Standing-up for History, Jewish Unity, and the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism

Beyond the Curriculum

Beyond the Curriculum

The ASF’s Board of Directors submitted testimony to California’s Governor and State Board of Education after scholars, students, and other constituents raised concerns about the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC). Due to the ASF’s outreach and advocacy, we ensured that the 3rd draft’s divisive and destructive ideology did not receive a hechser from the American Jewish community. In the end, not even the problematic Jewish lesson plans (one of which contained a fragment of the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism) were included in a mandatory section of the ESMC’s final draft. Even if they had been, the IHRA Definition is incomplete without its critical Examples. For comparison, as our colleagues at the American Jewish Committee pointed out in their testimony, an ESMC mandatory section requires students to say “Affirmations, Chants, and Energizers” to pagan deities, some of whom were historically worshiped with “human sacrifices.”

Updates:

The ESMC’s approval, the nationwide push to adopt similar curricula, and the inability of many organizations allegedly opposed to articulate a principled and positive alternative has compelled the ASF to continue to engage on this issue.  Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about our approach.

“Speaking out on Critical Ethnic Studies as a Sephardic Jew”

By Isaac de Castro, The Times of Israel

Isaac de Castro is a young “Sephardi and Ashkenazi Panamanian Jew” who moved to the United States full of optimism about his future as a Jew in America. Recently, however, that faith has been challenged by a strange new variant of anti-Semitism that shows up on college campuses, “in progressive spaces disguised as social justice.” Most recently, it deeply informed, “California’s Critical Ethnic Studies Curriculum Model.” De Castro is leading grass-roots resistance to that “Model,” in coordination with the ASF Young Leaders and the ASF: “Last month, I sent a letter to ASF’s board of directors, asking them to take a stand. I am proud that they did, as they have been one of the only Jewish institutions with the integrity and courage to do so.”
Isaac de Castro holding a picture of his paternal grandparents, Woodrow and Luna de Castro, Z”L
(Photo courtesy of the Isaac/Instagram)  
See also February’s Sephardi Ideas Monthly: “The New Jewish Activism: Isaac de Castro“

Feature: The ASF Young Leaders’ “Beyond the Curriculum: A Jewish Communal Discussion”

Lauren Gibli, President of the ASF’s Young Leaders, leads a fascinating and informative discussion with two young, dynamic activists and co-founders of the New Zionist Congress, Isaac de Castro and Blake Flayton, about California’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. Bottom line: it’s a bad idea built upon critical-race theory (CRT) and the valorization of victimization that threatens to undermine the accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement and to confuse an entire generation.  

[Publisher’s Note: On the verge of Thursday’s [18 March 2021] ESMC vote, and unfortunately after our deadline for inclusion in the Sephardi World Weekly, Professors Ari Y. Kelman, Devin E. Naar, and Jessica Marglin released a public letter echoing some of the earlier concerns of the ASF’s Board of Directors (see here and here) on the Curriculum’s problematic portrayal of Jews. They specifically noted how the “Antisemitism and Jewish Middle Eastern Americans” Sample Lesson Plan is riddled with historical inaccuracies, how it offers “only the barest insight into the richness and diversity of Jewish life,” and how its “critical” approach centering anti-Semitism is the equivalent of “presenting a Black History Month curriculum around anti-blackness, or a Womens’ History Month lesson around misogyny.”  We offer this link for your consideration while noting the ASF’s reservation about their critique of the widely-adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism, the Jewish people’s shared rootedness in the Middle East, and the centrality of the land of Israel throughout Jewish history and in contemporary Jewish life.] 

The ASF Board of Directors public response to interference:

Salient points to consider when evaluating Jewish lesson plans:

A poetic reminder about what constitutes adoption of The IHRA:

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