Tsionizm
Opinion

California’s Proposed Public School Curriculum Institutionalizes Anti-Semitism And Anti-Israeli Attitudes

A different kind of California Jew?
Copyright: Brück & Sohn Kunstverlag Meißen [CC0]

American Jewry’s love affair with the left continues unabated even as leftist-controlled California is on the verge of adopting an anti-Semitic curriculum in its public schools

Editor’s note: below is another great piece by Mike Siegel on the hot topic of the proposed California curriculum for so-called “ethnic studies”, one which adopts the usual leftist anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, and anti-Israel tropes. I would add to Mike’s analysis that this problem, from the Jewish perspective, is entirely self-inflicted because American Jews in general and California Jews in particular support this horror with their votes and their money, both of which they generously and overwhelmingly give to the Democratic Party on the local, state, and federal levels. My prediction is that despite the kvetching Mike describes in his piece by the so-called “Jewish Organizations”, the curriculum will pass and not a single Jewish vote or dollar will be lost to the California Democratic Party as a result. “Kvetching” is one of the words in the Yiddish language that are so unique that they do not bear translation into other languages and so they enter them unchanged. The meaning of the word can best be described as “feckless belly-aching”, complaining without doing anything to fix the problem. The attitude of California Jews towards this curriculum problem is the very definition of kvetching. The only solace we can find here is that California Jews rarely send their children to public schools, being able as most of them are, to pay private school tuition.

California has a larger economy than all countries except the following:

  • United States: $18.036 trillion
  • China: $11.007 trillion
  • Japan: $4.123 trillion
  • Germany: $3.363 trillion
  • UK: $2.858 trillion
  • California was at $2.589 trillion in 2015

It is clear that California is a state with much influence as a result.

And we know, of course, that it is a one-party state with Democrats running the show and the school systems across the state.

So why is a statewide proposed school curriculum for all public schools in the state raising the ire of 83 organizations?

The problem is that this alleged school curriculum omits information on American Jews in the Ethnic Studies Curriculum and omits information on anti-Semitism in America. This is noteworthy since more than 50% of hate acts in America are against Jews and Jewish institutions, synagogues and Jewish organizations.

The document is called the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum and it is also, not surprisingly, anti-Israel. The document also promulgates anti-Semitic stereotypes.

The toxic nature of this proposed curriculum is that it poisons the minds of young people with virulent marginalizing of Jewish people, their institutions and their ethnic homeland: Israel. Is this what a state with one of the largest economies in the world and with more than 35 million people should be teaching its children?

There is a left-wing political agenda that spawns this kind of virulent hate and identity politics. Anyone who still believes the left is where the compassion is need only read this proposed California curriculum to learn the truth about their real agenda.

It is noteworthy that the document has only positive things to say about the virulently anti-Israel and anti-Zionist Boycott, Divestiture and Sanctions Movement (BDS) that has been taken up as a cause by the former Nazi-sympathizer George Soros and his funded organizations including Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Why do these groups support the BDS Movement? Because George Soros funds these organizations and he has nothing but toxic attitudes toward Israel, notwithstanding the fact that he was born Jewish.

The opposition to this document is growing. Sixteen members of the California Jewish Caucus and other organizations including the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Stand With Us, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and others have condemned this bigoted document.

How could this happen? 25% of the Model Curriculum Advisory Committee given the task to develop the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum have publicly expressed their anti-Israel views. Their purpose has been to propagandize California high school students with their bigotry and hatred for the state of Israel and the Jewish people.

The Resolution in the California Legislature is AB-331 and it would require that each high school student in California take at least one course in Ethnic Studies to graduate.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center has said that if this curriculum is approved it would “be a disaster for all Jews in California.”

The Jewish population of California in 2018 was 1,182,990. Should that substantial number of people have to deal with hate and vitriol in their own state because of the influence of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic bigots? It is also the case that college campuses with anti-Israel messaging and activities are three times more likely to be venues for harm to Jewish students including harassment, vandalism and assault.

Multiply that number by the level of anti-Semitic hate acts if every high school student is taught this virulent hate and propaganda. This cannot stand. Does anyone still believe California and its left-wing zealots is still the state of compassion and love for all? If you do, P.T. Barnum was right: There is a sucker born every day.

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