While the slaying of some 1,400 Jews by Hamas is a major tragedy in and of itself, other important facets of the story merit attention. For example, a Harris poll taken after the massacre reveals that 51% of American 18-24-year-olds think the murder of innocent Jewish men, women, and babies was justified, and much of this Jew hatred can be attributed to our nation’s schools.
Rethinking Schools, a radical activist outfit established in 1986, whose products are used by 200,000 teachers and are on university reading lists, asserts that educators have a “moral and educational responsibility” to join and teach about “the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel.”
Also, a wing of Rethinking Schools, the Zinn Education Project,which has developed history curricula since 2008, is used by 155,000 teachers nationwide. On October 10, the organization declared that the terror, violence, murder, and rape we’ve seen in the past week “is the direct result of decades of Israeli occupation.”
In Oakland, the teachers union has accused Israel of carrying out genocide and ethnic cleansing. The teachers union in Seattle passed a resolution in 2021 supporting the same lie. In Virginia, a school board member in Fairfax County has, under the banner of culturally responsive pedagogy, pushed for an explicitly anti-Israeli curriculum.
Also, Black Lives Matter, which has had success infiltrating our public schools, insists that the recent events in the Middle East are a “direct result of decades of Israeli settler colonialism, land dispossession, occupation, blockade, apartheid, and attempted genocide of millions of Palestinians.”
Then there are the colleges. The colleges! Yes, the same cohort of far-left, cultural ignoramuses who can’t define what a woman is and offers classes like “Queering Menstruation” and “Anal 101” are now, not surprisingly, weighing in on the Middle East.
In addition to Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion tenets have become de rigeur on college campuses. The DEI-ists see everything in black and white, labeling white people as oppressors and blacks as the oppressed. While DEI typically concerns itself with USA issues, Israel, too, is on the hook, being tarred as a bastion of Jewish whiteness with a racist commitment to shattering the lives of Palestinians, who are considered people of color.
Tabia Lee, a former collegiate DEI director, explains that DEI drives campus antisemitism. She once hosted Jewish speakers on campus with the goal of “promoting diversity and inclusion by sharing different perspectives.” But she was deemed not radical enough, and was told in no uncertain terms that Jews are “white oppressors” and that it was her job to “decenter whiteness.”
At UCLA, immediately after the onset of the invasion, professors gave extra credit to students for attending a “teach-in” pushing anti-Israel propaganda. In New York, the president of NYU’s Student Bar Association wrote that “Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.”
In tune with the regnant campus zeitgeist, 34 student groups at Harvard pledged their support to Hamas. At Columbia, 20 campus groups signed a statement “condoning and justifying Hamas’s atrocities against Jews,” describing the wholesale slaughter of infants and children and the rape of women as “resistance,” all the while blaming Israel and America for the violence.
At UC-Berkeley, a statement from Bears for Palestine and signed by 25 on-and-off campus organizations, brazenly declared their support for slaughter of the Jews. “We invariably reject Israel’s framing as a victim” said the statement which also argued that “[O]ur people’s freedom will not be attainable without revolution,” adding, “We support the resistance, we support the liberation movement, and we indisputably support the Uprising.”
Sadly, activity on campuses isn’t limited to groups issuing statements. At the University of Pennsylvania, dozens of flyers depicting the names and faces of the victims that Hamas kidnapped were torn down around campus shortly after being put up. At Drexel University in Philadelphia, an assailant set a Jewish student’s dorm room door on fire. A Jewish student was beaten at Columbia, and Jewish students at Cooper Union had to take shelter in a library to escape a mob chanting, “Free Palestine!” And a student at Cornell threatened to shoot, stab, rape, and slit the throats of his Jewish classmates, prompting classes to be canceled.
There are many things we can do to mitigate the rising tide of Jew hatred – and all the other kinds of bilge that proliferates in our colleges these days. First, wealthy people must stop giving money to colleges that engage in Jew hatred and other forms of extremism, and this is indeed happening. Fox News reports,“Billionaires are pulling back on donations to leading Ivy League colleges amid allegations of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment that have become more visible in the wake of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel.”
Additionally – and this is no easy task – we must get the government out of funding private colleges. (The same crowd that reviles public money going to private schools on the K-12 level in the form of vouchers seems to have no problem with government money flowing into private colleges.) At this time, there are about 4,000 for-profit colleges in the U.S., and they receive the great majority of federal donations for higher education – which is about $201 billion. In fact, there are only 22 colleges in the country that refuse any public funds.
The government should also get out of the student loan business. At this time, the student loan nut is a staggering $1.75 trillion, about 92% of which comes from the feds.
Parents must do their share by not sending their children to a K-12 school or college that subsidizes Jew hatred. Unless your kid absolutely needs a college degree for a chosen career, let them skip the indoctrination-centric universities and join an apprentice program. At this time, the number of apprentices registered with the Department of Labor has surpassed 607,000, which is more than double the number that existed in 2013.
Teachers can do their share by not teaching any curricula that is anti-Jewish or bigoted toward any other group, for that matter. They also should quit their union – like the one in Oakland – if it is openly bigoted against Jews.
While the deaths of 1,400 people is a devastating tragedy, if we don’t learn from our mistakes, we will be doomed to ongoing savagery. Please think about what you can do to stanch the ugliness that is festering in our midst.
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Larry Sand, a former classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers and the general public with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues. The views presented here are strictly his own.
Mo de Profit says
Hopefully your apprentice program won’t be like the uk one which is also government funded and where a local business was forced to install a gender neutral toilet for a trans sicko who quit after a few weeks because he was expected to actually do some work “arrrgh”
Steve Chavez says
Their Antifa/BLM MASKS, which they wore to loot, trash, and burn our cities down… are coming off in today’s PRO-HAMAS protests. LET THEM FOR ALL TO SEE THE TRUE FACES OF EVIL! Notice the signs with protest leaders being Communists from ANSWER, The Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Revolutionary Communist Party, and the Communist Party USA which hides in the shadows which have led United for Peace and Justice, OWS, BLM/Antifa, and the current groups. They are recruiting at our universities with the help of professors and administrators who allow them to miss classes, and even give them extra credit for attending one. I feel sorry for the ones that don’t protest… lower grades which ruins further advancement.
GO TO THE LINK BELOW: It’s a petition to support Hamas then the truth comes out. How many would still sign it? Now aren’t they more dangerous than parents at school board meetings and the DOJ and FBI needs to come after them?
SPURWING PLOVER says
Time to cut off their allowance by 100% no more financing these violent criminal’s and holding the administrators liable for violence against anyone
SilenceDoGood says
Genocide?
The population of Arabs in Gaza is increasing not decreasing.
Apartheid?
There are numerous Arab Israelis in the government.
The Druze live freely and in peace for some reason.
RMT says
For the past few years, I have had the thought that much of the white supremacy narrative, was a cover for anti-Semitism. I think the past few weeks have borne that out as true.
Radman414 says
Below is a 40:24 min. video and the transcript of a speech given by Melanie Phillips at the Freedom Center’s 2023 Restoration Weekend, held Oct. 26-29 at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans.
(The video itself is powerful first-person testimony regarding the horrific terrorism and barbarism that was perpetrated by the Islamist Hamas.)
Today, Israel is fighting for its very survival, AND for the lives of its people. It is also fighting for civilization. The question is whether Western Civilization understands that this is what is at stake. Does it actually want to be saved when its leading ‘elites’ appear to have concluded it’s innately “bad” and not worth saving?
Israel will win this, maybe at terrible cost, but Israel will win this because Israel is determined to survive. This is a war of civilization against a barbaric quest to eliminate Israel, all Israelis, and all of us “infidels.” Anyone paying attention is looking on in horror at what occurred in the Middle East on October 7th; but now, Joe Biden, et, al, are calling for a cease fire that would prevent the elimination of Hamas. The West must realize that this war is here.
Walter Sieruk says
Many universities and colleges have been thoroughly infiltrated and influenced by the insidious stealth jihadists.
There may be little rational doubt that those stealth jihadists are backed and funded by Iran and Qatar as well as oil rich Saudi Arabia.
In addition, the former President, William Howard Taft, in a speech rightly and wisely, declared, “Anti-Semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in America.”
RAM says
It’s zINN TO TELL A LIE.
TRex says
How do you UN-stupid people? Do these mal-educated Western students think all the World will live in harmony if every Jew just vanished? They better start saving up their money to pay the jizya that will be imposed on them because they are the next target of the religion of pieces.
Martina Vaslovik says
We are seeing today great numbers of people who want to be in a club, to be included in any club, and they are quite willing to hate whoever they are told to in order to belong or even mutilate their bodies, just to be in the club. It’s how we got Jew hatred to begin with, and those hating Trump, who cannot even tell you what they hate him for, and have to fall back on the racism slam which is demonstrably false.
This is what happens when too many in the world turn away from God.
RS says
Their foolish hearts are darkened and they do what ought not to be done.
RS says
The Left continually lies about the Jewish people, and their counterparts are Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. A Gaza Resident sent a video of Hamas beating up Gaza residents who were trying to get a truckload of food as aid, and prevented Shifa Hospital from receiving fuel from Israel.
Hamas intercepted 300 liters of diesel fuel for themselves.
The Media is feckless in reporting what happens on the ground….millions of us are getting accurate information that the media doesn’t know about or won’t provide because they took anti-semetic sides against Israel in this war. Even the journalists who had first hand dibs on what was happening with the Hamas attacks never reported it until after the invasion. Sick of the lies, start getting other first hand information!