Editor's Letter
jarc
Our Imperiled Schools
H
igh school textbooks in America drip with inac-
curacy, exaggeration and distortion, always to the
detriment of Jews and Israel.
This was the finding 15 years ago by Mitchell Bard in his
landmark study "Rewriting History in Textbooks:' which
analyzed 18 of the history textbooks widely used in American
high schools.
"This inevitably leads to the conclu-
sion that the authors are prejudiced:'
Bard told the Institute for Global
Jewish Affairs of the Jerusalem Center
for Public Affairs (JCPA) in a 2008
interview titled "Introducing Israel
Studies in U.S. Universities."
Bard is executive director of
the Washington-based nonprofit
American-Israeli Cooperative
Enterprise (AICE) and director of the
Jewish Virtual Library. High schools
are worse than universities when it
comes to anti-Israel teaching, he said. And the gap has wid-
ened since 9-11. Those Arab terrorist attacks prompted the
Muslim world to rev up the telling of its mainstream story.
In a disclosure that should surprise no one, Bard said the
people who are producing the information about that story
for textbook use are largely funded by the Saudis. "They are
presenting a version of Islamic history that is often very selec-
tive, to put it mildly," he said. "We have tried during the last
couple of years to produce texts on the history of Israel and
found it surprisingly difficult to get them into public schools."
If that's not a call to action, I don't know what is. It should
stir the soul of Jewish leaders to unite behind
the cause of upgrading the foundation of our
high schools — the textbooks.
At stake is the future of highly impression-
able teenagers. The timbers of our Jewish
future were shaken violently in November
when at least 10 kids at a Florida middle school
assaulted or encouraged assault of Jewish class-
mates in what was billed "Kick A Jew Day:' In
October 2008, students at a suburban Missouri
middle school attacked Jewish classmates on
what was called "Hit A Jew Day."
into these textbooks."
The authors discovered that the texts are often critical
of Jews and Israel, but less challenging of Islam. The texts
also alter Jewish belief: For instance, one book states Moses
"claimed" to have received the Ten Commandments from God.
Gerstenfeld highlights this key ICJR finding: "Arab and
Muslim interest groups try to whitewash and glorify all things
Islamic and promote Islam."
Let that soak in.
"These organizations attempt, sometimes successfully, to
push the Palestinian narrative Gerstenfeld relates. "Their
discourse promoting a whole array of lies has permeated
American textbooks. Several of them obfuscate or minimize
Palestinian terrorism or even justify it. One book tries astutely
to delegitimize Israel as a Jewish state."
Enriching Lives.
Erasing Barriers.
On behalf of the men, women and
children with disabilities we serve...
That's Not All
And there's more.
One textbook misstates that Jesus lived in "Northern
Palestine." The name Palestine wasn't used until much later.
On the refugee front, one textbook states that Israel put the
"Palestinians" of today in refugee camps; the deed was actu-
ally done by the Arab states occupying parts of the former
Palestinian Mandate and the Arab states to which the refugees
fled. Before the rise of Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation
Organization in 1964, "Palestinians" meant Jews living in pre-
state Israel.
Further, most high school texts do not mention the Jewish
refugees who made aliyah from Arab lands no longer friendly
to Jews. And several texts declare the latest Palestinian intifada
a spontaneous uprising against Israel despite clear evidence the
Palestinians had long planned it.
These examples, wrote Tobin and Ybarra, only
scratch the surface of the historical revisionism
fueled by the anti-Western, anti-American and pro-
Palestinian views engulfing our high school texts.
The Root Cause
Dr. Gerstenfeld cites this major theme from the
book: We need better information about the
Middle East, but many publishers and educators
still disseminate politics and propaganda dis-
guised as scholarship.
No wonder so many of our college students
Analyst Mitc hell Bard
Troubling Account
are so ill-equipped to respond to the well-
Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, who chairs JCPA's Board of Fellows,
orchestrated anti-Zionist/anti-Jewish political machines hum-
cites Bard's time-honored work in his wide-eyed review of
ming in their midst. How damning is this? It's an indictment
the new book, The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History
of America's sorry excuse for a public-school textbook screen-
and Religion, by Dr. Gary Tobin and Dennis R. Ybarra of the
ing process.
Institute for Jewish & Community Research (IJCR).
That concern is exacerbated by the combination of blind
The book by Tobin and Ybarra confirmed Bard's findings
parental trust in the schools and parental indifference to what
and affirmed that nothing has changed when it comes to
their kids are being taught. How do textbook publishers com-
teaching bias against Jews in America.
mand so much power?
Tobin, who died in July, was president of the San Francisco-
In a warning Jewish America would be foolish to ignore,
based IJCR. Ybarra is a research associate there. They
Gerstenfeld concludes: "It will take many years at best to
reviewed 28 high school texts from major publishers. They
change the situation significantly."
focused on four subjects: Jewish history, theology and reli-
gion; the relationship between Judaism and Christianity; the
0 • What can Jewish parents do about
1— •
relationship between Judaism and Islam; and the history,
ti) w public school texts?
geography and politics of the Middle East.
1—
Z z How can the Jewish community
Gerstenfeld, a JCPA editor, concludes in his book review that
the IJCR analysis "provides a long list of mistakes, propaganda 0 0 counter the text bias?
a. 0
themes and slanted information, which have found their way
-
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
This year has been a time to
celebrate JARC's forty years of
helping people with disabilities
to live full and dignified lives in
our community. As you consider
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please remember how much
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enriches the lives of others.
Together we will remain
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December 17 • 2009
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