Wednesday, March 29, 2023

California Jewish Community Continues To Win the Ethnic Studies Controversy

A few years ago, I was heavily quoted in a great Haaretz article titled "How California's Jewish Community Won the Battle Over the State's Ethnic Studies Program". While I had at that point left California, I had previously been heavily involved in the Jewish community efforts to ensure that the ethnic studies curriculum not only did not discriminate against Jews, but also told the full, robust Jewish story as part of the California educational experience. Despite the efforts by some to fear-monger Those efforts were broadly successful, making the California Ethnic Studies battle one of the Jewish community's great victories.

The implementation of the ethnic studies mandate has not been without friction, not the least because some districts are not adopting the model curriculum the Jewish community worked so hard to develop. I haven't been following the ins and outs as closely now that I've left the state, but I still do hear some things. And to the end, I want to share an email I recently received from the San Francisco Bay Area JCRC, addressing "rumors" regarding ethnic studies in the Mountain View Los Altos High School District (MVLA).

The rumors circulating about the ethnic studies program at Mountain View Los Altos High School District (MVLA) have become a cause of concern in the Jewish community. We are in regular communication with district leadership and have made a formal request to review classroom teaching materials. Based on publicly available information, we have so far seen no evidence of antisemitic or anti-Israel content.

The controversy over this curriculum is causing great division in the district, and we have received numerous emails and calls of concern. Unfortunately, the tone of the conversation is hurting families and educators and we are calling on concerned community members to stop reaching out to the district directly and to allow JCRC to continue our work with district leadership. We reject public attacks on the district as counterproductive to our community’s aims at this time.

The email goes on to clarify that, apparently contrary to certain rumors, the ethnic studies curriculum in MVLA does include discussions of antisemitism and Jewish experience and is not currently tied to the so-called "liberated ethnic studies" curriculum. At this point, the email suggests:

Objections to MVLA’s curriculum appear to be ideologically-based, with some questioning the inclusion of concepts such as systems of power and oppression, concepts that are included in the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. While segments of our community may object to teaching these concepts, these concerns are not related to Jewish identity, antisemitism, or Israel, and should not be conflated with anti-Jewish bias.

Why do I flag this email? Because I think it helpfully highlights several trends and activities worth underscoring.

First, it is illustrative of how the institutional California Jewish community has been consistently excellent on this issue -- vigorously advocating for Jewish communal rights, while refusing to give into or endorse fear-mongering or conspiratorial nonsense. They deserve tremendous applause for this -- you and I know full well that is not something that can be taken for granted.

Second, it is laudatory that the statement correctly distinguishes between mere ideological opposition to teaching about things like "systems of power and oppression", and having leveled a colorable claim of antisemitism. Political disagreement with certain frameworks used in ethnic studies is not tantamount to identifying actual antisemitic content. This is not to say that such concepts cannot be deployed in antisemitic ways. But frequently right-wing Jewish critics of ethnic studies skip past that step and simply assert that the existence of these concepts is inherently antisemitic without any need to show actual, particularized antisemitic content (for my part, I have no idea how one could possibly understand antisemitism without conceptualizing it as a "system of oppression"). 

Third, it highlights how counterproductive ill-informed rabble-rousing around these issues are. It is almost certain that the success of the Bay Area JCRC and affiliated groups in creating a healthy ethnic studies framework for the Jewish community is in no small part attributable to the direct relationships and consultations its had with MVLA officials. Those relationships and consultations are strained when a bunch of yahoos bombard the school board with whatever the latest misleading Tablet Magazine screed is. Even in cases of genuine antisemitism, this approach often is wildly counterproductive and harms those it purports to "protect". 

Much like the folks who decided the best way to support Berkeley Jewish students was to drive a Hitler billboard truck onto campus, these interventions are not ultimately about trying to improve the climate for Jews. They're accelerationism -- trying to increase the temperature in a bid to hasten the crisis point where things boil over. Just as the last thing that the Berkeley Hitler truck purveyors want is a world in which Jews feel comfortable at Berkeley (if Jews are comfortable at Berkeley, then a heaping pile of right-wing narratives attacking higher education go kaput), the last thing the rabble rousers want in Mountain View is for ethnic studies to be able to comfortably incorporate Jewish perspectives (if it does, the whole narrative that ethnic studies is and must ever be antisemitic falls away).

It is, to reiterate, fantastic that California's Jewish community has not, by and large, fallen into these traps. Good behavior deserves plaudits, and I applaud the Bay Area JCRC for the tremendous, superb work they've done on the ethnic studies issue for years now.

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