NEW YORK — A Holocaust museum in New York City will offer free educational field trips to eighth grade students in public schools in a program announced Thursday aimed at combating antisemitism.
The program will allow up to 85,000 students at traditional public schools and charter schools to tour Manhattan’s Museum of Jewish Heritage over the next three years, starting this fall. New York City is the largest school district in the nation, serving more than a million students. Organizers say the museum and the new program have the capacity to host up to one-third of the district’s eighth graders each year.
City Council member Julie Menin said she raised the idea with the museum after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, in an effort to combat rising antisemitism in the U.S. Incidents targeting Jewish and Muslim Americans have been recorded across the country since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, ranging from offensive graffiti to violence.
“We needed a proactive approach to combat this hatred at its roots,” Menin, a Democrat and daughter of a Holocaust survivor, said in a statement. “That’s why I approached the Museum of Jewish Heritage with the vision of a universal field trip program.”
