Heated testimony as committee reconsiders Holocaust and genocide curriculum; sponsor seeks narrower, adjudicated list

Representative Ellen Reid told the committee she introduced House Bill 555 and an accompanying amendment to strengthen Holocaust and genocide instruction by specifying the U.N. definition of genocide and by requiring instruction on commonly accepted stages and tools used in genocidal campaigns.

“In my view, if there is one lesson we must teach, it is how we must live with one another,” Reid told committee members, urging a standard definition and materials so students can recognize warning signs of mass atrocity.

Reid’s amendment would direct teachers to use the U.N. Genocide Convention definition and to present the internationally recognized stages and “tools” of genocide so students could identify early warning signs. Her draft also sought to avoid naming or adjudicating contemporary conflicts within state statute by deferring to incidents that have been adjudicated by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or similar international tribunals.

The bill generated an extended and emotional public record. Witnesses speaking against the bill — or against the amendment’s proposed reliance on United Nations or international court lists — warned the change would politicize classrooms and could inflame antisemitism. Several Jewish community members described a rise in antisemitic incidents in New Hampshire schools and warned that introducing contentious, unresolved international characterizations could increase hostility toward Jewish students.

“I am personally aware of some of the incidents occurring in our state in schools, elementary, middle, and high schools,” said Steve Nutter, who described local antisemitic episodes and urged caution about inserting contested international findings into New Hampshire statutes.

Others urged a still-broader approach. A number of witnesses said U.S. history contains episodes (including policies toward Indigenous peoples and historical acts of forced removal and mass killing) that schoolchildren should study as part of genocide and human-rights education. One speaker, who said he had researched “crimes against humanity” in the United States, pressed lawmakers to require fuller coverage of domestic history so students understand the “good, the bad, and the ugly.”

Members asked how the amendment’s reliance on ICJ adjudication would operate in practice and whether that reference would import inconsistent international legal standards into state education law. Rabbi Jonathan Spiro Sivet, a member of the state’s Holocaust and Genocide Education Commission, urged focus on established instructional standards and on implementation; he said the commission’s work and the board of education’s rules already provide a carefully developed framework.

No committee vote was taken at the hearing. The testimony included a broad range of community voices — survivors’ descendants, Jewish communal leaders, educators and parents — and the sponsor said she would work to refine language after the hearing.

Why this matters: Holocaust and genocide education is part of New Hampshire’s graduation standards. The debate at the hearing centered on how to teach the subject: whether statute should mandate specific legal definitions and an adjudicated list of genocides or whether curricula should rely on board of education rules, commission guidance and local professional judgment.

Speakers quoted are recorded in the committee transcript.