Opinion

Community Views

Public School Support
Keeps Michigan Viable

We Still Accept
The Myth Of Race

T

H

he warning alarm has
sounded, and the Jewish
community must wake up
and take action. Sweeping
changes in Michigan's public
schools have been proposed.
Some of these changes have al-
ready been implemented, and
more are in the works. A brief
look at the past year and a half,
and in particular the past few
months, is enough to demon-
strate that an orchestrated effort
is under way to permanently al-
ter the structure of public edu-
cation in our state, in a way that
poses serious threats to the sep-
aration of church and state.
Let's review some of the
changes that have taken place re-
cently. First, far-reaching edu-
cational "reforms" were enacted
in the closing hours of the leg-
islative session in December
1993. More recently, at the end
of the last session this past De-
cember, legislation was again

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hurriedly enacted to circumvent
a court decision in which some
aspects of "public school acade-
mies," also known as charter
schools, were found to be uncon-
stitutional.
We should be concerned about
the substance of this legislation,
which may open the door to
greater support of private edu-
cational institutions, including
religious ones. We should be
equally concerned about the
process by which all of this legis-
lation came about — late in the
session, without adequate op-
portunity for debate and with vir-
tually no opportunity for public
comment.
This runaway-train approach
to public policy, having already
succeeded more than once, has
been tried again and will contin-
ue to be attempted unless the vot-
ers of the state of Michigan make
their views known_
ASI, the rint meeting of the new
State
of Education, a state-

ment of "Vision, Philosophy and
Mission" was adopted. This piece,
which is not only heavily laced with
religious references, but seems to
downplay the role of public schools
in the education of young people,
was hastily enacted, with scant de-
bate by board members and no op-
portunity for public comment,
contrary to customary board pro-
cedure and the open process ex-
pected of all public schools.
While on its face this mission
statement may appear to be as
controversial as apple pie and
motherhood, it must be seen as
yet another shot across the bow
of church-state separation and
protection of religious minorities.
Further, it is an affront to those
who believe in and respect the de-
mocratic process.
What is our real concern? Do
we fear religion so much that we
look for "Christian bogeymen"
under every bush? The Jewish
community in the United States
has prospered and thrived as it
has in no other country in the his-
tory of the Diaspora. A large part
of our success has been directly
attributable to the strong pro-
tection of religious minorities
made possible by keeping the
state out of the affairs of
religious institutions.
The freedom
which we have
found here has en-
abled us to build
and maintain our
community's
strength and cohe-
siveness. To the ex-
tent that this
church-state sepa-
ration is threat-
ened, our security
as a religious mi-
nority is threat-
ened.
Let there be no
mistake about it:
What we have seen
recently is only the beginning of
a larger agenda by the radical
right. Internal memos of TEACH
Michigan, the organization whose
stated purpose is currently the
promotion of charter schools, re-
veal a larger purpose and an elab-
orate plan to bring about public
support for all charter schools, in-
cluding religious schools.
Legislation has already been
introduced at the behest of the
governor to repeal the school
code, which would further di-
minish public oversight of public
schools. Amending the state con-
stitution to eliminate its prohi-
bition of church-state entangle-
ment has also been seriously sug-
gested, and we should not be
overconfident that it will be de-
feated. The goal of this orches-
trated campaign is clear:
implementation of a voucher sys-
tem and parochiaid, which would
ultimately sound the death knell
for public schools in our state.
Before you ask, "So what's so

bad about that?" — consider the
following. Most of us, our parents
and our grandparents owe our
success in America to a strong
and vital public-school system.
While it is true that some mem-
bers of the Jewish community
have decided, for a variety of rea-
sons, to send their children to pri-
vate schools, we should not
abandon our traditional support
of the public schools.
As was quite correctly pointed
out by Phil Jacobs in his editori-
al of Feb. 3, the public-school sys-
tem has been the cornerstone of
what's good about American so-
ciety.
When public-school systems
deteriorate, the private schools
do not fill the void. In effect, the
public schools will become places
of last resort: for the disadvan-
taged, for minorities, for those the
private schools can and do reject.
Our society can only be dimin-
ished by this, and we should not
fool ourselves into thinking that
we will be unaffected by the col-
lapse of the public-school system
any more than the suburbs
should believe they can continue
to thrive in the absence of viable
core cities. Public schools are im-
portant in and of themselves and
further are a key to the strength
and viability of the neighbor-
hoods they serve.
All those who have, up to this
point, stayed on the sidelines
need to get involved and get in-
volved now. The campaign to tear
down the wall of separation be-
tween church and state is already
under way, and the Jewish com-
munity must actively participate
in this vital debate.
The American Jewish Com-
mittee, American Jewish Con-
gress, Anti-Defamation League,
Jewish Community Council, Na-
tional Council of Jewish Women
and Women's American ORT
have been meeting from time to
time since November 1993, and
we are currently reaching out to
allies in the general community
to build a united front in support
of a strong public-school system,
one that offers the liberty and se-
curity that have been the great-
est source of protection for the
Jewish community. We invite
you to join with us.

Robert Brown
American Jewish Congress

Fran Gross-Linden
Anti-Defamation League

Judith Rosenberg
National Council of Jewish Women

Shirlee Katzman
Na'amat USA

Cynthia Franklin
Women's American ORT

Brian Kott
American Jewish Committee

Kathleen Straus
Jewish Community Council

THE REV. JAMES R. LYONS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

I have always
been fascinated
with myth-mak-
ing. For the past
several years as I
have been teach-
ing about the
Holocaust, I have
written and lec-
tured about, the
fallacy of "race."
The tragedy about the myth
of race is that once it was stud-
ied scientifically, or, perhaps bet-
ter, pseudo-scientifically, it
became a fact that has totally
impacted on world culture and
understanding and is directly
connected with the mass mur-
der of Jews in Nazi Germany.
Let me explain.
In the 1850s, Arthur Comte
de Gobineau published in
French his work titled Essay on

anti-Semitism, developed the
concept that Jews were a sepa-
rate race with racial character-
istics based on their race. The
fact that Jews may or may not
have a religious affiliation was
of no interest to Wilhelm Marr,
who made it clear that anti-
Semitism was not based on re-
ligion but on race.
While there are other things
that may be and could be ex-
panded, let's leap to the Third
Reich. During the Nazi period,
the persecution and destruction
of Jews was racially motivated.
Like Marr, the Nazis had no
concern about whether individ-
uals were Jews religiously or
not. Indeed, Jews who had con-
verted to Christianity or were
born of Christian parents,
though grandparents may have
been Jewish, were classified
Inequality of Human Races. racially in various ways as Jews.
Building on a number of
In her book Women in the Fa-
streams of thought,
Gobineau's work be-
came a torrential
flood of falsehoods.
For Gobineau, there
were three distinct
human races which
were immutable
and which had
characteristics not
dependent on where
they lived or what
their religion hap-
pened to be. These
characteristics sep-
arated them not
only physically but
culturally and intellectually therland, Claudia Koonz draws
from each other.
a parallel between racism and
Naturally, there were various sexism:
types within the three races
"To a degree unique in West-
identified by Gobineau, with the ern history, Nazi doctrine cre-
highest of all being the "white" ated a society structured around
race, and Aryans being the high- `natural' biological poles. In ad-
est, most cultured, most intel- dition to serving specific needs
lectual and finest of all.
of the state, this radical division
Gobineau lives on in our cur- vindicated a more general and
rent society where racism con- thoroughgoing biological
tinues to plague us and where Weltanschauung based on race
pseudo-scientific works like The and sex as the immutable cat-
Bell Curve continue to pursue egories of human nature.
the idea of separate character-
Once you have accepted that
istics and liabilities due to race. the differences between people are
A number of studies being qualitative rather than descrip-
done currently and reported in tive, hierarchial value judgements
papers have indicated that the are made which are based on ide-
concepts of race are invalid. ology rather than actual fact.
There is a recognition that the
To place a value judgment on
differences within "races" are of- differences based on false con-
ten far greater than those be- cepts of race or sex is to contin-
tween races, and that race is not ue the myths that have
a biological or scientific fact brit destroyed the lives of millions of
a social definition. If that's the men, women and children. They
case, why do we continue to live continue in the modern world.
with the myth and why do news-
The time has come to put a
papers which continue to report halt to these false concepts. The
these stories use race as a social time has come to move away
denominator in their articles?
from mere toleration, which at
Following Gobineau, a failed best is putting up with, to mu-
newspaper writer, Wilhelm tual engagement, which high-
Marr, who is called the father of lights acceptance and a
The Rev. James Lyons is director willingness to be involved with
the other.
of the Ecumenical Institute.

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