'Habibi' Ousted

West Bloomfield heeds
concerns about book's depiction
of Jews and Israelis.

Don Cohen

Special to the Jewish News

T

he West Bloomfield School
District will remove the
teen novel Habibi from its
middle school English curriculum in
the face of challenges to the book's
depiction of Jews, Israelis, the Arab-
Israeli conflict
and its appropri-
ateness for the
instructional unit,
"Letting Others
In," for which it
had been used.
"We will not
use that novel
Kendra Hearn
in its current
capacity in the
seventh-grade
curriculum:'
said Assistant
Superintendent
for Instruction
Kendra Hearn,
who was recently
Dr. David Rabens
promoted from
director of cur-
riculum services
for the district.
"We couldn't
make the guar-
antee that, even
with professional
development, the
book
could be
Roberta Seid
taught without
being hurtful" to
the Jewish community, Hearn said,
adding the district prides itself on
"being sensitive to diversity"
The use of Habibi first was
challenged by Dr. David Rabens
of West Bloomfield, whose
son, Nathan, was assigned the
book at Orchard Lake Middle
School. Over several months,
Rabens raised the issue with
teachers, administrators and
board members. In response,
the district reviewed the
book and turned to Allan
Gale, associate director of the
Jewish Community Council of
Metropolitan Detroit, for per-
spective and assistance.

While Gale didn't rule out using
the book if problematic issues were
adequately addressed, he raised con-
cerns that the book "whitewashes
Palestinian rejectionism, terrorism
and Jew-hatred while describing Jews
and Israelis as hateful and, in some
cases, brutal." Hearn says the dis-
trict has asked Gale to assist them in
reviewing "sensitivity towards Jewish
issues in all of our curriculum areas."

Book Analyzed
At the same time, the Michigan office
of the Los Angeles-based pro-Israel
advocacy group StandWithUs had
asked its national office to review the
book, resulting in a detailed analysis
of Habibi by its educational research
consultant, Roberta Seid. She found
five problematic themes: distor-
tions of history; denial or defense of
Palestinian aggression and hostility
toward Jews; demonization of Israeli
soldiers; portrayal of Jews as preju-
diced and Arabs as accepting and
tolerant; and undermining of Jews'
presence in the land, their attachment
to it and the legitimacy of Israel itself.
An e-mail sent by StandWithUs
calls Habibi "a thinly veiled tract
with a political agenda," and its
analysis concluded: "The novel is
full of hostility and prejudice toward
Jews and Israel and will not promote
understanding, knowledge or bridges
for peace."
While not responding directly to
each of the points raised in the vari-
ous critiques, Hearn told the Jewish
News "we thought there was validity
in many of the points." In an e-mail
to Dr. Rabens and
Seid, Hearns wrote
that while the book's
current usage would
end, the possibility
remains for "alterna-
tive uses at other
places or grades in
our school district."
She also assured
them that their
concerns would
remain part of the

'Habibi' on page 16

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