Metro

'Habibi from page 15

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record and that any proposed
use would "be reviewed carefully
by Administration, our district's
Curriculum Council and the Board
of Education before implemented."
The book will remain in various
school libraries in the district:
"I think that's good news," Dr.
Rabens said when informed of the
district's decision to remove the
book from the seventh-grade cur-
riculum."I appreciate the school
administration's looking into this
issue and coming to the right con-
clusion. But I'm still baffled how
this happened in my neighbor-
hood school."
Citing concerns about how
Habibi was first selected as well
as concerns about Nathan's geog-
raphy textbook, he's pleased the
district will be reviewing materials
for bias, accuracy, appropriateness
and sensitivity.
Gale, who welcomes the district's
invitation to assist in reviewing
issues and areas of Jewish concern,
also praised the district.
"I'm supportive of the action
because the book is problematic
and troublesome for the Jewish
community and a difficult text
to fit into the curriculum they
were using it for:' Gale said. He
noted the support he has received
from the Institute for Curriculum
Services: National Resource Center
for Accurate Jewish Content in
Schools of the Jewish Community
Relations Council in San Francisco.
At Gale's request, the Institute pre-
pared an analysis of Habibi and
provided useful analyses of other
textbooks and resources.
Meanwhile, Seid of StandWithUs
hopes the district didn't make
the right decision for the wrong
reason. She wrote to the district:
"While Habibi may offend the
Jewish community, particularly its
negative portrayal of Judaism, my
objections were primarily based on
issues that do or should concern
the wider non-Jewish community
as well, especially educators."
"I'm pleased that they made
this decision, because it's the right
one to maintain educational stan-
dards," Seid says. ``But I hope they
didn't do it because they didn't
want to offend the Jewish COM-
MUllity.
not a Jewish issue or
a question of being pro-Israel or
anti-Israelit's an issue of diluting
education for propaganda pur-
poses."

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July 13 • 2006