Given the increasing prevalence of Holocaust education in the United States in recent decades, it is no surprise that many books and articles have been written on the topic. Most of the scholarship, however, has been written from the perspective of the classroom. Thomas Fallace, for example, has helpfully charted the rise of Holocaust education in American classrooms. But Fallace's focus is largely curricular. There has been surprisingly little analysis of Holocaust education from the perspective of political institutions, in particular legislative Holocaust education mandates and legislative/executive Holocaust education commissions. To date, there have been just two dedicated studies of Holocaust education mandates or commissions. First, in 2021, Lindsey Stillman authored a report, sponsored by the Phoenix Holocaust Association and Arizona State University, on the national landscape of mandates and commissions. In the context of Arizona's push to mandate Holocaust education, Stillman comparatively examined the then extant Holocaust education laws and commissions, focusing primarily on the wording of the various pieces of legislation.

Second, in 2022, Dan Freedman penned an article in Moment magazine on the "state of Holocaust education in America." While less systematic than Stillman's, Freedman's report introduced readers to some of the issue's key themes and figures. An important and helpful resource, as well, is the map put out by Echoes and Reflections--a partnership between the ADL, the USC Shoah Foundation, and Yad Vashem--that tracks which states have Holocaust education mandates and commissions. There have also been, as we shall see, a few states-specific unpublished theses. Otherwise, there has been little scholarship on this topic. The lack of study of the political dimensions of Holocaust education is surprising. After all, these political entities--Holocaust education mandates and Holocaust education commissions--are becoming more common. As of this writing, twenty-eight states have Holocaust education mandates and seventeen states have Holocaust education commissions.

As we have seen, concern about Holocaust ignorance and antisemitism has prompted many states, including those with quite small Jewish populations, to pursue greater Holocaust education. And to the extent scholars have discussed Holocaust education mandates and commissions, it has been as background to their own interests. For example, concerned about the efficacy of this education, some scholars have studied the connection between Holocaust education and improved civic outcomes, while others have explored how teachers are inadequately prepared for properly teaching about the Holocaust. Despite the importance of these topics (and others in the "Holocaust education" literature), there has been no meaningful investigation of relationship between politics and Holocaust education. As a result of this focus on pedagogy over politics, the scholarship has until now treated Holocaust education in a vacuum. Without an adequate analysis of the political context of Holocaust education, we miss how politics can put both pressure and constraints on education; in other words, the classroom does not exist in isolation from the state legislature (or executive). Only by understanding the connection between the political and the pedagogical can we fully understand the stakes of the growing Holocaust education movement. This volume, Holocaust Education in America , is about that intersection between education and politics.

By placing politics front and center--by focusing on Holocaust education mandates and Holocaust education commissions--it looks not only at what students are learning in their classrooms but at the political decisions that led there.