Why This History Matters: From Blog Posts to Book
The purpose of “Why This History Matters” and these blog posts is to combine them into a published book entitled Safe Schools for Jewish Students: An Educator’s Guide to Preventing Antisemitism and Strengthening Belonging.
Go here for the full Table of Contents.
Chapter 2 – Why This History Matters
Why This History Matters in Today’s Schools
After the terrorist attack of Hamas against Israelis, the rise of antisemitism took on many forms in schools across the U.S. Jewish students became scared of revealing their Jewish identity, an aspect of their intersectionality they felt compelled to hide from their teachers and fellow students.
Jewish students experienced the micro aggression of ambiguity when seeing “Free Palestine” signs in their classrooms without any clear context of what borders. Did the signs mean to free East Palestine from Jordanian Monarchy? The clarion call showed no indication of such a meaning. Did the signs mean “Free Palestine from Hamas?” Did the signs call for an expulsion of Arabs from the former British Mandate of Palestine? Or was the slogan a chant to ethnically cleanse Israel of Jews? Considering the animosity against Israel in the protests, the “Free Palestine” cry suggested the latter.
Jewish students suddenly had to defend their ethnicity in the face of inversions: Hamas targets Israelis, Israel is committing genocide; Jews are not allowed to live in Palestinian regions run by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, Israel is an apartheid; Hamas doesn’t allow Israelis to enter Gaza, Israel has made Gaza an open-air prison.
The demonization of Israel by educators calling Israel “a settler-colonial project steeped in white supremacist ideology” and “Zionism = racism” was to many students a stepping stone to the delegitimization of permitting Jews to have their own state, reinforcing the notion of Jews deserving fewer rights than non-Jews.
An educator’s responsibility is to make sure all students feel welcome and safe. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, shared ancestry, and ethnicity, including actual or perceived connection to a country with a dominant religion. Meaning, that while it doesn’t explicitly mention religion, the US Department of Education interprets it to cover religious discrimination when the discrimination is associated with shared ancestry or ethnicity.
Schools that receive federal funding are required to follow Title VI. With the use of micro aggressions, inversions, demonization, delegitimization, and double-standards, educators are isolating Jewish students, discriminating against them and breaking that law.
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Author Biography of Safe Schools for Jewish Students
Ezra Barany loves riveting readers with Jewish thrillers. His first two books in The Torah Codes series were award-winning international bestsellers. In his free time, he has eye-opening discussions on the art of writing novels with his wife and book coach Beth Barany. A high school physics teacher, Ezra lives in Oakland with his beloved wife and two cats working on the next book. Ezra, not the cats.
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