Photo Credit: IJ Review

School officials said they will be rewriting a controversial essay question developed through the Common Core guidelines that asks eighth graders to consider whether the Holocaust a “real event” or “merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain.”

From the San Bernardino Sun:

The district says the assignment is merely to teach students to evaluate the quality of evidence made by advocates or opponents of an issue. “When tragic events occur in history, there is often debate about their actual existence,” the assignment reads. “For example, some people claim the Holocaust is not an actual historical event, but instead a propaganda tool was used for political and monetary gain. Remember to address counterclaims (rebuttals) to your stated claim.

Wait, what? Since when do we debate whether tragic events happen? No one doubts 9/11 happened, or the disappearance of the Malaysian flight, or that Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. Is this really “critical thinking”? According to their interpretation of the Common Core, it is:

The project was designed by district teachers and assigned during the eighth grade’s “Diary of Anne Frank” unit, according to district spokeswoman Syeda Jafri.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: REUTERS

By Karl de Vries.

Following a storm of criticism – and at least one death threat – a California school district Monday canceled a lesson plan that instructed middle school students to make arguments denying the Holocaust happened.

The assignment, aimed at eighth-grade students in Southern California’s Rialto Unified School District, sought to teach children to learn the nature of propaganda.

“Some people claim the Holocaust is not an actual event, but instead is a propaganda tool that was used for political and monetary gain,” the assignment said, according to a document posted by The Daily Bulletin. “You will read and discuss multiple, credible articles on the issue, and write an argumentative essay, based upon cited textual evidence, in which you explain whether or not you believe this was an actual event in history, or merely a political scheme created to influence public emotion and gain wealth.”

But critics said the assignment risked misleading the 13- and 14-year-old students into believing that propaganda about the Holocaust bears factual legitimacy.

“Whatever (the district’s) motivation, it ends up elevating hate and history to the same level,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, told FoxNews.com on Monday. “We should train our kids to have critical thinking, but the problem here is the teacher confused teaching critical thinking with common sense, because common sense dictates you don’t comingle propaganda with common truth.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: New York Public Library Digital Collection

By European Jewish Press.

The US State Department is listed as a “cultural partner” of the 24th Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, which reportedly features a number of anti-Semitic publications. Books in English and Arabic listed on display at the Fair include Holocaust denial, Henry Ford’s “The International Jew” and Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”

Also exhibited is “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” the second most published book in the Arab world, which promotes the anti-Semitic notion that Jews are planning global domination.

According to the Book Fair’s official website, the US Department of State is among the event’s “cultural partners” along with Ikea, France 24, The National Geographic and the French Embassy.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), urged the US to disassociate itself from the fair.

Read more from this story HERE.