Faculty petition against speaker on anti semitism

[Anonymous]

To answer your question directly OP - I’d be very concerned. I’m fairly apolitical, but you mentioned the new principal and MY kids are at a school with a new principal and my first thought was “oh crap, that better not move their school”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school recently had speakers come in to talk to the kids about Islamophobia and anti semitism. It has come to some of the parents attn at our school that a number of the faculty created a petition to protest the anti semitism speaker. We have no real context and information about it, but as a jewish parent it makes me SUPER uncomfortable and especially bc the school has not addressed it and we are all in the dark as to what the issue was and why. The speaker has no pro israel agenda, and very similar talking points to the islamophobia speaker.
Do I just let this go? wwyd?

I would have someone contact the new media or post something on Twitter. This should be brought to light.

Oh ok so no context, no corroborating information, no confirmation at all of any of this, no rational analysis, but sure by all means go to the news media and destroy reputations on even more public forums. Even McCarthy manufactured some sort of evidence before he engaged in such tactics. Angry idiocy.

[Anonymous]

NP. I think you are full of it and stirring the pot. I simply don’t believe teachers at one of the $60k schools would do this.

[Anonymous]

Op, is this where you want to pay money to have child be educated (more likely indoctrinated). I mean seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. I think you are full of it and stirring the pot. I simply don’t believe teachers at one of the $60k schools would do this.

op - i'm not and this is also my feeling!
we are in nyc, not sure if relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is nothing to petition about teaching antisemitism. When was the last time you ever heard ANY faculty protesting any speaker at a private school in the DMV? I find this deeply disturbing and also find the posters above disturbing as well. It is the case positive of why there needs to be a speaker at all.

Trigger warning: maybe they aren’t as concerned about Judaism itself as they are possible defense of or sympathy for a government that has killed 30k and wounded twice that number in the course of four months. It’ll make your head explode I’m sure but many people believe (many more now than before the start of the war) that Israel shouldn’t have the right to exist in its current incarnation if it continues to behave in this manner. Maybe said teachers have relatives in Gaza who are being bombed relentlessly. Or maybe they are just sentient beings who can see that Israel’s response to the horrors of 10/7 is unconscionable. Or maybe there was no petition at all and this is designed to stoke rage and resentment. To not see how Israel’s actions are breeding the precise anti-Semitism you denounce is the ultimate cognitive dissonance. May ALL their memories be blessings.

1) Your response doesn't belong on this thread. Go over to the Gaza thread
2) 30K people includes 12K Hamas and counting. In addition, the numbers themselves are supplied by Hamas.
3) Israel is a sovereign nation like any other. If the world were judging countries rights to exist based on their behaviors/wars/human rights violations/laws and treatment of citizens and hostile neighbors, except for Scandinavia, you'd have a planet virtually without countries.
4) The chances of "said teachers having relatives in Gaza" is virtually nil. If one of them does then I'd be surprised. multiple would be really surprising. You are stretching to be difficult
5) Israel's response to 10/7 doesn't have to come up in the discussion of antisemitism. The fact that you can't separate the two shows how much this talk is needed
6) "maybe there is no petition at all" shows that you are in conspiracy land.
7) if you feel comfortable saying that when black people talk about racism and white people become uncomfortable and then blame black people for that discomfort then go ahead and own your last statement that Israel is breeding the antisemitism that is being denounced as cognitive dissonance.

8) And lastly, if you are Jewish then using that last statement in this context is a shanda. And if you are not Jewish then you are appropriating something that does not belong to you.

[Anonymous]

What school is this?

And speak up! Do not wait for this wave of antisemitism to pass, bc it won’t.

[Anonymous]

op - to be clear:

- I am NOT going to name the school and i am NOT going to name the speaker for obvious reasons. I have not seen the petition myself and it's an unfolding situation.

- This post was not meant as engagement bait and to be CRYSTAL CLEAR (and saying it louder for those in the back) being jewish does NOT mean you support israel's actions, and being against anti semitism does NOT mean you support israel.

- again i have not seen this petition but it concerns me that i may be paying people to teach my kids who cannot grasp these simple facts.

[Anonymous]

This whole h to read is exactly why there needs to be a speaker brought in. And these people are grown ups! Please let the schools teach the kids not to hate one another.

[Anonymous]

Op if that happened at my school I would keep the pressure on to understand what happened. I would start by applauding them for having gotten the speakers to begin with. I would urge them to proceed with the talk. I would want to know what the teachers objected to. I would want that to be made public meaning at the school but that likely never would be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:op - to answer some qs. I dont want to name the speaker here bc that would be identifying. I have looked into her profile - she is quite a progressive speaker on these issues. She DOES work for an org that believes Israel should exist, and has been to israel herself and written about being there during conflict so she does have some geo political background in this arena but has also spoken out publicly that having concern and sympathy for the palestinian people is absolutely not at odds with anti semitism. I'm sure there were pieces in there that some people perhaps didn't love (but hard to find a speaker on anti semitism whose job it is to do that but who does not believe in israel).

I know bc it has been widely discussed among parents and the principal has spoken about it 1:1 with some people but not addressed it on a larger level.

I obv dont have all the details which is why it's a complex and unsettling situation. I would like more details. I dont think names are necessary.

Why is it so complex and unsettling? People have the right to petition in a functioning democracy. And you don’t even know what, or even if they’re petitioning at this point. It seems premature to come on to this forum and cast suspicion or accusation on teachers who may have valid conscientious rationale for their beliefs, which it sounds like they may be addressing through appropriate channels.

i'm not naming names.
I'm saying I know it exists and it has not been shown to me and thus I am uncomfortable. they may well have rational reasons but having not seen it, am I just to accept that multiple of my child's teachers had an issue with a speaker on anti semitism but no issue with a speaker on islamophobia. of course they have the right to protest, no one is saying they don't. But I'm not sure I love paying $60k a year per kid for teachers who may not believe that prejudice against my child is something we should be teaching is wrong.

I’m quite confident they believe that prejudice against Jewish children, or any children, is wrong. Try to take a deep breath here. There are a lot of possible realities. Without knowing what their possible objections are, you seem to be jumping to conclusions.

You are clearly not paying attention to the degree to which casual and not so casual antisemitism has become acceptable.

OP - name the school and teacher. They don't deserve anonymity.

Never again.