Rep. Alma Hernandez on how she and her first-grade teacher brought Holocaust education to Arizona, despite attempts to slow it down

Alma Hernandez, a Jewish Mexican-American politician serving as a Democratic member of the Arizona House of Representatives for the 20th district, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where she passionately addressed how she brought Holocaust education to Arizona.  

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In 2021, a bill that Rep. Hernandez introduced requiring Holocaust education in Arizona public schools was passed by the State Legislature. This made Arizona the sixteenth state in the United States to make Holocaust education mandatory.

“The process was very long. It took about three years to get it done,” she said. “Not because it wasn’t a good policy, and not because I was doing anything wrong. It was really politics, that’s what it came down to. We had people on both sides using this bill to play politics.”

She revealed that certain politicians intentionally held up the process in order to ensure that Rep. Hernandez would cast her vote on specific policies, even if they did not align with her own views. However, Rep. Hernandez refused.

“I said, ‘Look, we can get it done this year. This is what the ask is of me,’ and I had many [Holocaust] survivors tell me, ‘We will wait as long as we need to wait so that you do what you need to do and what is right,’ so at the end of the day, I didn’t have to compromise my values and I didn’t have to do something I was going to feel morally wrong for doing,” she said.

While the bill was eventually passed, the length of time that it took, unfortunately, had severe consequences.

“We were able to get it done, but it took three years. It was a long process…at the forefront of all of this were the survivors. We had three survivors that passed away, unfortunately, during the three years who were very involved but didn’t get to see it happen.

“That was very difficult because I really wish that they could have all been here to be able to witness a historic moment, but because of politics, we couldn’t get it done.” 

Despite this, Rep. Hernandez’s sense of achievement over such a monumental accomplishment was clear, stating: “I’m just really grateful we finally got it done. I’m really proud of it.”

Many of the survivors were close with the Arizona representative even prior to her election, with one in particular — Theresa Dulgov — who was not only a “friend and a mentor” to Rep. Hernandez, but was also her first-grade teacher.

She said: “She used to teach about the Holocaust when we were younger. She was my brother’s and sister’s reading teacher as well, and I just never forgot her story, and as I got older, we kept in touch. I found her on Facebook.

“She had such a big impact on my life because I met her when I was so young and we just kept in touch over the years. We reconnected through the Holocaust survivor’s network here in Tucson and she was able to come testify on behalf of my bill, and that was really moving for me; having her support and knowing that she’s someone who I personally have known literally my entire life now, and has supported me throughout the years…just seeing her, how happy she was to finally see this done, was really rewarding.”

Speaking on how the implementation of Holocaust education in Arizona has been going, Rep. Hernandez said: “I know that the schools have been implementing different curriculums. They’re allowed to select the curriculum that works best for them through the Department of Education…It’s going to start with the children and educating the future generation, because they are the ones who are hopefully going to be breaking the cycle of hate and bigotry in our communities.”

Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.