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Behind the Aegis

(53,832 posts)
Fri Feb 12, 2021, 01:22 AM Feb 2021

(Jewish Group) It's Time We Taught Anti-Semitism

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

Elliot W. Eisner, a longtime professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, once posited that any learning environment has three types of curricula: 1) the explicit curriculum, or what the institution says it teaches, 2) the implicit curriculum, or the learnings that students take away from the institution without their having to be taught, and 3) the null curriculum, or those things that the institution does not teach.

When a topic ends up relegated to the null curriculum -- that is, not taught -- we must wonder whether it is because the institution does not consider that topic to be important. So it is with anti-Semitism.

Three anti-Semitic massacres have occurred in the United States in the past three years: in Pittsburgh; Poway, Calif.; and Jersey City, N.J. Numerous anti-Semitic incidents have taken place at colleges and universities -- including, to cite just a few, Nazi swastika graffiti, fliers saying “Hitler was right” and an incident in which a Holocaust survivor was heckled while telling his story by a student who thought that was an appropriate time to express opposition to the continued existence of the Jewish state of Israel.

---snip---

We need to honor the perspectives of Jews about anti-Semitic words or actions. When dealing with different forms of hate, it has become an article of faith that a group gets to define its own oppression. Put simply: a white person doesn’t get to tell a Black person whether something is racist. No such respect is extended to Jews, however.
Our survey asked this question: “If a Jewish person or organization considered a statement or idea to be anti-Semitic, would that make you more likely to consider it anti-Semitic, less likely, or would it make no difference to you?” About two-thirds, or 64 percent, of people aged 18 to 29 said it would make no difference to them if a Jewish person told them something was anti-Semitic. Another 21 percent said that such protestation from Jews would make them less likely to consider something anti-Semitic. To fight anti-Semitism as seriously as we confront any other bigotry, we must normalize believing Jews.

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(Jewish Group) It's Time We Taught Anti-Semitism (Original Post) Behind the Aegis Feb 2021 OP
Yes! I doubt we teach anti Black racism well, either. Maybe nowadays. I don't think it was even Karadeniz Feb 2021 #1
Time to teach ABOUT anti-Semitism (because anti-Semitism IS taught) MyMission Feb 2021 #2

Karadeniz

(22,277 posts)
1. Yes! I doubt we teach anti Black racism well, either. Maybe nowadays. I don't think it was even
Fri Feb 12, 2021, 03:20 AM
Feb 2021

Touched upon when I was taught Reconstruction.

MyMission

(1,845 posts)
2. Time to teach ABOUT anti-Semitism (because anti-Semitism IS taught)
Fri Feb 12, 2021, 05:22 AM
Feb 2021

Throughout the world, Jewish population is about .02%
Throughout the US is is about 2% (1.7%-2.6%).
Compare this to Latino (18%) black (13.4%) and Asian (5.6%).
In several states and cities the concentration of Jews is higher, in many it is much lower.
The Jewish population is under 1% in 29 states. If you look at the Wikipedia page linked below, you will see a chart with the approximate numbers, which are very telling.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Jews
Precise population figures vary depending on whether Jews are accounted for based on halakhic considerations, or secular, political and ancestral identification factors. There were about four million adherents of Judaism in the U.S. as of 2001, approximately 1.4% of the US population. According to the Jewish Agency, for the year 2017 Israel was home to 6.5 million Jews (49.3% of the world's Jewish population), while the United States contained 5.3 million (40.2%).[69]
According to Gallup and Pew Research Center findings, "at maximum 2.2% of the U.S. adult population has some basis for Jewish self-identification."[70]

In 2012, demographers estimated the core American Jewish population (including religious and non-religious) to be 5,425,000 (or 1.73% of the US population in 2012), citing methodological failures in the previous higher estimates.[71] Other sources say the number is around 6.5 million.

Personally, I grew up in NY (8.9% Jewish) but now live in NC (.36%). Since I've lived in the south I've met too many who've never met a Jew, and consider us an anomaly or curiosity in this "christian" region/country. I've also met many Jews who were the only Jew in their school or town. With intermarriage so prevalent, more people may have been exposed to Judaism (or just Jews) than before. Namely, the (former and) current president both having Jewish grandchildren, and the current VP having a Jewish spouse and Jewish stepchildren.

I think it's the right time to teach ABOUT anti-Semitism. It needs to be taught early, before high school. The song "You've got to be carefully taught" from South Pacific is the antithesis of this, and plays in my head. I think an anti-Semitism curriculum could and should include teaching about anti-muslim rhetoric as well.

Thanks for sharing this article, and for the many articles you share on Jewish topics.


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