Florida Senate - 2025                                     SB 356
       
       
        
       By Senator Berman
       
       
       
       
       
       26-00171B-25                                           2025356__
    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 proclaim a
    4         specified day annually as “Holocaust Remembrance Day”;
    5         authorizing “Holocaust Remembrance Day” to be observed
    6         in this state’s public schools and be observed by
    7         public exercise as the Governor may designate;
    8         providing construction; authorizing specified
    9         instruction; providing an effective date.
   10  
   11         WHEREAS, more than 79 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, on November 1, 2005, the United Nations General
   19  Assembly designated January 27, the anniversary of the
   20  liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, as International Holocaust
   21  Remembrance Day, and
   22         WHEREAS, the tragedy of the Holocaust and the ongoing
   23  effects of anti-Semitism continue to impact Jewish communities
   24  in this state, NOW, THEREFORE,
   25  
   26  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   27  
   28         Section 1. Section 683.196, Florida Statutes, is created to
   29  read:
   30         683.196 Holocaust Remembrance Day.—
   31         (1) In honor of the millions of victims killed in the
   32  Holocaust, the Governor shall annually proclaim January 27 to be
   33  “Holocaust Remembrance Day,” which may be observed in the public
   34  schools of this state and by public exercise at the State
   35  Capitol and elsewhere as the Governor may designate.
   36         (2) If January 27 falls on a day that is not a school day,
   37  “Holocaust Remembrance Day” may be observed in the public
   38  schools on the following school day or as otherwise designated
   39  by the district school board having jurisdiction.
   40         (3) Instruction on the harmful impacts of the Holocaust and
   41  anti-Semitism and the positive contributions of the Jewish
   42  community to humanity may be provided as part of the public
   43  school instruction on “Holocaust Remembrance Day.”
   44         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2025.