Good morning. It’s Friday. I, for one, am enormously relieved.
I have work to do this weekend, don’t get me wrong. But I might actually have some breathing room to accomplish it. No one calling. No one emailing. Time to think clearly. And that is a gift.
Full disclosure: It’s going to be a pretty heavy post today.
For those who are depleted from the stress of the week – snow days, kids at home, work overload, etc. and so on – and maybe aren’t in the space for something really serious, this might be the day for you to do something else , like, go for a walk, or listen to some upbeat music, make another cup of coffee.
For the rest of us. Today is an important day in history, and one – particularly given the current climate related to questioning and even outright denying history and targeting specific religious and ethnic groups in acts of hate and violence – that is more important than ever to observe.
On this day in 1945 the Soviet army entered the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz and liberated about seven thousand prisoners, most of whom were very sick after long periods of starvation and mistreatment, and many who were close to death.
In November 2005, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 60/7 to designate Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD) to commemorate this critical date, and honor the victims of the Holocaust.
The same resolution expressed support for educational programs about the systematic effort by the Nazis to eradicate entire populations – most notably 6 million Jews, but also other minority groups, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma, gay people, and individuals with disabilities – with the goal of preventing future genocides.
Perhaps most importantly, to my mind, the resolution specifically rejected any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event – either in full or in part – and condemned “without reserve” all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, whenever they occur.”
Here’s where things get really depressing, if not downright terrifying. Remember, I warned you.
It’s clear that efforts to educate people about the Holocaust and all its horrors in an effort to reduce intolerance and prevent hate-based discrimination and/or violence isn’t working very well.
A 2020 Pew Research survey found that while most U.S. adults know what the Holocaust was and more or less when it happened, fewer than half could correctly answer multiple-choice questions about the number of Jews who were murdered or how Hitler came to power.
Specifically, 63 percent of those surveyed didn’t know 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis, and of those, more than half thought the toll was considerably less – under 2 million.
A refresher: The Nazis, using a wide variety of hideous tactics like concentration camps, firing squads, gas chambers, and torture, and committed many other horrible atrocities in the name of wiping out individuals they considered biologically inferior. They killed nearly 2 of every 3 European Jews by 1945.
This is a simple historical fact. I have relatives who survived. They had tattoos. They had nightmarish stories. They were there.
Another nationwide survey, also conducted in 2020 and billing itself as the first ever 50-state review of Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Gen Z members, found 48 percent couldn’t name just one of the more than 40,000 concentration camps or ghettos established during World War II – including 58 percent in New York, which has the highest Jewish population in the nation.
Though 90 percent of respondents believed the Holocaust happened, 7 percent weren’t sure, and 3 percent denied that it had, and 11 percent believed Jews had somehow caused the Holocaust themselves.
And here’s one more data point to consider: A more recent survey found the number individuals in the Netherlands who believe the Holocaust is a myth – even though diarist Anne Frank, among the most well-known Holocaust victims, lived on their soil – was higher than in any of the previously surveyed five nations – 23 percent of adults under 40 and 12 percent of all respondents.
Here in the U.S., antisemitic attitudes, measured by the Anti-Defamation League as the believe in certain “tropes” (ie: Jews stick together more than other Americans, or Jews have too much control over business/Wall Street), have soared to rates not seen in decades.
This comes as antisemitic incidents have hit an all-time high – and New York has the dubious distinction of leading the nation.
So obviously, I’m a Jew and I take this personally. But I also like to think that anyone who reads these numbers and gives it some honest thought couldn’t help but be alarmed. I don’t know the answer, but education has to play a key role in this effort.
I know it’s a trope, but those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. And the way things are going in the world today, I’m ever more afraid that we are forgetting too much, and heading in the wrong direction.
We’ll have a mix of sun and clouds today, with temperatures in the mid-to-high 30s. The weekend is going to be downright warm, for this time of year, anyway, with temperatures in the 40s. Goodbye snow cover.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden cast Republicans as representing the party of “chaos and catastrophe” and sharply criticized their refusal to approve an increase in the U.S. debt ceiling unless they get a deal on spending cuts.
Speaking at a steamfitters union hall in Springfield, Virginia, Biden bashed the GOP, saying: “This ain’t your father’s Republican Party. This is a different breed of cat, as they say.”
“We’re moving in the right direction. Now we’ve got to protect those gains … that our policies have generated, protect them from the MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives who are threatening to destroy this progress,” Biden also said.
Democrats are grappling over whether Biden should negotiate an increase to the debt ceiling in talks with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy said that House Republicans will not target Medicare or Social Security in their negotiations over the debt ceiling.
Biden is considering making a trip to Europe around the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine next month.
The Biden administration extended a program that protects Hong Kong residents in the U.S. from deportation, less than two weeks before it was set to expire.
The United States is reportedly poised to start using fast-track asylum screenings at the U.S.-Mexico border, part of Biden’s recent efforts to address a record number of illegal crossings.
Immigration is threatening to drive a wedge between Biden and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which has elevated to outright protest its criticism of the White House for a lack of movement on border issues.
Biden will hold a number of fundraisers with wealthy Democratic donors in coming weeks as part of his expected bid to return to the White House in 2024, according to three sources familiar with the plans.
A panel of independent experts that advises the FDA on its vaccine decisions voted unanimously to update all Covid-19 vaccines so they contain the same ingredients as the two-strain shots that are now used as booster doses.
New data from one CDC database shows a possible stroke risk link for older adults who received an updated Pfizer/BioTech COVID-19 booster shot, but the signal is weaker than what the agency had flagged earlier in January, health officials said.
People in China are moving past the pandemic and going out to travel, preliminary data for the Lunar New Year holiday show.
China is waging a campaign of intimidation against people who joined demonstrations against Covid restrictions, which were the boldest challenge to the Communist Party’s rule in decades and an embarrassing affront to its leader, Xi Jinping.
Five Memphis police officers were charged with second-degree murder for the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, after a traffic stop that escalated into what the authorities have described as a display of staggering brutality.
Nichols died three days after his arrest on Jan. 7 for alleged reckless driving. The officers, who are all black, also face charges of aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.
The City of Memphis will release video of the police stop that led to the death of Nichols after 6 p.m. today.
All eyes will be on Gov. Kathy Hochul next week to see if she can bounce back in state budget negotiations after losing to the same left-leaning legislative leaders in a bruising fight over her pick to lead New York’s highest court.
Hochul has until Jan. 30 to sign legislation to expand New York state’s wrongful death statute. The Grieving Families Act would be the first changes to the laws in more than 150 years.
Hochul’s vision to address the state’s child care crisis continues to differ from several lawmakers as they prepare to begin this session’s budget negotiations.
While Hochul, lawmakers and activists wrangle over whether the state’s new $14.20 an hour minimum wage should be indexed to inflation, countless businesses are paying well above that simply to attract employees.
New York has become the third state to ban the distribution or sale of cosmetics and personal products that contain mercury. The law was signed by Hochul in late December — to little fanfare or media attention.
The chairman of the state Senate’s Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee has offered a bill that would allow new online sportsbooks to accept bets on horse races.
Upstate counties’ unemployment rates continue to push the overall jobless picture lower in New York statewide, according to numbers released this week by the state Department of Labor.
Mayor Eric Adams outlined a “Working People’s Agenda” in his second State of the City speech, attaching several policy proposals to the brand of Democratic politics he has been preaching to the national party since he was elected in 2021.
After a turbulent first year as mayor, Adams sought to refocus his agenda on the needs of working-class New Yorkers, vowing to make city streets cleaner, improve public safety and expand affordable housing and a jobs program.
Adams gave Hochul 14 shout-outs during his address, which took place a week before she’s scheduled to unveil her 2023-24 state budget.
Adams urged New Yorkers to stop “sleeping on” the opioid crisis during his State of the City speech, warning that fentanyl abuse will “destroy generations” if left unaddressed.
Adams said he wants to target 1,700 people who are responsible for a disproportionate number of violent crimes in the city.
Adams wants to transform Midtown’s ailing business district into a “true live-work community” by turning thousands of empty offices into new apartments.
Adams unveiled a new push to place 30,000 New Yorkers into apprenticeship programs by 2030 in what would be a significant expansion of the city’s efforts.
City Hall and the nation’s biggest ride-hailing companies — Uber and Lyft — have struck a deal to convert their car fleets in the Big Apple from gasoline to all-electric by 2030.
A man who raced a truck down a Hudson River bike path in 2017, killing eight in what the authorities called the deadliest terrorist attack in New York City since 9/11, was convicted of murder charges by a federal jury and could now face the death penalty.
Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born cleric, has been convicted in New York of supporting terrorism, attempting to support terrorism and conspiracy, offenses that took place without him setting foot in the city or planning an attack there.
An Ivy League-educated Brooklyn lawyer who helped torch an NYPD car during the 2020 George Floyd protests will spend one year and a day in prison, a federal judge ruled.
James Dolan barred adversaries using facial recognition technology, and politicians bridled. Now, he is threatening to ban beer at a Rangers game.
Dolan vowed to continue using facial recognition technology to blacklist his corporate adversaries, dismissing the efforts of state lawmakers to stop the practice as an unconstitutional waste of time.
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blasted the prosecutor who charged actor Alec Baldwin for involuntary manslaughter by suggesting the charges were politically motivated.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s campaign team is anticipating a “tough reelection fight” next year and suggesting the two-term incumbent Democrat could face a challenge from former Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Long Island Republican who ran a competitive race for governor.
The joint archive of Joan Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, was acquired by the New York Public Library. It includes manuscripts, photographs, letters, dinner party guest lists and other personal items.
Regulators signed off on three more marijuana retailers for the Capital Region this week, bringing the area’s new licensees to seven.
General Electric is in the planning stages to build two large offshore wind turbine manufacturing facilities at the Port of Coeymans that would employ nearly 900 workers.
The Section II Athletic Council voted to place the Christian Brothers Academy athletic program on three years probation and take away the varsity football team’s Week 0 game for 2023 because of a violation of the recruitment and undue influence rule.
After a two-year hiatus prompted by COVID-19, the Albany Chefs’ Food and Wine Festival is back in full swing this weekend.
Following a year of lifted COVID-19 restrictions and shows with record-breaking attendance, the MVP Arena ended 2022 with its largest net profit since it first opened, according to an announcement from the Albany County Executive’s Office.
A small asteroid flew very close to Earth last night, less than a week after astronomers discovered the object.
A Colorado bear is the talk of the nature photography world after it appeared in 400 selfies on a wildlife camera set up in Boulder.
