Don’t let anti-Zionism drown out ‘Hidden Voices’
We know that Mayor Zohran Mamdani is passionately opposed to Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, but we don’t know how many of the city’s school teachers share his beliefs. We do know these three facts:
•There is serious anti-Israel bias in the New York City school system
•A newsletter promoting anti-Israel activities was recently distributed by an office within the city’s Department of Education
•There is an ongoing pattern of activists targeting children with indoctrinating materials inside the classroom.
Why did Mamdani lend his support for the Hidden Voices K-12 curriculum, given that the program acknowledges Zionism as a legitimate manifestation of Jewish identity?
On the surface, the curriculum guide is a valuable resource for teachers committed to integrating lessons about the significant contributions the Jewish people have made and continue to make to enhance the general welfare and democratic institutions of the United States. In the hands of a fair-minded teacher, it could be used to enlighten students who are either ignorant of or hostile to Jewish history and culture.
The problem is that Hidden Voices does not dilute Mamdani’s position that denying Jews the right to self-determination in Israel is not antisemitic, since the curriculum legitimizes anti-Zionism as a respected position held by influential members of the American Jewish community.
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While the Liberated Ethnic Studies Curriculum that has made its way into California schools is direct in its opposition to Zionism, Hidden Voices takes a more nuanced approach, opening the door to teachers who choose to develop lessons that uncritically promote ideas held by the anti-Zionist margin of the Jewish community. Students, rather than learning about the historical context of Zionism and its critical importance to the survival of the Jewish people, may be led to believe that Zionism and anti-Zionism are simply two equally respected political positions.
Omar Barghouti, a co-founder of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) hasn’t been shy about the movement’s destructive intent toward the Jewish people. Unless teachers are able and willing to teach their students about the destructive forces that underlie the anti-Zionist movement and its dire consequences for the Jewish people, they will be sowing the seeds of more misunderstanding about Jewish history rather than being sources of enlightenment.
While the guide does point out that 82% of adult American Jews “feel a strong connection to Israel,” teachers who base lessons on the “Jewish Americans in the United States” curriculum guide will be able to emphasize the anti-Zionist position and deemphasize the fact that Zionism is intrinsic to the Jewish identity for the majority of the world’s 16 million Jews.
Case in point: “Jewish students should not be made to feel responsible for the actions of Israel’s government and should not be pressured to represent or speak for the larger Jewish community or the State of Israel.”
This statement may seem benign, but it assumes Israel’s government has acted irresponsibly or illegally. It is puzzling why teachers who are offered a detailed and rich guide to help them weave hidden voices of the American Jewish community into their social studies curriculum would venture into the highly complex and contentious politics of the Middle East without having a deep appreciation of its history.
Does a teacher get a pass if they accuse Israel of being a settler-colonial enterprise as long as they inform their students that Jewish New Yorkers should not be held accountable?
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With or without the Hidden Voices guide, teachers have much more leeway in their ability to attack Israel’s legitimacy now that Mamdani has abandoned the use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
It’s worth reminding that there is an ancient bond between Jews and the land of Israel.
Elliot Cosgrove, spiritual leader of the Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan, eloquently communicated why Zionism is non-negotiable for the Jewish people: “Zionism, Israel, Jewish, self-determination; these are not political preferences or partisan talking points. They are constituent building blocks and inseparable strands of my Jewish identity.”
He speaks for the vast majority of the Jewish population.
Anti-Zionism is a uniquely uncompromising position. It takes the view that Jews have no right to national self-determination as a sovereign Jewish state. Antisemitism intersects with anti-Zionism when the position taken is that Jews have no claim on the land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, or when Israel is falsely accused of being an apartheid, settler colonial state and is therefore illegitimate. To be anti-Zionist is to condemn the people of Israel to political destruction and very likely physical destruction. A sincere anti-Zionist must come to terms with this fact and be honest in stating that they care not for the future of the Jewish people.
This was on full display on Jan. 8 outside the Young Israel synagogue in Kew Gardens Hills, when people gathered to chant their adoration of Hamas. This was not a protest; it was a demonstration calling for the murder of Jews.
If New York teachers take their cues from the mayor on the issue of Zionism, the lesson plans in the Hidden Voice’s guide concerning Jewish Americans will likely be biased in favor of the anti-Zionist position.
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The implementation of the Hidden Voices pilot program includes teacher training and a process for collecting feedback from students and teachers. The analysis will be critical in helping teachers design and redesign lessons that are engaging and objective. Feedback from the classroom is essential for monitoring and evaluating the consistency of learning outcomes with curriculum goals. It will be critical that the feedback does not stop after the pilot phase ends to ensure that students are educated and not activated to take political stances.
School principals should brainstorm with teachers who are responsible for teaching social studies and history to figure out the best way to assure the public that education and not indoctrination is the goal of their school and of every teacher in the school.
While the mayor may have abandoned IHRA, nothing is preventing a school or school district from adopting it to guide teachers and students in their understanding of what constitutes antisemitism. This would be extremely useful in helping students understand the important difference between being critical of a government and advocating for the elimination of a country.
Finally, New York School Chancellor Kamar Samuels should assure communities that school administrators and concerned stakeholders will receive timely information regarding the content of lessons on Israel and Judaism, and will have his support and encouragement to work with teachers to help them both correct and prevent their classes from descending into an anti-Zionist narrative. This would be an effective check on bias and misinformation, which causes long-term damage to the Jewish community.
It would be a shame if the hidden voices of the majority of Jewish New Yorkers become whispers drowned out by the chants to “globalize the intifada.” The mayor’s support for the Hidden Voices addition to the social studies curriculum should be welcomed; it would be far better if, in a very loud voice, he would recognize that Zionism is the legitimate right of the Jewish people.
This is the way for the mayor to honor his commitment to cherish the Jewish community.
Charles A. Stone is a professor in the Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship at the Koppelman School of Business at Brooklyn College.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
