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Commentary
Editorial
War Lessons For Schoolkids
W
ith the new school year nearly upon
us, Jewish educational leaders are
scrambling to prepare their teach-
ers to discuss this summer's Gaza War. The most
pressing challenge is to design age-appropriate
conversations: At which grade level might class-
room discussions include potentially frightening
topics, such as the wounding of non-combatants,
kidnapping of young Israelis and sirens warning
of incoming rockets? And how should teachers
address the tough issues of civilian casualties
in Gaza and the flagrant hostility toward Jews
and Israel that has erupted in many parts of the
world?
These questions are difficult enough, but are
especially freighted with anxiety because they
hold the potential to revive stereotypes of Israel
that North American Jewish schools have been
trying to counter. When Israel was forced to wage
three major wars during its first quarter century,
its image as an embattled enclave overshadowed
everything else about its existence.
In recent decades, though, Jewish schools have
endeavored to present a more rounded
picture of Israeli life. Without deny-
ing the existential challenges facing
the Jewish state, teachers have drawn
attention to the rich tapestry of Israeli
culture — its diverse inhabitants,
culinary treats and eclectic music, for
example — and, of course, its techno-
logical wizardry.
School trips to Israel have highlight-
ed the country's natural beauty and
its enjoyable recreational scene, even
while exploring the strong connec-
tions between the land and the Jewish
religion. Educators are understandably
loath to resurrect the earlier imagery that simplis-
tically portrayed Israel as a country permanently
on war footing.
Responses to the Gaza war require North
American Jewish schools to address a second
topic that had been pushed to the background in
recent years — anti-Semitism.
Students in all likelihood are not oblivious of
the virulent hostility to Israel and Jews surfac-
ing in the media and on the Web. It's not clear
how prepared schools are to address this issue.
In reaction to the overemphasis on the Holocaust
from the 1960s through the 1980s, the pendu-
lum of American Jewish fashion has swung away
from discourse about anti-Semitism. Now, with
the blatantly negative media coverage of Israel's
prosecution of the war and the resurgence of anti-
Semitism around the globe, the subject warrants
considerably more attention.
The dilemma facing schools in addressing the
new anti-Semitism is how to avoid reviving what
historian Salo Baron once described as "the lach-
rymose [tearful] conception of Jewish history:'
The saga of the Jews is about a great deal more
than persecution. Yet with the barely concealed
animosity toward Jews evident in some quarters
here in America and abroad, alas, the need to
teach young people about the insidious nature of
54
August 28 • 2014
JPi
Don't Recoil Amid
Anti-Israel Rants
I
A class at the Lippman School, a Jewish day
school in Akron, Ohio, August 2013.
anti-Semitism has become pertinent again.
As they formulate a school response to the war,
educators might consider three important lessons
derived from "Hearts and Minds:' a recent report
on Israel education in North American Jewish
schools:
First, one size does not fit all students.
Classrooms this September will contain some
students who are largely ignorant about the Gaza
war and others who have been exposed
to it up close. Students who spent part
of the summer in Israel undoubtedly
will attest to what it was like to run
to bomb shelters or sense the fear
aroused in Israel's populace by Hamas
tunnels. Teachers will face the daunt-
ing task of bridging differences in what
students heard from their parents and
absorbed elsewhere about the war.
Second, when teaching about Israel,
it is imperative to work with students'
minds as well as their hearts. Jewish
schools have focused their attention
especially on the latter, an understand-
able approach with younger children. But by their
middle school and high school years, students
deserve to be exposed not only to the joyous
dimensions of the Jewish state, but also to the
complexities within Israeli society and outside of
it in the tough neighborhood of the Middle East.
And third, teaching about other Jewish com-
munities — their achievements and challenges
— does not detract from a connection to Israel
but strengthens the ties of students to the Jewish
people and also Israel. In some parts of the world,
notably in several European countries, Jewish
communities are under siege. American Jewish
students should not be shielded from these ugly
realities. This is the time to teach students about
the interconnectedness of all Jews, a lesson that
will also strengthen their engagement with Israel
and its people.
The Gaza war presents Jewish schools with
a teachable moment, a time to explore with
their students (in an age-appropriate manner)
the asymmetrical struggle in which Israel is
engaged and the surge in hatred confronting
Jews — including children — in many parts of
the world.
❑
Jack Wertheimer is a professor at the Jewish
Theological Seminary.
nvoking the biblical teaching of "an eye for an eye," a South
Africa union leader posted on Facebook an egregious exam-
ple of the building global forces of anti-Israel hatred. Not
unlike others who twist Scriptures to their liking, Tony Ehrenreich
found justification for seeking "wrath," in the
A
1111
form of revenge attacks, against South Africa's
Jewish communal leaders whenever "a woman
or child is killed in Gaza."
He further accused the Israel Defense
Forces of "attempts to steal the Palestinian
lands," a familiar refrain of Hamas, the Gaza
Strip-ruling terrorist organization whose char-
ter calls for Israel's destruction.
Tony
The South Africa Jewish Board of Deputies
Ehrenreich
should suffer for supporting Israel, Ehrenreich
declared in an Aug. 13 Facebook post. In his
bizarre view, the Jewish Board of Deputies is complicit "in
the murder of the people in Gaza" – and "supporting crimes
against humanity in Gaza:'
His cyber-canard is too threat-laden to ignore. Just last
week, Heidi Budaj, director of the Anti-Defamation League-
Michigan Region, warned Jewish News readers about the dark-
ening clouds of Jew-hatred settling over increasing parts of the
world ("Rising Global Anti-Semitism," Aug. 21, page 51.) It was
earlier this year that Metro Detroit's Woodward Avenue Shul
sent a delegation to South Africa for two weeks to experience
the resurgent African nation and its buoyant Jewish commu-
nity.
Nowadays, anyone who intimates revenge against Jews
should be taken at their word. Too many times, Jews have
hoped for brighter skies only to fall victim thanks to haters dis-
covering the right inspiration to act on their impulses.
Be Wary
Ehrenreich, provincial secretary of the Congress of South
African Trade Unions, railed in favor of retribution against Israel
for the "killings and maimings" that have taken place in Gaza.
He claims he's not anti-Semitic, wasn't speaking on behalf of
his union and isn't calling for violence against Jews. He sug-
gests a protest against the Jewish Board of Deputies, which, he
maintains, has condoned violence against the Palestinians by
its support for the Israeli military. He conveniently has ignored
that Hamas precipitated the war via relentless missile attacks
on Israel.
Ehrenreich is only a branch leader within the union, but it is
South Africa's largest trade union organization. That gives him
a ready platform to roust Israel hatred.
Gathering Winds
The week before his Facebook rant, Ehrenreich warned the
Jewish Board of Deputies to halt its "Zionist propaganda"
in Cape Town or be dealt a campaign of strikes and boycotts
against its members as well as supporting companies and
organizations. It's unlikely he commands the cache to pull that
threat off. He serves on the Cape Town City Council, but was
soundly defeated in Cape Town's 2011 mayoral race, relegating
his influence.
Still, his tirades, hollow or not, wisely stirred the Jewish
Board of Deputies. The board accused him of hate speech and
incitement to violence against the leadership of South Africa's
organized Jewish community.
Timing matters. And Ehrenreich's vitriol comes amid global
volatility over the Israel-Hamas war. He deliberately sought to
inflame already tense times.
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