"the Holocaust [will] now be included in the mandatory world history overview for years 9 and 10 in the new national [Australian ]curriculum"

See

• "Study of Holocaust mandated for schools", by Anna Patty, dated December 8, 2012, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:
  http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/study-of-holocaust-mandated-for-schools-20121207-2b10k.html?skin=text-only
  That article came to my attention via the version published under the same headline and with the same byline on p. 7 of the main "NEWS" section of the Weekend Edition of The Sydney Morning Herald, December 8-9, 2012, No. 54656, ISSN 0312-6315. Note that the first paragraph of the print version differs from that of the current online version. This is my transcription of the first paragraph of the print version:
  

  THE study of the Holocaust will become compulsory for all NSW school students in years 9 and 10 after a lobbying campaign by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies prompted the state government to include it in the syllabus.

  Google searching indicates that the websites of some of Fairfax's regional mastheads still carry the original version, but, oddly, when I went to the web-pages for the first three of those newspapers to come up in the results, the first paragraph was the new one.
  I'm not sure why Fairfax made that 'clarification'. Perhaps the Jewish Board of Deputies did not alone prompt the curriculum change, but surely it was indeed a factor (and perhaps the decisive one) in the prompting of that change? Maybe the Herald made the 'clarification' because the Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority (A.C.A.R.A.) is a Federal rather than a State organ, and the Jewish Board of Deputies' lobbying was of the New South Wales (State) organs, the Board of Studies and (State, not Federal, judging by the context) Department of Education. But that would just mean that the influence of the Jewish Board of Deputies over the Federally-set curriculum was indirect—passing by way of the aforementioned State organs—rather than direct; but then, the 'clarified' first paragraph still says that "the Jewish Board of Deputies lobbied the state government for the curriculum change" (my emphasis), and it's the Federal organ, the A.C.A.R.A., which sets the curriculum, which (curriculum) New South Wales, and presumably the other States and Territories, implements through new syllabuses.

• "Holocaust study to be compulsory for NSW students", by Simon Benson, dated December 8, 2012, downloaded from the Sydney Daily Telegraph's website:
  http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/holocaust-study-to-be-compulsory-for-nsw-students/story-e6freuy9-1226532472597
  That article came to my attention via this blog post, which I found while Google searching key words from the Herald article.

• "Holocaust to be part of Catholic syllabus", by Damir Govorcin, downloaded from the Sydney Catholic Weekly's website:
  http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=1&subclassID=3&articleID=11402&class=Latest%20News&subclass=CW%20World
  That article came to my attention via its printing under the same headline and with the same byline on p. 5 of the Sydney Catholic Weekly, December 16, 2012, Vol. 75, No. 4652, published by The Catholic Press Newspaper Company Pty. Ltd.

Mr. Benson was one of the participants in "the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies’ annual Journalists Mission to Israel" last November. Another participant in that "study tour" was the editor of the Herald for the day on which Ms Patty's article was published, namely, Judith Whelan. (The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council was also involved with that tour, though it was the N.S.W. Jewish Board of Deputies, not the A.I.J.A.C., which sponsored Ms Whelan and Mr. Benson. (The A.I.J.A.C. sponsored other journalists on the same tour.)) As for Mr. Govorcin, the only person named as a source in his article, namely, Anthony Cleary, was a couple of years ago a recipient of "a scholarship from the Gandel Foundation and Yad Vashem" for attending an international programme in Jerusalem in order "to develop a greater understanding of the Holocaust which he can then share with teachers and students in Australia".

Here is how I would summarise the information in the three articles:

• From 2014, it will be mandatory for all Australian Year 9 and 10 History pupils to study "the Holocaust … as a major world event along with World War II in the 20th-century world history curriculum."

• That comes after private lobbying of a very favourably-disposed New South Wales Board of Studies and Department of Education by the N.S.W. Jewish Board of Deputies for at least about three years, concluding in November 2012, though the Board of Deputies made no public submission to the Board of Studies during the consultation phase for the drafting of the new New South Wales syllabus (by which New South Wales, and presumably the other States and Territories, mutatis mutandis, implements the new national curriculum).

• The mandatory inclusion means that Australian classes "will mirror compulsory Holocaust classes in most US states, the UK and many European countries".

• The N.S.W. Jewish Board of Deputies "is now calling on the Gillard government to join about 28 other Western nations and sign up to the Task Force for International Co-operation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research."

• As for nominally Catholic schools, the mandatory inclusion "has the capacity to try to advance genuine inter-faith dialogue and relations, says Anthony Cleary, director of religious education and evangelisation for the Catholic Education Office Sydney."

• Mr. Cleary also says that “The Catholic Education Office has a wonderful working relationship with the NSW Board of Jewish Deputies and we consider that this would be another project that we could work in partnership on.”

Finally, here are a few links to related material which I found through Google, together with their respective excerpts of interest in the present context:

• http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/12/16/3114606/holocaust-to-be-part-of-australias-national-curriculum
  

  The move follows a submission first lodged by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry in 2010 for the framework of the new national curriculum.

• http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/schools-failing-to-teach-on-holocaust/story-e6frg6nf-1111116872017
  

  The only mention of the Holocaust in the NSW syllabus for Years 7-10 is in the beginning, with the rationale for the course starting with a quotation from a Holocaust survivor about the importance of learning history.[ … ]The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies said yesterday it had been concerned for some time about the omission of the Holocaust from school history, and was working with the education department and the board of studies on the issue.

• http://forum.codoh.info/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7454&sid=55fa821447011d7f0db790cf327fae26&start=15
  

  On 16 October 2012, the Board of Studies NSW released the new History K-10 syllabus incorporating the Australian curriculum content descriptions.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
9.I.2013

"Lessons from the Holocaust to be shared with Catholic students"

From the on-line version of an article which I read in the print version of last Sunday's Sydney Catholic Weekly:

Lessons from the Holocaust to be shared with Catholic students

By Sharyn McCowen
16 January, 2011

Anthony Cleary, director of religious education and evangelisation for the Catholic Education Office, Sydney, is in Jerusalem this month to develop a greater understanding of the Holocaust which he can then share with teachers and students in Australia.

Mr Cleary received a scholarship from the Gandel Foundation and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, to attend an international program.

“I’m very conscious of the significance of the event of the Holocaust as a terrible event in human history but also showing why religious dialogue is so important,” he said.

[...] A former history and English teacher, Mr Cleary previously taught students about the Holocaust from books.

“One thing I really hope to do at the end of it is to educate young people in our schools,” he said. “I’m looking forward to immersing myself in the cradle of Christian religion. I’m also looking forward to an immersion of Jewish culture and come to a greater understanding of something I used to be the teacher of for many years.

[...] The course runs from January 5-24, and Mr Cleary will then return to Sydney to examine the possibility of incorporating this information into the curriculum, and into the education of teachers.
[italics and bold type in the original,
http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=1&subclassID=2&articleID=7686&class=Latest%20News&subclass=CW%20National]

(That article was also featured in yesterday's CathNews, where a surprisingly good comment, the only one there at the time of posting this post, has been published.) This comes a couple of months after Mr. Cleary represented His Eminence The Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney as a guest at the launch of a revised version of a B'nai-B'rith-produced and -supported anti-racism/-bigotry handbook for schools.

And just now I see that Mr. Cleary has written a piece for The Catholic Weekly, in connection with the upcoming "Holocaust Memorial Day":

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=1&subclassID=2&articleID=7732&class=Latest News&subclass=CW National

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of Sts. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Martyrs, and of St. Canute, King, Martyr, A.D. 2011

Notes: Friday, December 10, 2010

1. "WikiLeaks acts 'illegal': Gillard government"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/wikileaks/wikileaks-acts-illegal-gillard-government/story-fn775xjq-1225968584365

2. Cardinal Pell represented at launch of revised version of B'nai-B'rith-produced and -supported anti-racism/-bigotry handbook for schools

From the Sydney Catholic Weekly of several Sundays ago (bold and italics as in the original):

‘Inspired initiative’ to fight racism, bigotry

By Kerry Myers
21 November, 2010

THERE must be constant vigilance against racism and prejudice, warned the chairman of the Community Relations Commission of NSW, Dr Stepan Kerkyasharian.

[...] Dr Kerkyasharian was speaking at the launch of Without Prejudice – Towards a Harmonious Society in the Strangers Lounge of NSW Parliament House on Tuesday, November 9.

The book is a further initiative to combat prejudice in classrooms and is a revision of an earlier project produced and supported by B’nai B’rith, the world’s oldest and largest Jewish community service organisation.

Guests included parliamentarians and community representatives, including Anthony Cleary, the CEO’s director of religious education and evangelisation, who represented the Archbishop of Sydney, George Cardinal Pell.

“What an inspired initiative by B’nai B’rith . . . to enlighten children at this most influential point in their young lives,” Dr Kerkyasharian said.

“How better to do it than to provide their teachers with such a practical guide which can so easily be implemented in the classroom .... so easily dipped into and out of.

“This handbook is so well designed that just one exercise of 30-40 minutes could have an impact on a child’s life forever. [...]
[http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=1&subclassID=2&articleID=7543&class=News&subclass=CW]

Without Prejudice is available here. The Archdiocese of Sydney and the Catholic Education Commission of N.S.W. are listed here, along with bodies such as the Education Task Force of B’nai B’rith (N.S.W.) and the Alfred Dreyfus Unit of B'nai Brith (sic), as community groups by which "Moving Forward Together is supported and endorsed".

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Melchiades, Pope, Martyr, A.D. 2010