videos. Media experts are warning about the potential for destabilizing “truth decay,” the inability to know what is real and what is fake, as the amount of synthetic content multiplies. Holocaust scholars are preparing to combat how historical sources and educational materials may be manipulated by deepfakes. There is particular concern that deepfakes will be used to manipulate or undercut survivors’ testimony.
Media literacy
Much of my scholarship tackles contemporary approaches to teaching the Holocaust – for example, the need to rethink education as the number of Holocaust survivors who are still able to tell their stories rapidly declines. Addressing today’s toxic information landscape presents another fundamental challenge that requires innovative solutions.
As a first step, educators can promote media literacy, the knowledge and skills needed to navigate and critique online information, and teach learners to approach sources with both healthy criticism and an open mind. Key strategies for K-12 students include training them to consider who is behind particular information and what evidence is provided and to investigate the creators of an unknown online source by seeing what trusted websites say about its information or authors.
Media literacy also entails identifying a source’s author, genre, purpose and point of view, as well as reflecting on one’s own point of view. Finally, it is important to trace claims, quotes and media back to the original source or context.
Applying these skills to a Holocaust unit might focus on recognizing the implicit stereotypes and misinformation online sources often rely on and paying attention to who these sources are and what their purpose is. Lessons can also analyze how social media enablesHolocaust denial and investigate common formats for online antisemitism, such as deepfake videos, memes and troll attacks.
Learning in the digital age
Holocaust educators can also embrace new technologies, rather than just lament their pitfalls. For example, long after survivors die, people will be able to “converse” with them in museums and classrooms using specially recorded testimonies and natural language technology. Such programs can match a visitor’s questions with relevant parts of prerecorded interviews, responding almost as though they were talking to the visitor in person.
There are also immersive virtual reality programs that combine recorded survivor testimonies with VR visits to concentration camps, survivors’ hometowns and other historical sites. One such exhibition is “The Journey Back” at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Not only can VR experiences transport viewers to such sites in a more realistic way than traditional lessons, but they also allow learners to partially decide how to interact with the virtual environment. In interviews for my current research, viewers report Holocaust VR experiences make them feel emotionally engaged with a survivor.
Society’s ‘family tree’
People often learn about themselves by exploring their family trees, examining heirlooms passed down from ancestors and telling stories around the dinner table – helping people make sense of who they are.
The same principle applies to understanding society. Studying the past provides a road map of how people and prior events shaped today’s conditions, including antisemitism. It is important for young people to understand that antisemitism’s horrific history did not originate with the Holocaust. Lessons that lead students to reflect on how indifference and collaboration fueled hate – or how everyday people helped stop it – can inspire them to speak up and act in response to rising antisemitism.
Holocaust education is not a neutral endeavor. As survivor and scholar Elie Wiesel said when accepting his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.”
============================================================== Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, I’m confident that techniques like these will work – if they are used. My concern is that too much education in America (and quite possibly elsewhere, but I can’t speak to that) is in the hands of people whi emphatically do not want students to know the truth. I fear that these techniques will (to paraphrase Chesterton) not be tried and found wanting, but will be found diffucult and left untried.
Forgive me for a little rant here on a pet peeve of mine. I am well aware that when someone uses the phrase “It’s all about the Benjamins,” they are referring to Benjamin Franklin, whose face appears on our $100 bill, currently the largest denomination in circulation. But I am also aware that “Benjamin” is the name of one of the sons of Jacon, and is therefore the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. I am also aware that Judah P. Benjamin, a Jew, was an American (later Confederate) statesman, resigning the position of U. S. Senator to become the Confederate Attorney General (later Secretary of War, and still later Secretary of State.) I don’t know wht we cannot, if we want to use the colorful phrase, start saying, “It’s all about the Franklins” instead. Sometimes it isn’t what you say that matters – it’s what others hear.
For further reading, Steve Schmidt has made available in one place six essays he has written over the years on the Holocaust.
