It all begins with our rabbis and our community leadership. Many socalled warriors for social justice forget that #Jewslivesmatter as well.
It is like a crash in slow motion. There may not be a shooting war with Israel at this moment, but here in the United States our pro-Israel and Jewish community is getting hit from all directions. This is a soft, cold war that we are facing. There are many in our community who don’t understand this and they are falling victim to it.
Newton, Massachusetts is a small town about 7 miles west of Boston. It has been voted one of the best cities in the country to live in. It is an older town with a large Jewish community.
There is, however, trouble in paradise for Newton. Newton has recently been in the news because of several anti-Semitic incidents.
This is a town with a population that is over 30 percent Jewish.
From Nazi-era imagery scrawled in bathrooms and in the snow to crowds chanting, “You killed Jesus” at a basketball game. To be fair, the predominantly Jewish school of Newton was chanting “sausage fest” to the all-male Catholic school.
OK, there are kids in high school that are saying nasty things to each other. Not good, but fortunately still pretty rare that Jews are singled out for being Jews… so far.
Growing Indoctrination of Anti-Semitism
There is, however, a growing indoctrination of our children throughout the United States that is no less insidious than anti-Semitism. It is direct anti-Zionism and indirect anti-Semitism, which is no doubt the same thing, at least to our enemies.
The more overt expressions of anti-Semitism are getting all of the attention; the more insidious and dangerous aspects of this cold war are not.
Charles Jacobs, president of Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), has been at the forefront to expose the Newton school systems bias in its textbooks and reading materials towards Israel.
Our children are being taught “history” from sources such as the Arab world studies manual. The “party line” from the superintendent Fleischman (who is Jewish) is that they are using these texts in the name of global understanding and critical thinking skills. Sounds great doesn’t it?
Why is this a problem?
As quoted from Americans for Peace and Tolerance, Newton’s high schools have used Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) maps that falsify the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Newton students were not told that the PLO’s propaganda unit created the maps.
Newton’s schools presented students with a falsified version of the Hamas Charter. In Newton’s doctored version the word “Jews” – as a target of hatred — is replaced with the word “Zionists.”
In one lesson, Newton students are asked to consider the Jewish state’s right to exist. (The legitimacy of no other nation-state’s existence is questioned.) The lesson included “expert” opinions, which are drawn overwhelmingly from anti-Israel academics and anti-Semitic activists.
Remember Newton, which is a town of 88,000 and has 30,000 Jews in it. This is a large Jewish population that is being subjected to this and has protested. What about the rest of the country where Jews make up a tiny portion of each town?
Not Just a Local Problem
If you think that this is just a local problem, you’re wrong.
If you think that this is just about Israel and not about Jews, you’re wrong. The most telling incident was the removal of the word Jews from the Hamas charter and replaced with Israel. There are many who say that anti-Zionism is not the same thing as anti-Semitism. They may think that way but most of Israel’s enemies look at it as the same.
Just ask Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah (Party of God), the Iranian proxy in Lebanon.
“If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” (Daily Star, Oct. 23, 2002)
“If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew.” (New Yorker, Oct. 14, 2002)
My own daughter had this question on a test. Is it true that the slaves in Egypt were treated well? My daughter said it best, “gee don’t you have to start with the fact that they were slaves?” The teacher’s answer was yes, and they were treated well. This is mild compared to what is going on in classrooms across our country. It has an effect, believe me.
Recently, MSNBC used one of the PLO maps that are in the Arab world studies on their news. They later retracted when someone pointed out that it was wrong. It showed a map of Palestine in 1948 with subsequent maps of smaller and smaller Palestinian territory. Of course, there was no such thing as Palestine as a country.
Newton is just a symptom of a much larger problem, a problem that has now migrated to our universities. Just last week Nir Barkat, mayor of Jerusalem, was shouted down when speaking with students at San Francisco State University. He was not able to continue his speech.
We expect these things to happen in today’s world, unfortunately. Israel is the favorite target. What is most disturbing here is that the university knew that Barkat was coming and didn’t take a stand to stop the harassment. The police stood by and did nothing.
What is really scary is that our community, which I am sure has a strong alumni base at this university, and others have not been sufficiently concerned to voice their opinions to their respective schools. If the Jewish community speaks out, the incitement, falsehoods, and lies would mostly stop.
Wishful Thinking?
However, that is wishful thinking in today’s world. Maybe they don’t want to rock the boat. Perhaps being Jewish or supporting Israel embarrasses them. After all, it is not easy if you are on the left to publicly support Israel. They may look at Israel as that place thousands of miles away and not realize that it is a threat to them as Jews as well.
We cannot let schools indoctrinate our students with lies and exaggerations regarding Israel and Judaism.
It all begins with our rabbis and our community leadership. Many socalled warriors for social justice forget that #Jewslivesmatter as well.
We don’t want to become like Europe, where they are telling their Jews not to wear anything identifiable as Jewish.
I hate it when I hear about a speaker somewhere who talks about winning the hearts and minds of our enemies to affect real change. Winning the hearts and minds not only of our enemies but also of our own community, is just as important, perhaps more.
Yes, this is an accident in slow motion. Speaking out now is like buying insurance while the slow motion accident is occurring. What we do today will have a huge impact on what kind of world we are leaving to our children, both here in the United States and in Israel.
