The column [dead link updated June 10 2024]
by Zachary W. Singerman showed that the positions of the Israeli government regarding a final status resolution to the conflict with Palestinians and other countries in the 'hostile neighborhood' of the Greater Middle East were reinforced at Jewish day schools beyond the NY and northern NJ areas that send Columbia University and Barnard College many of the 25-33% of their Jewish students.
Five trade (registered and unregistered lobbying) associations merged to advocate for 375 day schools, including CESJDS attended by Zachary W. Singerman,
“It’s very exciting news for the entire day school field,” said Rabbi
Mitchel Malkus, head of Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, a
pluralistic community school in Rockville, Md. “I hope that in the long
run it will be a positive influence on the entire Jewish community.”
across denominations from Reform to Conservative (Pluralistic) to modern Orthodox.
It's as true of Jewish day schools out of NY and northern NJ that none support, in any way, the Palestinian-led nonviolent movement for BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions)
Boycott, divestment and sanctions
Tal Grinfas-David is the day school education specialist at the
Atlanta-based nonpartisan Center for Israel Education. A former day
school principal, Epstein now consults with day schools across the
country on strengthening their Israel education. The mere fact that many
area schools teach modern Israeli history gives them a leg up on most
day schools, she says, as many across the country leave it out of their
curricula entirely. The value in teaching the subject comes partially in
how it prepares students to approach BDS.
BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel,
calls for economic consequences for human rights violations committed by
the Israeli government. Critics argue that the movement, which began in
2005, is riddled with anti-Semitism, and that the main charge of the
group — that the laws of Israel governing Palestinians constitute
apartheid or something like it — persists on some college campuses and
in some far-left circles.
That, Grinfas-David says, is why it’s important for students to go
into college with an understanding of those charges, and how to meet
them with a wealth of knowledge to draw from in defense. “These kids
need context and perspective,” she said. “When the legitimacy and the
need of the state of Israel comes up or is questioned by others, it’s
very important that they are secure in their own understanding before
they engage with other perspectives.”
“It became apparent that whoa, this isn’t going away,” says Ellen
Friedman, referring to BDS, “and this is something that we need to
address in some way.”
Friedman is not the only one who noticed. Large Jewish organizations,
Grinfas-David says, have spent the last decade creating curricula and
material for day school teachers specifically designed to combat what
students might hear from future college classmates.
Rabbi Marc Wolf is vice president of field advancement and advocacy
at Prizmah, an umbrella organization of day school networks that studies
and makes recommendations to day schools. He agrees with Grinfas-David
on BDS. “I have seen that as a motivating factor for a number of the
Jewish organizations that are interested in putting content out there to
be able to be used to help frame the conversation about the modern
state of Israel,” he says. “I think a lot of them are driven by concern
for what students are going to encounter on campus.”
Contrasting values
For some students, says Erica Allen, a teacher at Krieger Schechter
Day School, the contrast between the liberal values they learned at home
— support for gay marriage, mixed seating in services and acceptance of
non-Orthodox conversions — and what they learn when they step off the
plane in Israel can be confusing.
“We value egalitarianism in this school,” Allen says, “and then the
kids go to Israel in eighth grade, and they separate men and women at
the Western Wall, which is a place our kids have always looked toward
with great anticipation … and it’s like, ‘Oh, this is a little different
from the values that we pray with every day at school.’”
Phil Jacobs’ senior class, which also makes an Israel trip, had
similar discussions about Israeli approval of President Donald Trump and
the tensions between Israeli and Diaspora Jews. Still, he says, they
have to have these conversations because their ability to talk about
tough subjects is invaluable.
“They come away with these tools in their tool kit,” he says.
jbernstein@midatlanticmedia.com
to change Israeli state governing and conflict resolution policies by way of what is called 'embracing complexity' or [dead link] understanding "nuance." Here is another link with similar ideas expressed.
How to 'teach about Israel,' particularly events since 1948 (modern Israel history), has the goal of retaining a "Passionate Attachment" to continue providing military aid, USA State Department and UN diplomatic cover and deductible private donations from diaspora Jews (domiciled out of Israel). At the same time changing the definition of anti-semitism to include anti-zionism makes denial that the operational, rather than aspirational, implementation of zionism is an obstacle to a final status peace based on civil legal equality, socioeconomic and racial equity between all faiths and nation-states in Middle East region. The last task to redefine anti-semitism to include anti-zionism is using the mission shift
An institutional mission shift, in Holocaust remembrance civil society institutions, is shown in the IHRA definition of anti-semitism that conflates prejudice against Judaism and Jewish people with political disagreement with zionism
that has weakened the Labour Party in the UK by attacking its leader Jeremy Corbyn and marginalized its electoral prospects.
....
The closest counterpart in the USA to the UK Labour Party, the Democratic (not
‘Democrat’) Party, has had the same rightward pressure from its
‘progressive except for Palestine’ supporters 'play out' in the demise of the National Jewish Democratic Council and its replacement by the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
in the occupational field of Jewish holocaust (1933-1945) remembrance to lobby governments and IGOs to adopt the problematic IHRA definition of anti-semitism.
Falsely equating left and right (both-siderism) by arguing 'both sides' are wrong only compounds the harm and demoralizes/burns-out individuals into not participating in the activism to demand refusal to accept an ever-rightward-drifting 'new normal' on a myriad of issues. False equivalency condemning 'both sides' after intense activism only leads to 'paralysis by analysis' or 'agreeing to disagree' until the Israel-Palestine-Arab regional conflict reaches a new 'extreme' of inequity, inequality or harm to one person or group of people that restarts the (much-maligned term) 'cycle of violence.' That return to violence leads people to resume a 'cycle of activism' to end the violence. The 'cycle of activism' to demand peace will only succeed with building solidarity by building relationships to create justice and liberation that 'works' for all parties to conflict and their allies.
USA-based Republican party-ally Frank Luntz wrote in 2014, after a 51 day hot war by Israel on the blockaded Gaza strip, a report called "Communicating the truth about Israel." That war killed 2200 Palestinians (including over 500 children) and about 30 Israelis. One of the main conclusions was that traditional aged (18-24) college students were supporting Palestinians more than older people. Maryland state bills like the Boost or Boast Act or the Maryland Education Credit help increase the student enrollment, by making tuition more affordable, of Jewish day schools. Jewish day schools, as noted above, have a history of trying to retain the support for some type of zionism and support for Israeli government policies that are increasingly challenged, to the point of personal viewpoint changes, in post-secondary educational settings. Church-exempt nonpublic schools defined here include Jewish day schools. Jewish summer camps, particularly the more-expensive 'sleep away' type, and 'Israel engagement fellow' programs for public high school students also try to help pre-college or 'college-bound' 14-19 year olds write their own personal Israel stories [dead link revived and updated June 13, 2024 with additional new link ] as part of the resistance to separating, or finally reconciling, zionism with Judaism.
