The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ), the peak rep­res­ent­at­ive body of the Aus­trali­an Jewish community, has warmly welcomed the release of the findings of the Gandel Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness in Australia Survey, com­mis­sioned and funded by the Gandel Found­a­tion and conducted by research­ers at Deakin Uni­ver­sity.

Noting that this is the first national, large-scale survey of Aus­trali­ans’ knowledge of the Holocaust and their attitudes con­cern­ing Jews, antisemitism and Holocaust education, ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim said: “This seminal study has yielded a rich trove of findings that will inform policy-makers and educators in the coming years in shaping approaches to public and school education about the Holocaust.”

“This will be an invalu­able com­ple­ment to the ECAJ’s efforts to persuade gov­ern­ment and inde­pend­ent schools to introduce anti-prejudice education into key points of the cur­riculum. Espe­cially relevant are the recom­mend­a­tions for pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment programs for teachers in deliv­er­ing age-appro­pri­ate learning about the Holocaust and antisemitism, and strategies for engage­ment with Holocaust museums, memorials and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions.”

“The ECAJ fully endorses the recom­mend­a­tions that have emerged from this study”, he said.  “Speaking per­son­ally, I am honoured to have been included as a member of the advisory panel to the Survey”.