Photo: James Rojas/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The Suffolk University Law School hosted a training program on Monday that taught about law enforcement’s involvement in the horrors of the Holocaust.
The program is called What You Do Matters and was developed in collaboration with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, with the target audience being modern day police.
It uses actual footage and documentation from 1930s Nazi Germany to illustrate how law enforcement played a major role in the deaths of millions due to their dehumanizing treatment of the Jewish people and many others.
What You Do Matters makes the modern day connection by addressing the idea of a “slippery slope,” in how small, unchecked decisions made by those in power can lead to dehumanizing acts of racism, anti-Semitism, hatred and other forms of bias.
Jody Kipnis, the co-founding president and CEO of the Holocaust Legacy Foundation, discussed how the rise of hate in Massachusetts makes a program like this necessary, as the state ranks 2nd for white supremacy propaganda and lands in the top 5 for hate crime offenses.
“Hate has gone up quite a bit according to the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) and their reports, they just did a full report back in 2023 at the end of the year, but then further reports keep showing the rise of anti-Semitism and all hate,” Jody said. “Such a diverse community, it’s so hard to understand why.”
The report also mentioned that there were 8,873 documented anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. in 2023, the largest number of incidents in ten years. 440 of those incidents were in Massachusetts.
She also said that she hopes What You Do Matters causes local police to reflect on the impact of their work and allows them to make meaningful changes that build trust in their community rather than spreading hate towards marginalized people.
“What we’re teaching is what happens when a democracy breaks down,” Kipnis said. “When a democracy becomes fragile, what is your role, are you there for the people or are you there against the people, and when they take an oath they’re here for the people.”
The three hour program has taught over 10,000 participants in the U.S. over the past three years.
WBZ NewsRadio’s James Rojas (@JamesRojasMMJ) reports.
