For the past five years, the Newton Public Schools district has been the target of groups claiming bias in our high school history curriculum concerning the Middle East. Time and again, these allegations have proven to be misleading or untrue. In 2013, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education stated in response to a filed complaint, “no violation of education law, regulation or policy has occurred with regard to the specific concern(s) you have raised.” When similar claims resurfaced last summer, the Anti-Defamation League met with Newton Public Schools leaders and determined there was no issue with the curriculum.
Read the Newton School Committee’s full statement on the TAB’s website
As someone with no skin in the game, who detests name calling, would the poster of this blog mind giving me a definition of “hate group” and why this group fits the definition?
@Jeffery: I think we have some idea where they’re coming from when Jeff Kuhner, the group’s featured speaker begins with a “joke”:
Or as another TAB letter writer wrote:
Jeffrey, you can choose not to like a group being a “hate group.” That’s your right. But the name is a well established way of defining certain groups.
“A hate group is a social group that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, nation, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other designated sector of society.”
According to the FBI, “a hate group’s” primary purpose is to promote animosity, hostility, and malice against persons belonging to a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin which differs from that of the members of the organization.”
Along with Greg’s explanation of why the name fits the Jacob’s group, I hope that answers your question.
Kudos to our School Committee for standing up to these misguided zealots. Hopefully they’ll crawl back into the darkness now that their chief PR enabler is no longer Tab editor.
Jewish wife, Jewish kids in the system…describing the curriculum as anti-semetic is pure nonsense. These people can go die in a deep hole.
For those looking for additional ways to show support for our Muslim neighbors, consider attending one of the below events at the main library:
Wednesday, March 14 at 7:00 pm – Interfaith Panel Discussion examining three Abrahamic faiths
http://posters.newtonfreelibrary.net/180314_Program_Interfaith_Panel_EK2.jpg
Tuesday, March 20 at 7:00 pm – Unveiled: A One Woman Play
http://posters.newtonfreelibrary.net/180320_Program_Unveiled_EK2.jpg
Unveiled has toured the US, Canada and South Africa to critical acclaim. WBUR’s Kilian Melloy reviewed it at the New Repertory Theater in January, saying: ‘At just under an hour, “Unveiled” is a potent, filler-free work that whisks us around the country, and beyond, to hear the stories of a handful of women from different ethnic backgrounds. The thing that binds their stories is the hijab, the traditional headscarf worn by Muslim woman as a symbol of modesty. It’s a garment that reflects deep devotion and sincere piety — but it also provokes institutional hostility and abuse from individuals blinded by Islamophobia.’