Sela Public Charter School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Exactly. Modern Hebrew, a partially made-up language spoken by what, 7 million people in just one country, and most of them probably speak English too? It is a really weird choice for a language immersion school. I would prefer Yiddish immersion!

Please take your lithium.

[Anonymous]

Have we discussed the fact that sela is commected to the pro-Israel lobby? I am not really worked up by Israel/Palestine but I am kind of shocked that dc would have approved a politically oriented charter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have we discussed the fact that sela is commected to the pro-Israel lobby? I am not really worked up by Israel/Palestine but I am kind of shocked that dc would have approved a politically oriented charter.

This is the first I've heard of such a connection. What's your source?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have we discussed the fact that sela is commected to the pro-Israel lobby? I am not really worked up by Israel/Palestine but I am kind of shocked that dc would have approved a politically oriented charter.

NO SUCH CONNECTION EXISTS, GO BACK TO YOUR HOLE, KKK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have we discussed the fact that sela is commected to the pro-Israel lobby? I am not really worked up by Israel/Palestine but I am kind of shocked that dc would have approved a politically oriented charter.

This is the first I've heard of such a connection. What's your source?

Just google around a bit. My understanding is that Sela is sponsored and got seed money by something called the Hebrew Charter School Center. The chair of the Center has been quoted as saying that students will be "a vanguard for understanding Israel." The curriculum is supposed to create an "affinity for Israel" and "foster a love of Israel." Israeli flags are in the classroom. Arguably none of this would be totally objectionable, except for the fact that at other similar Hebrew charters the Arab minority is ignored in the curriculum. Another Hebrew charter was actually started by an AIPAC member.

Now Sela says that it will not be similarly pro-Israel but it is supported by the same group that supports the other schools.

http://m.forward.com/articles/155713/hebrew-charter-schools-focus-on-israel/?p=all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have we discussed the fact that sela is commected to the pro-Israel lobby? I am not really worked up by Israel/Palestine but I am kind of shocked that dc would have approved a politically oriented charter.

NO SUCH CONNECTION EXISTS, GO BACK TO YOUR HOLE, KKK.

I am the pp - just want to point out that I am no anti-Semite. My kid is Jewish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have we discussed the fact that sela is commected to the pro-Israel lobby? I am not really worked up by Israel/Palestine but I am kind of shocked that dc would have approved a politically oriented charter.

This is the first I've heard of such a connection. What's your source?

Just google around a bit. My understanding is that Sela is sponsored and got seed money by something called the Hebrew Charter School Center. The chair of the Center has been quoted as saying that students will be "a vanguard for understanding Israel." The curriculum is supposed to create an "affinity for Israel" and "foster a love of Israel." Israeli flags are in the classroom. Arguably none of this would be totally objectionable, except for the fact that at other similar Hebrew charters the Arab minority is ignored in the curriculum. Another Hebrew charter was actually started by an AIPAC member.

Now Sela says that it will not be similarly pro-Israel but it is supported by the same group that supports the other schools.

http://m.forward.com/articles/155713/hebrew-charter-schools-focus-on-israel/?p=all

I think you need to do some more research than "the google." 1) Sela is grassroots school in DC - it's not run/sponsored by the Hebrew Charter School Center; 2) there is no support for the statement that the Arab minority is ignored in Sela's curriculum; 3) there is no evidence that the Arab minority is ignored in schools that are part of the Hebrew Charter School Center - as someone in a mixed Muslim-Jewish family with family in a Brooklyn Hebrew charter I can tell you that the schools in New York have large numbers of Muslim students; 3) the fact that a school not affiliated with Sela (or, with the Hebrew Charter School Center) was founded by a former member of congress who is a member of AIPAC - tells you nothing about Sela; 4) I hope for the sake of your daughter you are not an anti-Semite, but Israel is an actual country and there is noting wrong with learning about it as a country where Hebrew is spoken.

[Anonymous]

Surprised China politics have never come up in all of the Yu Ying arguments around here.

Do the Chinese language/cultura connections get passed up because China is just so big/relevant/powerful or is there a particular thing against a Hebrew school because Israel is a small but controversial place?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have we discussed the fact that sela is commected to the pro-Israel lobby? I am not really worked up by Israel/Palestine but I am kind of shocked that dc would have approved a politically oriented charter.

This is the first I've heard of such a connection. What's your source?

Just google around a bit. My understanding is that Sela is sponsored and got seed money by something called the Hebrew Charter School Center. The chair of the Center has been quoted as saying that students will be "a vanguard for understanding Israel." The curriculum is supposed to create an "affinity for Israel" and "foster a love of Israel." Israeli flags are in the classroom. Arguably none of this would be totally objectionable, except for the fact that at other similar Hebrew charters the Arab minority is ignored in the curriculum. Another Hebrew charter was actually started by an AIPAC member.

Now Sela says that it will not be similarly pro-Israel but it is supported by the same group that supports the other schools.

http://m.forward.com/articles/155713/hebrew-charter-schools-focus-on-israel/?p=all

I think you need to do some more research than "the google." 1) Sela is grassroots school in DC - it's not run/sponsored by the Hebrew Charter School Center; 2) there is no support for the statement that the Arab minority is ignored in Sela's curriculum; 3) there is no evidence that the Arab minority is ignored in schools that are part of the Hebrew Charter School Center - as someone in a mixed Muslim-Jewish family with family in a Brooklyn Hebrew charter I can tell you that the schools in New York have large numbers of Muslim students; 3) the fact that a school not affiliated with Sela (or, with the Hebrew Charter School Center) was founded by a former member of congress who is a member of AIPAC - tells you nothing about Sela; 4) I hope for the sake of your daughter you are not an anti-Semite, but Israel is an actual country and there is noting wrong with learning about it as a country where Hebrew is spoken.

But the article I linked states that Sela got seed money and training from Hebrew Charter School Center, which expressly states that the goal is to create a "vanguard of understanding for Israel." I would think that any charter with such an express nationalistic bent would be viewed askance (yes, including Yu Ying if it claimed to be creating a vanguard for China in the US!>

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Surprised China politics have never come up in all of the Yu Ying arguments around here.

Do the Chinese language/cultura connections get passed up because China is just so big/relevant/powerful or is there a particular thing against a Hebrew school because Israel is a small but controversial place?

I don't know a lot about yu ying, but if it were funded by nationalistic China backers I would expect that to receive some attention! There's a difference between culture and nationalism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Surprised China politics have never come up in all of the Yu Ying arguments around here.

Do the Chinese language/cultura connections get passed up because China is just so big/relevant/powerful or is there a particular thing against a Hebrew school because Israel is a small but controversial place?

Well, they speak Mandarin in Taiwan, too.

[Anonymous]

French culture good, French language good.
Latin American culture good, Spanish good.
Chinese culture good, Mandarin good.
Made up Israeli culture, their gutter people, and their gutter language, bad.

It's pretty clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:French culture good, French language good.
Latin American culture good, Spanish good.
Chinese culture good, Mandarin good.
Made up Israeli culture, their gutter people, and their gutter language, bad.

It's pretty clear.

It is so hard to have a rational conversation about this but I will try.

Point 1: It seems better to focus scarce educational resources on more useful languages - modern Hebrew seems much less useful than any number of alternatives. So few people speak it, and most Hebrew speakers speak another language anyway. I would think it was equally weird to have a Swedish immersion school in dc.

Point 2: Sela seems to have an explicit nationalist connection to Israel based on its connection to the Hebrew Charter School Center. This seems inappropriate for a public charter no matter what the country.

[Anonymous]

It's OK, my best friends are black, and my daughter's got a little bit of Jew in her.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if the source forward.com is legit or not. I'd need to see something else. But if that article is even partially accurate (the part where the CEO of some major Jewish advocacy org says that Sela was created to respond to a lack of Jewish education), I am appalled and disgusted that Sela is happening at all. To spend my tax dollars on an incubator for the next generation of Zionists? Absolutely outrageous.