The war continues, and the music of the classrooms, like the other areas of life in Israel, cannot be stopped.
It is necessary to continue to play, and also to be tested, so that the high school graduates of the current period leave the education system ready for the world, for higher studies and integration into the employment market.
In view of the complex reality, the Ministry of Education is making adjustments and planning concessions for high school students.
Adjustments and concessions are a welcome thing, but it seems that the top of the ministry went too far: they decided to omit the Holocaust episode in terms of matriculation in history, and to exempt Israeli youth from the obligation to learn about the dark and dramatic episode of the Jewish genocide at the hands of the anti-Semitic Nazis and their assistants.
The Holocaust turned from a mandatory subject to a permitted subject.
The explanation for the choice to eliminate the Holocaust from the matriculation curriculum is, of course, rooted in the proximity to the October 7 massacre, and is even more puzzling than the decision itself.
In one place, parents and unknown sources were quoted as explaining that learning about the Holocaust "will cause enormous mental and emotional difficulty", and in another report it was claimed that learning about the Holocaust might "be a trigger" that would remind young students of the sights of the massacre.
There is no debate about the intensity of the Holocaust, the discomfort and even the stress that learning about it may cause.
These are the stuff nightmares are made of even on normal days.
But studying the Holocaust is not supposed to be comfortable and friendly for a boy or a girl - it is supposed to shake them, arouse in them emotions, thoughts, lessons and even difficult feelings.
Shock and fear are part of human existence, and in this case - an integral part of Jewish existence.
Suppressing and repressing the events will not make the disaster and horror disappear, and it is the duty of the education system to remind them and impart knowledge about them also through exams.
The war against evil, and the duty to stand guard and ensure that "never again", goes through the factual knowledge about World War II, just as it goes through the knowledge of the data about the monsters that attacked Kibbutz Bari.
In fact, the events of October 7th were supposed to lead to the expansion of the Holocaust topic in history studies and matriculation exams.
A nation that makes the matriculation exams about its past an authority - its present is problematic and its future is shrouded in fog.
Israeli students are able and required to pass the true maturity test of dealing with the past, and with the mental difficulties that learning about it may produce.
The war against evil, and the duty to stand guard and ensure that "never again", goes through the factual knowledge about World War II, just as it goes through the knowledge of the data about the monsters that attacked Kibbutz Bari.
In fact, the events of October 7th were supposed to lead to the expansion of the Holocaust topic in history studies and matriculation exams
And if indeed, as implied by the Holocaust exemption the high school students received, they are weak and ostracized - an immediate plan is required to strengthen the resilience and coping abilities of the Israeli youth.
Not because we are happy to prepare our children for a cold and cruel world and to traumatize them, but because this is a reality that has not been left in the past and in black and white videos from the freight train platforms in Europe - it is also present and erupting here, in Israel, as we were horrified to discover.
It's oppressive, it's hard, and it's not even fair, but that's the way it is.
And therefore - we do not have permission to turn Holocaust studies into an authority.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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