State Board Approves Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum

The curriculum remains controversial for some

Updated March 19, 2021

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO — The adoption of an Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum on Thursday, March 18, by the State Board of Education drew mixed responses from Jewish advocacy groups.  It was hailed by some and decried by others.

The California Legislative Jewish Caucus’ leaders, Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel (D-Woodland Hills) and Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), commented that the model curriculum ‘is a vast improvement over prior drafts and a win for everyone who fought to remove bigoted and discriminatory content about Jews and Israel.  Importantly, the final curriculum explicitly defines antisemitism and includes lesson plans that teach about the contributions and struggles of the American Jewish community, including Jews of color.  This is important progress.

“Since 2019, the California Legislative Jewish Caucus has actively engaged with the Department of Education, Governor Newsom, our legislative allies, and organizations from across California to ensure that the model curriculum is free from any anti-Jewish bias or discrimination. We are grateful to the tens of thousands of Californians who raised their voices with us, and applaud the broad coalition of Jewish organizations that helped to lead this important effort. On behalf of the Jewish Caucus, we also would like to thank Governor Gavin Newsom, State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, and our former Caucus Chair, Senator Ben Allen, for their leadership and partnership.

“While we are pleased with the changes to the model curriculum, our work is far from complete. In the coming months, the Jewish Caucus will continue to remain actively engaged to ensure that the model curriculum is properly implemented by local school districts and that the teaching of ethnic studies adheres to the highest educational standards.”

The Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco also expressed pleasure with the  results.

“We urgently need ethnic studies, which gives marginalized communities the agency to define and share their own stories, cultures and histories,” said Tyler Gregory, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council, who spoke publicly at the start of the board meeting on Thursday. “As Jewish Americans, we can relate. For too long in our classrooms, Jewish identity has been flattened and distorted to that of a white religious minority, taking little note of our global peoplehood, history, diversity and oppression.”

After the state board made its decision in an up-or-down vote, Gregory said, “The just-approved model curriculum, while not perfect, addresses the major concerns our community identified nearly two years ago: It keeps out denigrating content about Jews, Israelis and Israel; includes lesson plans on the Jewish American experience, as well as references to and definitions of antisemitism; and adds language to protect students from discrimination.

“JCRC will continue to advocate during the model curriculum’s statewide implementation as well as partner with the California Department of Education and school districts to guarantee an accurate, respectful and robust teaching of the Jewish American experience, in all its diversity,” Gregory said.

JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa) said it was hearted by the Board deciding to adopt a lesson plan that
tells of the experiences of Sephardic and Mizrachi Jewish Americans.  “This if the first lesson on Sephardic Jewish Americans ever to be adopted in an American public high school system  We are grateful that high school students across California will have the opportunity to learn about Sephardic and Mizrahi experiences and that meaningful definitions of antisemitism,–including those from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Facing History and Ourselves — are incorporated into the lesson.

The Israel American Council commented, “For the past year and a half our organization, along with thousands of community members, have been devoted to ensuring that the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum is free from antisemitism, anti-Zionism, or any form of discrimination against Israeli and Jewish Americans. While not perfect, the new curriculum is a vast improvement from the initial draft and it addresses many of our community’s concerns. As district school boards across the state now adopt the curriculum, it is critical to ensure that the content is thoroughly vetted and any antisemitic, including anti-Zionist, elements are opposed.”

On the other hand, the AMCHA Initiative expressed great disappointment in the document. Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, the organization’s director, commented: ” While on the surface, the curriculum approved by the state appears improved over the rejected first draft, it remains firmly rooted in the principles of Critical Ethnic Studies, which unlike the broader field of ethnic studies, has a politically- and activist-driven mission that will incite hate and division and is dangerous for all high school students. Most profoundly concerning for the Jewish community is the portrayal of Jews, filtered through the lens of Critical Ethnic Studies, as ‘white’ and ‘privileged’. At a time when anti-Jewish sentiment, hostility and violence has reached truly alarming levels, indoctrinating students to view Jews as ‘white’ and ‘racially privileged’ is tantamount to putting an even larger target on the back of every Jewish student.

“It is reckless of the state to pour millions of taxpayer dollars into a curriculum that is based on no credible research and is steeped in Critical Ethnic Studies. For those of us who closely monitor and combat bigotry, we know firsthand that a Critical Ethnic Studies approach is very dangerous for all students, and we plan to fight tooth and nail against legislative attempts to make this curriculum a high school graduation requirement. What happens next in California, particularly as it relates to a graduation requirement, is crucial since we know other states often follow California.”

Similarly, StandWithUs expressed disappointment that the model curriculum “was approved without the reasonable changes called for by so many people across the state. The State Board of Education (SBE) voted for the final version unanimously, despite massive numbers of comments asking for edits before and during the March, 18th meeting. As local school districts consider the ESMC and other ethnic studies curricula, StandWithUs will fight relentlessly to ensure these courses humanize and do not harm the Jewish community.

“Despite many improvements since the rejected first draft, the ESMC remains problematic,” said Max Samarov, Executive Director of Research and Strategy at StandWithUs. “It should have been revised to fix the new Arab American studies lesson plan, which was submitted last minute with almost no time for public review. JIMENA’s lesson should have been moved to the Asian American section to teach about antisemitism alongside Islamophobia. The Third World Liberation Front, which is the origin story of ethnic studies, should have been covered in a way that acknowledges its flaws along with its positive impact. We will fight relentlessly to prevent these problems from being reproduced and ensure Jews are represented fairly in schools.”

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee also voiced opposition to the model curriculum as approved by the board.  “A broad assault against Arab American knowledge, research, history and lived experience is sweeping the nation. Nowhere is this movement more prevalent than in California, where the state legislators surgically eliminated Arab American Studies without permission, explanation or reason. These actions are of great concern to all of us at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC),” the organization said in a statement issued from Washington, D.C.

“The erasure Arab Americans face extends to the pages of textbooks, where Legislators even removed ‘Arabs’ under a lesson plan on the experiences of minorities post 9-11, while including other minorities impacted by the attacks. Ironically, the state legislator’s gutting of the Arab American portions was done a year after Tony Thurmond, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction accepted the inclusion of Arab Studies. To this day, Thurmond and other legislators’ reasons are unavailable for debate or scrutiny. Removal of Arabs from Ethnic Studies will have a national impact – many states across the country emulate the California curriculum and use their textbooks.”

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More Jewish groups rally around Asian-American community

In Wednesday’s edition (March 17, 2021) we told of two Jewish organizations–the Orthodox Union and the Jewish Democratic Council of America — issuing expressions of solidarity with the Asian-American community after eight people, including six persons of Asian descent, were murdered in a rampage against spas in two Georgia counties.  On Thursday, more Jewish organizations expressed their sympathy and solidarity

Jewish Family Service of San Diego said it “joins in grief and stands in solidarity with Asian and Pacific Islander communities as we process the atrocious murders that took place this week in Georgia. Anti-Asian hate and violence have risen significantly over the past year in our country and has not been limited to this horrific incident. To combat hate we must do more than condemn it with words. We must also call out the systems and biases that fuel it. We must work to change our own actions for good. Together, we can create a community that supports healing and demands transformative justice.”

JFS announced there will be an interfaith prayer vigil at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 23, at 3795 Fairmount Avenue “to honor our rage and anger; to affirm and validate our pain; and to grieve with and belong to one another.”  A printed notice stipulated that “all faiths are welcomed.”

The Butterfly Project, which is memorializing the 1.5 million Jewish children killed in the Holocaust, issued a statement that its “staff and board are heartbroken and outraged by the relentless attacks on Asian American communities in the United States and Asian communities abroad. We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are suffering at the hands of racism, white supremacy and anti-Asian sentiment.

“Our Jewish values teach us to be respectful of ALL people. Taking the lessons and values from those who have suffered the tragic events of the Holocaust as our basis for our educational lessons, we recognize our collective responsibility to stand together when any one of us are targeted and made into the ‘other’ because of our faith, skin color, nationality or gender.

“There is much work to be done. We are grateful to our caring community of supporters: teachers, students, organizational leaders and community members that work towards promoting values that include equity, inclusion and dignity for all.”

The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, located in New York City, said it “condemns the racially motivated murders of eight women on March 16, 2021 and the 3,800 incidents of hate targeting the Asian American Pacific Islander community in the past year. The alarming rise in anti-Asian violence, as well as antisemitism, are symptoms of the record-setting increase of white supremacist extremism that must be met with resistance and education. We stand with our elected leaders, sister organizations, and fellow community members across the country to combat the rising tide of racial discrimination and violence against the Asian American Pacific Islander community.”

In a reaction from the larger community, Constance Carroll, chancellor of the San Diego Community College District, messaged:  “The San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) strongly condemns recent acts of hatred and violence directed at members of the Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. The SDCCD stands in support of the AAPI community and others who have come under attack since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no place in our society for those who would seek to persecute and scapegoat others simply because of their race, skin color, cultural heritage, ethnic origin, religion, LGBTQ affiliation, and/or other reasons.

“The District’s four Institutions, City, Mesa, and Miramar Colleges, the College of Continuing Education, the Board of Trustees, and the entire District support the AAPI community and denounce the hostile attacks in recent months.  We are providing counseling and other support to students who need assistance due to the impact of this current crisis. The District reaffirms its commitment to the safety and well-being of AAPI community members and assures them that they are not alone.”

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Israeli-American Council to advocate at local school level

The Israeli American Council issued the following news release on Thursday, March 18:

The Israeli-American Council (IAC) has launched a new website called School Watch, designed to contribute to a safe school environment and reduce incidents of antisemitism, anti-Zionism, national origin discrimination and hate.

Students, parents, or educators that have experienced antisemitism or encountered antisemitic or anti-Zionist content in schools will be able to file a complaint through this new platform.  The IAC will then bring these complaints to the attention of the school or district levels and ensure they are properly addressed so that similar incidents do not recur.  The complaints can be filed anonymously; however, in cases in which the person filing the complaint would like to remain involved, the IAC will guide them on how to approach the school.

In recent months the Israeli-American and American-Jewish communities experienced several cases of bias, harassment and discrimination against Israeli American students. These issues were solved through community work, and open communication and collaboration with school principals and district superintendents.

The IAC is launching the School Watch platform on the same day that the California Board of Education voted on its new Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. The old version of the curriculum included inaccurate, biased, and antisemitic content regarding Israel and the Jewish people. Following a campaign and petition by the IAC and other Jewish organizations, the curriculum was revised and the antisemitic, anti-Zionist and other problematic content was removed.  One of School Watch’s goals is to monitor attempts to adopt problematic portions of the original curriculum that was rejected by the California Board of Education.

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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com