Florida Senate - 2024                              CS for SB 396
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Education Pre-K -12; and Senators Berman and
       Perry
       
       
       
       
       581-02674-24                                           2024396c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to Holocaust Remembrance Day; creating
    3         s. 683.196, F.S.; requiring the Governor to annually
    4         proclaim a specified day as “Holocaust Remembrance
    5         Day”; authorizing “Holocaust Remembrance Day” to be
    6         observed in this state’s public schools and be
    7         observed by public exercise as the Governor may
    8         designate; providing construction; authorizing
    9         specified instruction; providing an effective date.
   10  
   11         WHEREAS, more than 77 years have passed since the Holocaust
   12  ended, yet anti-Semitism and unfounded hatred of Jews continues
   13  to spread throughout the world, and
   14         WHEREAS, millions of Jews, Soviet civilians, and persons
   15  with disabilities were murdered during the Holocaust, as well as
   16  people targeted for their ethnicity, religion, political
   17  beliefs, and sexual orientation, and
   18         WHEREAS, Kristallnacht, widely recognized as a
   19  precipitating event that led to the Holocaust, was a series of
   20  pogroms unleashed by Nazi leaders against the Jewish population
   21  in Germany and newly incorporated territories which caused the
   22  destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, schools, and
   23  homes, and
   24         WHEREAS, the tragedy of the Holocaust and the ongoing
   25  effects of anti-Semitism continue to impact Jewish communities
   26  in this state, NOW, THEREFORE,
   27  
   28  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   29  
   30         Section 1. Section 683.196, Florida Statutes, is created to
   31  read:
   32         683.196 Holocaust Remembrance Day.—
   33         (1) In honor of the millions of victims killed in the
   34  Holocaust, the Governor shall annually proclaim the first
   35  weekday in “Holocaust Education Week” under s. 1003.42(2)(g)2.
   36  to be “Holocaust Remembrance Day,” which may be suitably
   37  observed in the public schools of this state and by public
   38  exercise at the State Capitol and elsewhere as the Governor may
   39  designate.
   40         (2) If the first weekday of “Holocaust Education Week”
   41  falls on a day that is not a school day, “Holocaust Remembrance
   42  Day” may be observed in the public schools on the following
   43  school day or as otherwise designated by the district school
   44  board having jurisdiction.
   45         (3) Instruction on the harmful impacts of the Holocaust and
   46  anti-Semitism and the positive impacts of the Jewish community
   47  on humanity may be provided as part of the public school
   48  instruction on “Holocaust Remembrance Day.”
   49         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2024.