Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller released this through her email newsletter today
Last Tuesday evening the School Committee held a public hearing as a result of a formal petition alleging anti-Semitism in the Newton Public School history curriculum.It was a powerful meeting, and I’ve been reflecting on what I heard from students, teachers and members of our community.
Here are my thoughts:
At the hearing, many students, parents, teachers and other community members overwhelmingly voiced strong support, admiration, and respect for the history teachers in the Newton Public Schools (NPS). They spoke about how the NPS teachers expose students to diverse opinions, help them separate fact from opinion, and discern different points of view. Other speakers raised concerns about bias in our curriculum.
I agree with the concerns that were raised that anti-Semitism, as well as bigotry, hate and intolerance against Jewish, Muslim, immigrant, black and brown, and LGBTQ people has become more pronounced in the past few years. However, I categorically reject the allegation that Newton Public Schools’ curriculum is anti-Semitic or that there is an anti-Semitic bias inherent in our schools.
I support our Newton Public Schools teachers. I am particularly disturbed by the targeting of individual teachers and am deeply concerned about the effect these attacks on individual teachers have on the way class discussions are lead and emails are written.
Moving forward, I will continue to support our educators to combat bias in all its forms. All members of our community – students, faculty, parents – should feel safe, welcome and included in our schools and beyond. As Mayor, I welcome all input and involvement from parents, families and residents. I can be reached at [email protected].
Newton School Committee Curriculum Public Hearing November 27, 2018 from NewTV on Vimeo.
Strong statement. Thank you, Mayor Fuller!
I’ve been surprised that there hasn’t been a lot of discussion about this issue — or last week’s public hearing — on Village 14.
Perhaps that’s because most readers here realized long ago that these seven year old claims of an an anti-Semitic bias in our schools is fake news.
Still, it’s important that our mayor, the superintendent and the school committee have all followed up with strong statements refuting these unsubstantiated efforts to undermine our teachers and our schools.
Here’s the Globe’s story about the mayor’s statement.
The Mayor is awesome!!!
In the one public place (a listserv) where a discussion popped up, it was not productive. Most people I’ve spoken with since the hearing are aware of it, are relieved to have information, and supportive.
The Mayor hit a 10 strike with this. I lost all patience for the opponents when they began to zero in on individual teachers and I finally lost all tolerance when they began to demand these teachers be fired.
But the Mayor is simply and factually incorrect. There WERE and are anti-Israel/anti-Semitic “lessons” in the curricula. None at the hearing responded to specific evidence of it, of which there are barrels-full. Just one example should make fair people take a second look: The Hamas Charter given to kids as a primary doc was doctored — all references to “kill all the world’s Jews” were deleted and replaced with “kill Zionists.” This, as the teacher’s note explicitly explained, was to teach children that there is NO religious component to the Arab/Islamic assault on Israel. Examples like this abound. See http://www.indoctrination@newton for more.
Actually, in what will surely come as a surprise, it is Jacobs who has his facts wrong. Unlike Jacobs, I’ll provide an actual working link to demonstrate that all seniors in the Newton North Middle East, Asia, & Latin America elective (since the inception of the course in 2016-17) have, in fact, A) read the entire text of the Hamas Charter, B) interrogated it as a historical document, and C) studied its historical context. It is highly disturbing, offensive reading but just as sophomores might read excerpts of Mein Kampf as a historical document for understanding history, students in MEALA read the Hamas charter to analyze its impact on history, including this document’s implications for Israelis, Jews, Palestinians, Muslims, Americans, et al.
The version of the text is right here: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp
Here is, from Bedar’s own MEALA curriculum production, made under penalty of law, the doctored Hamas Charter:
https://www.scribd.com/document/395171325/David-Bedar-Doctored-Hamas-Charter-and-lots-of-other-bs-Assignment
Again, this is flatly incorrect. Students were not assigned the entire PDF packet APT has uploaded (completely devoid of context, and only because of APT’s weaponization of public records law). Their homework, several days before reading the Hamas Charter, was to read part of the introductory essay on p.145-165 of the PDF, along with several other sources on the background of the conflict.
I specifically assigned students the text of the Hamas Charter from the Yale site because I didn’t want to use an abridged version, such as the one from the primary source reader you’ve linked to above. In fact, all 70 students in the MEALA course read this document literally the same night as the School Committee meeting at Newton South. That’s right – as you were leveling baseless accusations against a bunch of Jewish teachers and school officials, myself included, our students were at home working hard, engaging in historical inquiry and preparing for a thoughtful class discussion the next day.
Charles, it’s Saturday evening. I have quizzes to grade, and family and friends with whom I’d like to spend time during Chanukah. Rather than continue a back-and-forth with you, I’m going to put my faith in the wonderful people of Newton that they can see for themselves what’s going on here. They know that teachers are happy to discuss with Newton parents at any time what we teach and why. We care deeply about their children and their children’s education; I’m not quite sure what you care about, other than using a holiday as a fundraising ploy:
https://mailchi.mp/peaceandtolerance/happy-chanukah-who-are-todays-maccabees
Let me be very clear: we are not afraid of you. Even when your lackey, Ilya Feoktistov, threatened me on the way out of the hearing with “serious legal jeopardy,” I knew I’d be able to count on the support of this amazing community that refuses to tolerate hate, attacks on free thought, and the politicization of education.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend,
David Bedar
@David Bedar. I wish I could have attended just one of your classes when I was in the Newton school system many, many years ago. I’m pretty certain that any student exposed to your teaching is going to do just fine in life. Hang tight.
Look, when I was collecting signatures (probably for the charter) some members of this group approached me. I was horrified at what they told me. The next day I called the school administration and made them prove to me that what was being said (I can’t remember exact facts) but it was shown to me without a doubt that this is all bunk. Charles, we’ve met, you seem to be a well intended person, but this is off base. You keep pushing for an issue that your wrong and I hate seeing it…actually getting turned off by it. But the issue did serve you well. I believe you got on FOX news and the Globe…great for publicity, but really annoying. Good luck.
David. Thanks for your comment. This is a good time to close this thread.