Amid the long-running controversy over a California ethnic studies curriculum that in an early draft omitted Jews and criticized Israel, a newly released ethnic studies curriculum in Marin County takes a different approach, incorporating a healthy portion of its lessons to teaching about antisemitism, the Holocaust and Jewish emigration to the United States.
It will be finalized in time for the start of school in August and distributed to all four Marin high school districts, which will be able to decide independently how or whether to use it.
According to a copy of the draft dated June 14 and provided to J., the lessons on anti-Jewish hate are framed through the definitions of antisemitism provided by the Anti-Defamation League and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The 44-page curriculum devotes six pages to the topic in a section titled “Antisemitism and its Impact on Jewish Americans in the U.S.”
Citing local incidents, Marin includes antisemitism in ethnic studies curriculum – J jweekly.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jweekly.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Because of Covid, travel has been limited. You can’t really go to Morocco right now to see the Jewish quarter. Nor can you stop by Kurdistan to catch a glimpse of the tomb of Nahum.
Or can you?
Well maybe you can’t do it the traditional way, but S.F.-based JIMENA has launched a program attempting to create the next best thing. The organization, whose acronym stands for Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, is taking small groups of young adults for online “trips” to Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen and Kurdistan.
And it’s no mere slideshow and lecture.
The rise in digital manifestations of antisemitism during 2020 detailed in a new report from Tel Aviv University, which.
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, director the AMCHA Initiative, told the Wednesday hearing that the problems with the curriculum have not been solved.
“Despite four revisions, the approved ethnic studies curriculum remains firmly rooted in Critical Ethnic Studies, a narrow conceptualization of the field that is politically- and activist-driven,” she said. “As an organization that investigates campus antisemitism, we have witnessed how courses based on Critical Ethnic Studies incite hatred and division among all students.
“In addition, filtered through the lens of Critical Ethnic Studies, Jews are viewed as ‘racially privileged oppressors,’” she added. “And at a time when anti-Jewish hostility and violence has reached unprecedented levels, indoctrinating students to view Jews in this way is tantamount to putting an even larger target on their backs.”