Steven Van Zandt worries about a pre-Holocaust vibe on social media, prompting the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer to bring rock music, KISS, and Jewish cultural history into high school classrooms via his TeachRock education initiative.
That fear of rising antisemitism drives a new four-day lesson plan launched this week by TeachRock, titled “Jewish Heritage and the Holocaust: Exploring an Enduring Culture Through Music,” The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com reported.
- The curriculum opens with the 1975 KISS track “Rock and Roll All Nite” before examining prewar European antisemitism.
- More than 50 Florida high school students piloted the lessons at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
- The project highlights positive Jewish contributions to popular culture alongside survivor testimony and historical atrocities.
“There is that pre-Holocaust vibe,” Steven Van Zandt told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about online rhetoric. “They spread lies around year after year after year, and if you say something often enough, people start to believe it. And that’s what happened that led to the Holocaust in the first place, and that’s what’s going on now.”
Founded in 2013 by Van Zandt alongside Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Jackson Browne, and Martin Scorsese, TeachRock typically builds K-12 lessons around popular music. This new four-day course shifts into darker historical territory while centering artists such as KISS, Leonard Cohen, and Lawrence.
“When Gene Simmons with his tongue out is the first thing you see, you’re wondering, ‘What the heck happened to Holocaust education?’” said Michael Igel, a contributing author on the lesson plan and chair of the Florida Holocaust Education Task Force.
Simmons, whose mother survived the Holocaust, co-founded KISS with Paul Stanley, who is also Jewish. The curriculum asks students to consider how Simmons’s family background shaped his theatrical stage persona rather than viewing Jewish history solely through the lens of victimhood.
The educational rollout coincides with severe divisions across the music industry regarding Israel and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. Van Zandt, who led the 1985 international artist boycott against South Africa’s Sun City resort to protest Apartheid, argues that current cultural boycotts of Israel target a nation’s right to self-defense.
“Yes, I am known as the boycott king of the world,” Van Zandt said. “It’s not the same situation. Trying to deny weapons for Israel to defend itself is obscene. It’s ridiculous. It’s terrible.”
Those differing stances have fueled public feuds between Van Zandt and Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters over political activism in touring spaces. Meanwhile, Igel's curriculum explicitly defines genocide for students studying modern political rhetoric.
| Initiative Element | Primary Focus | Key Collaborators |
|---|---|---|
| TeachRock Foundation | K-12 music-based education | Steven Van Zandt, Martin Scorsese, Bono |
| Jewish Heritage Pilot | Holocaust education via rock music | Michael Igel, Florida Holocaust Museum |
| Featured Artists | Cultural resilience and survival | KISS, Leonard Cohen, Lawrence |
Following the Florida pilot, organizers intend to pitch the curriculum to school districts nationwide as states look for novel engagement strategies. Van Zandt aims to combat what he perceives as pervasive misinformation on digital platforms.
“Eventually there’s got to be a national public conversation about this, which is not taking place,” Van Zandt said. “So eventually it’s going to have to be. At that point, all bets are off.”
