Thread by @JewhadiTM

'Anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, pro-BDS': California's proposed Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum gets an F from Jewish caucus jta.org/2019/08/05/uni… via @jtanews

The 16 state legislators, all Democrats, are “strongly opposed” to the current draft of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum “moving forward without significant revisions.”

The board has put the model curriculum up for public comment and is expected to approve it next year.

The draft provides sample courses in four main areas: African-American Studies, Hispanic Studies, Native American Studies and Asian American Studies.

Supporters say the goal is to create inclusive and supportive environments for children of color.

The Los Angeles Times also complained in an editorial that the curriculum “feels like an exercise in groupthink, designed to proselytize and inculcate more than to inform and open minds.”

The newspaper also notes that the curriculum discusses activist groups like the Black Panther Party and the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel, but “usually offers one side and one side only.”

The newspaper also notes that the curriculum discusses activist groups like the Black Panther Party and the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel, but “usually offers one side and one side only.”

latimes.com/opinion/story/…

The Jewish Caucus offered similar criticism, saying the section on BDS presents “a single viewpoint ...” and “singles out Israel — the world’s only Jewish state — for special critique and condemnation that is both out of context and factually inaccurate.”

The caucus also said the curriculum ignores the Jewish contributions to California and anti-Semitism, saying it “effectively erases the American Jewish experience.” The omission, they note, is “indicative of an anti-Jewish bias.”

The letter also noted that when the curriculum does acknowledge Jews it does so in a “derogatory and discriminatory manner.”

The curriculum’s Arab American Studies Course quotes lyrics by a British Palestinian rapper named Shadia Mansour: “For every free political prisoner, an Israeli colony is expanded / For each greeting, a thousand houses were demolished / They use the press so they can manufacture”

The curriculum does not offer an Israeli Jewish perspective on the Middle East conflict, the caucus notes, and the rapper’s phrase “use the press so they can manufacture” is “a classic antisemitic trope abut Jewish control and the media.”

“We have concerns that include the curriculum’s omission both of Jews as an ethnic group and of anti-Semitism as a concept. The curriculum should reflect the true diversity of CA’s population,” Jeremy Russell, spokesman for the Jewish Community Relations Council of SF says

Other Jewish groups both in and outside of California expressing concerns about the proposed curriculum include the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the American Jewish Committee and Camera, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.