Anti-anti-racism law in Israhell-loving Texas means teaching holohoax truth

[yankeedoodle]

So, apparently, the law says that you must teach both sides of a controversial subject, and, somehow, the jews are afraid the holohoax might be considered controversial - NO!  CERTAINLY NOT!! - and, of course, this law will be rewritten in a matter of days, and will probably stipulate that any teacher that teaches an opposing view of the holohoax will be fired, with no possibility of appeal. 

Texas official to teachers: State law requires teaching 'opposing' views on the Holocaust
https://www.jta.org/2021/10/14/united-states/texas-official-to-teachers-state-law-requires-teaching-opposing-views-on-the-holocaust

(JTA) — Teachers in a Texas school district were told last week that a new state law requiring them to present multiple perspectives about "widely debated and currently controversial" issues meant they needed to make "opposing" views on the Holocaust available to students.

NBC News obtained an audio recording of the official, the Carroll Independent School District's executive director of curriculum and instruction, speaking to the teachers about how to work under the constraints of the new law, known as House Bill 3979. The law was passed amid a wave of efforts in Republican-led statehouses to prevent "critical race theory," "divisive" topics and concepts related to race and bias from being taught to children.

"Just try to remember the concepts of 3979," Peddy said in the recording. "Make sure that if, if you have a book on the Holocaust that you have one that has an opposing — that has other perspectives."

Gasps and sounds of nervous laughter can be heard on the recording, as one teacher asks aloud, "How do you oppose the Holocaust?"

Peddy responds: "Believe me. That's come up."

A Texas lawmaker who drafted a new version of the bill told NBC News that matters of "good and evil" are not subject to the education legislation.

But the possibility that the wave of conservative education legislation could get in the way of Holocaust education crossed the minds of education observers in at least some places over the last year.

"Under this law, it would be impossible to teach that Nazi Germany was inherently anti-Semitic, or that the Third Reich oppressed Jews simply because they were Jews, because that would identify Nazis as inherently biased and Jews as inherently and systemically oppressed," Russel Neiss, a Jewish educator in St Louis, wrote in the St. Louis Jewish Light in May about legislation that had been proposed in Missouri. Lawmakers there are continuing to push for anti-critical race theory rules for schools.

The episode comes a year after a Florida school district fired a principal — twice — who told a parent that he could not say the Holocaust was "an actual, factual event" because not all parents shared the same belief. Florida's school board has since enacted a ban on Holocaust denial in schools — as part of a ban on teaching critical race theory.

In Texas, the recording suggests that Peddy does not necessarily support the new law but does anticipate conflicts over its enforcement. Four days before the training, the Carroll school board had overturned a district ruling and formally reprimanded a teacher who drew a parent complaint for keeping an anti-racism book in her classroom.

At one point in the recording, a teacher says she is "terrified." At another point, an educator asks whether "Number the Stars," the classic Holocaust novel, would require another book to balance out. Peddy does not address that question on the recording.

"You are professionals. We hired you as professionals. We trust you with our children," Peddy tells the teachers prior to offering the Holocaust book example. "So if you think the book is OK, then let's go with it. And whatever happens, we will fight it together."

[yankeedoodle]

Jewish skeptics of critical race theory say Texas Holocaust education incident does not deter them
https://www.jta.org/2021/10/15/united-states/jewish-skeptics-of-critical-race-theory-say-texas-holocaust-education-incident-does-not-deter-them

(JTA) — When a school administrator in Texas was caught on tape saying that a new law forces teachers to offer an "opposing" view on the Holocaust, the raft of state laws aiming to prohibit the teaching of critical race theory took on a new light.

For Jews who support education about systemic racism, and oppose laws restricting such education, the Texas incident proves their point. Just like there is no historical debate about the historicity of the Holocaust, "there are also no 'both sides' to American chattel slavery, to systemic racism, to lynchings and land theft and Indigenous genocide," tweeted Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, a prominent liberal Jewish voice.

"Remember, people, that the suggestion to teach both sides of the Holocaust has come up because there is a law in Texas that is there to censor teaching on antiracism," wrote Ruttenberg, the scholar in residence at the National Council of Jewish Women. "This is about white supremacy, yes, and/but at its root it's about antiblackness."

But some of the loudest American Jewish voices opposing critical race theory — or the associated idea of "wokeness" — say the incident in Texas has not led them to reconsider their stance. They say the Texas administrator's message represents a distortion of the values they want to see in schools.

"The Holocaust, like the history of slavery in the US, is not an idea or an opinion," David Bernstein, the founder of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values and an opponent of education focused on critical race theory, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "It's a historical fact. One can support the free expression of ideas and still recognize that there are people pedaling hateful and stupid claims that must be debunked."

Critical race theory is a concept in legal studies that says racism is baked into the laws and institutions of American society. Lately, conservative activists have seized on the idea that public school students are being taught history through a lens of critical race theory. Some states, like Texas, have passed laws that ban teaching the concepts underlying the theory.

Texas' law states that when teachers teach "widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs," they need to do so "from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective." Recently, the board of the Texas school district where the administrator works reprimanded a fourth-grade teacher for including a book about anti-racism in her classroom library, according to NBC News, which first reported the Holocaust comments.

Texas' law is aimed at countering the idea that "an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex." But the administrator in the tape suggested that its focus on balance applies to teaching historical events like the Holocaust.

Bernstein's relatively new organization, the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, published a letter this year articulating a Jewish opposition to efforts to teach critical race theory in schools. "The way to fight racism isn't to cease discussion and debate. To do so is antithetical to American ideals and antithetical to Judaism," the letter says. "The way to fight racism is to insist on our common humanity––and to engage in dialogue, including with those who dissent."

Some signatories of the letter said they oppose the Texas legislation, and distinguish between teaching historical events and teaching any one interpretation of the effects of those events.

"The dispute about the interpretation of events is completely legitimate, but the dispute about the existence of events is either dangerous or stupid or both," said Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. "You can, for example, argue endlessly about the effects and causes of slavery but to argue that slavery didn't happen is idiotic, or pernicious, and the same thing is true with the Holocaust."

Bernstein said he isn't opposed to teaching about systemic racism amid a wider discussion of race in America — but he is opposed to teachers exclusively saying that systemic racism is to blame for current racial disparities. He doesn't think that stance inevitably leads to statewide bans like the one in Texas.

"Just because there are people trying to ban any discussion of CRT, which as I said I strongly disagree with, doesn't mean that anyone who raises concerns about the ideological indoctrination of kids agrees with it," he said. "Just because there are edge cases and gray areas doesn't mean we should shut down the free expression of ideas."

Russel Neiss, a Jewish educator who cautioned in an op-ed this year in the St. Louis Jewish newspaper that anti-critical race theory laws could have blowback on Holocaust education, said that people distinguishing between teaching historical events and their causes and effects don't understand how Holocaust education generally occurs.

"The way that Holocaust education is taught in America is, it talks about systems of oppression, it talks about dehumanization," Neiss told JTA. "I don't even know what it means to just teach facts. Facts don't mean anything unless they're contextualized in historical context, unless they're contextualized in a way of understanding that particular era. "

He added, "When you begin to ban all these approaches to understanding history, you are banning the way we teach Holocaust education in America today."

Neiss worries that Jews who advocate against critical race theory could end up aiding a movement that will undermine Holocaust education.

"We have folks with a particular political agenda who are using scare tactics to try to advance their political agenda, and it will come back to bite them in the ass as it has here," he said.

Holocaust educators are also speaking out about what the Texas incident could portend. The Holocaust and Humanity Center in Cincinnati said in a statement that it was "deeply concerned" about reports of the administrator's remarks.

"With hate crimes in the United States soaring to record highs, it is imperative that teachers are encouraged to devote instructional time to teaching the Holocaust, a seminal event in human history, freely," the statement said, adding that teachers may feel inhibited from "providing necessary historical context and discussing the practices and ideologies that contributed to the Holocaust, such as stereotyping and antisemitism."

Bethany Mandel, another signatory of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values letter, says she doubts Holocaust education in Texas will be hindered. She said she felt that the administrator in the recording sounded like she opposed the restrictions — the administrator tells the teachers, "I think you are terrified, and I wish I could take that away" — and that the teachers appeared to find her remark on the Holocaust ridiculous.

Mandel, who homeschools her own children, said she opposes the Texas law because she believes states should strive not to dictate what teachers teach. She feels that the Texas law mirrors the recently passed California legislation, favored by liberals, requiring that schools teach ethnic studies. The fight over ethnic studies has divided Jews in the state and has animated opponents of critical race theory, who argue that the state's sample curriculum exemplifies what they're fighting against.

"I don't think that government should come in from on high and have these diktats in the classroom, both with ethnic studies and with the Texas law," Mandel said. "It really hampers teachers' ability to recognize what their kids need and how to best serve those needs."

[yankeedoodle]

From Phil Giraldi:

Why Not Question "the Holocaust" in Schools?
The standard narrative does not stand up to serious historical scrutiny
https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/why-not-question-the-holocaust-in-schools/

There has been major pushback against a Texas state education official who said that if schools are adhering to a new state law that mandates teaching alternative points of view on controversial issues having a course and a book on the holocaust, for example, would suggest providing material that reflects other interpretations of that historical event. The comment came from a Texas school district administrator named Gina Peddy in the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, which is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, who was in a training session explaining to teachers her directive regarding which books can be available in classroom libraries. She told teachers that if they have books about the Holocaust in their classrooms, they should also have books that offer "opposing" or "other" viewpoints on the subject.

Reportedly a staff member who was present secretly made an audio recording of the training session which was then shared with NBC News, which broke the story.

The Texas law was and is intended to lessen the impact of the current "woke" campaign by progressive educators to rewrite American and international history to reflect the dark side, notably by emphasizing issues like slavery and oppression of minorities. Texas legislators insist, not unreasonably, that presenting an essentially negative view of American history as envisioned by Critical Race Theory (CRT) must be balanced by having a curriculum that also includes discussion of the many positive achievements of the United States of America. In the recording, Peddy, the school district's executive director of curriculum and instruction, told the teachers that the new law applies to any "widely debated and currently controversial" issues. She was quoted as saying "And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives."

Predictably, on such a hot wire issue Peddy has had little or no support from her peers either locally or in the education establishment. The school district Superintendent Lane Ledbetter posted on Facebook an "apology regarding the online article and news story." He said Peddy's comments were "in no way to convey that the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history. Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust. We also understand this bill does not require an opposing viewpoint on historical facts."

Clay Robison, a spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association, responded "We find it reprehensible for an educator to require a Holocaust denier to get equal treatment with the facts of history. That's absurd. It's worse than absurd. And this law does not require it." Republican state Senator Bryan Hughes, who wrote the bill that became the law, denied that anyone should come up with alternative views on what he called matters of "good and evil" or to remove books that offer only one perspective on the Holocaust.

Jews in Peddy's school district and elsewhere in both Texas and nationally have inevitably also risen to the bait, denouncing any attempt made to challenge what they view as an issue fundamental to their understanding of their place in the world and in history. One Jewish former student Jake Berman asserted that "The facts are that there are not two sides of the Holocaust. The Nazis systematically killed millions of people."

Ledbetter, Robison and Hughes should perhaps consider that they are suggesting that their new law should only apply on "controversial" racial issues, not on other historical developments and it is curious that educated people should consider a multi-faceted transnational historical event that has inter alia a highly politicized context a "fact." The holocaust narrative in and of itself is the creation of men and women after the fact with an agenda to justify the creation and support for the State of Israel and should be subject to the same inquiry as any other facet of the Second World War and what came after.

The tale of "the holocaust" is essentially a contrived bit of history that serves a political objective wrapped up in what purports to be a powerful statement regarding man's inhumanity to man. Jewish groups generally speaking consider the standard narrative with its highly questionable six million dead, gas chambers, extermination camps, and soap made from body fat to be something like sacred ground, with its memorialization of the uniqueness of Jewish suffering. Serious scholars who have actually looked at the narrative and the numbers and sequences of events are not surprisingly skeptical of many of the details.

As a first step, it is helpful to look at controversial Professor Norman Finkelstein's carefully documented book The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. Finkelstein, to be sure, believes there was something like a genocide of European Jews and even lost some family members due to it. He does not, however, necessarily believe many of the details provided by the standard narrative and official promoters of that story to include the numerous holocaust museums. In his view, powerful interests have hijacked "the Holocaust," and use it to further their own objectives. He wrote "Organized Jewry has exploited the Nazi holocaust to deflect criticism of Israel's and its own indefensible policies. Nazi genocide has been used to justify criminal policies of the Israeli state and US support for these policies."

And there is also a money angle, as there often is. Per Finkelstein, Jewish organizations in the US have also exploited the situation of the dwindling number of aging holocaust survivors to extort "staggering sums of money from the rest of the world. This is not done not for the benefit of needy survivors but for the financial advantage of these organizations."

As taking courses in the holocaust are mandated in the public school systems of twenty states (and soon to be more due to pressure from local Jewish groups) and is used to validate the billions of US taxpayer dollars given annually to the state of Israel it would seem that supporters of the narrative should have the confidence as well as sufficient integrity to defend their product. But that is, of course, not the case. They would prefer to have their chosen narrative unchallenged, raising the usual claims of anti-Semitism and "holocaust denial" to silence critics. One of the "textbooks" frequently used in public schools that mandate holocaust education is Night by Elie Wiesel, whom Finkelstein has dubbed "the high huckster of the holocaust." "Night" claims to be autobiographical but is full of errors in time and place. It is at least in part a work of fiction. Similarly, the "Diary of Anne Frank" was published after editing by her survivor father and parts of it have been challenged.

As a general rule, contentious issues where advocates attempt to silence opponents by claiming that what they are promoting is based on fact and cannot be challenged should be challenged. In Europe, powerful Jewish constituencies have even made it illegal to criticize or deny the holocaust narrative. In America, that day may soon be coming as Jewish groups increasingly seek to criminalize questioning of the factual basis of the holocaust as well as any criticism of Israel.

[yankeedoodle]

Something similar happening in Sweden:

Swedish education agency recommends exercise that has students argue the Holocaust never happened
https://www.jta.org/2021/10/25/global/swedish-education-agency-recommends-exercise-that-has-students-argue-that-the-holocaust-never-happened

(JTA) — Sweden's National Agency for Education recommended that teachers should make students try to prove that the Holocaust never happened, as part of a push to help them understand conspiracy theories.

The recommendation came in a recently published handbook for high school teachers that the government's institution in charge of scholastic issues had created, the Aftonbladet daily reported earlier this month.

"Group 1 must find at least three arguments for the case that the Holocaust never happened, using facts and information from the internet. They can also ask others what they believe and why," the suggested exercise read.

It included a similar example encouraging students to support the argument that the 1969 moon landing was staged. The handbook defined both the moon landing and the Holocaust as "controversial subjects."

Sweden's Jewish Central Council and other critics said asking students to consume and engage in Holocaust denial is offensive to victims and has questionable pedagogical value.

"Even if it is well-intentioned, there is a danger in calling the Holocaust controversial," Aron Verständig, chairman of Sweden's Jewish Central Council, told Aftonbladet. He called the exercise "bizarre."

Svante Weyler, chairman of the Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism watchdog group, called the exercise "pure idiocy." Of all the subjects available for such an exercise, "the Holocaust is the worst. It is a grotesque idea that this can take place in Swedish classrooms," he told the paper.

The report did not say whether the exercise had been implemented in classrooms yet.

Pernilla Sundström, a spokesperson for the education agency, defended the exercise, which she told Aftonbladet is meant to help teachers deal with "themes that can create tension in the classroom." The Holocaust, she added, "can be such a theme precisely because of antisemitism."

Björn Söder, a member of the Sweden Democrats party, a populist right-wing movement, queried Education Minister Anna Ekström on the subject, asking her to explain how the exercise fits into the government's policy of opposing antisemitism. Ekström is scheduled to reply on Oct. 27.

The debate has some parallels with a controversy that has been unfolding in Texas, following the passing of a bill that is meant to ban discussion of Critical Race Theory — which is meant to educate students on systemic racism in the U.S. — in the state's classrooms.

Earlier this month, a school administrator in Southlake's Carroll Independent School District was caught in a recording saying that under the new law, teachers need to "make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives."

Clay Robison, a spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association, said the administrator's statement was a "misinterpretation" of the law.

[abduLMaria]

Mild Temptation ... getting a job as a Substitute Teacher.

First Hour ... Write
"Israel did 9-11, with help from Saudi Arabia and Israel supporters in the US
government."

on the Whiteboard/blackboard.

Then pull the screen in front of it until I am alone with the students.

Then lift the screen up & let the students see it.

Talk about it for 5 minutes, explain why I am doing it.

I would expect to be fired by the end of the day.

[yankeedoodle]

Two more similar stories, one in Ohio and one in Indiana.

Ohio lawmaker draws backlash after suggesting schools should teach the Holocaust 'from the perspective of a German soldier'
https://www.jta.org/2022/03/25/politics/ohio-lawmaker-draws-backlash-after-suggesting-schools-should-teach-the-holocaust-from-the-perspective-of-a-german-soldier
A Jewish lawmaker in Ohio is deriding legislation to restrict race education in the state's schools as the "draconian Holocaust censorship bill" after one of the bill's Republican sponsors suggested that it is appropriate to teach about the Holocaust from the perspective of the Nazis.

State Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur, who co-sponsored the bill, made the comments when explaining to a local news station why she believes that "divisive concepts" should be taught from multiple points of view.

"Maybe you're going to listen to the perspective of someone from Poland when they were undergoing similar displacement, or when they were being incorporated into the war and to some of these camps. Or maybe you're listening to it from the perspective of a Jewish person that has gone through the tragedies that took place," she said, describing how a hypothetical lesson that complies with the law could unfold. "And maybe you'll listen to it from the perspective of a German soldier."

Fowler Arthur also mischaracterized how many Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and why they were murdered in her remarks, originally made to News 5 Cleveland in early March but not publicized by the station until Tuesday.

"What we do not want is for someone to come in and say, 'Well, obviously the German government was right in saying that the Aryan race is superior to all other races, and therefore that they were acting rightly when they murdered hundreds of thousands of people for having a different color of skin,'" she said.

Fowler Arthur's comments, which she said were informed by "some audiobooks on the Holocaust" she had been listening to, are the latest in a series of comments that have implicated Holocaust education in a wave of Republican-led legislation aimed at dictating how race is taught in public schools. An educator in Texas and an Indiana lawmaker have apologized in recent months after suggesting that teachers should remain "impartial" or offer multiple perspectives while teaching about the Holocaust.

Fowler Arthur quickly drew firm rebukes from Jewish leaders in Ohio as well as from Rep. Casey Weinstein, a Democrat who is one of two Jews in the state legislature, and from members of Fowler Arthur's own party.

James Pasch, director of the region's Anti-Defamation League arm, told the station that Fowler Arthur's remarks showed "no baseline of even education there that 6 million Jews were systematically murdered, and millions of others." Weinstein, who has been the target of anti-vaccine protests that invoke the Holocaust, reportedly offered to accompany Fowler Arthur to the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage outside Cleveland.

Republican House Speaker Bob Cupp called Fowler Arthur's comments "inappropriate" and "uninformed remarks."

In a statement responding to the criticism, Fowler Arthur defended her bill and disputed others' interpretations of her comments. "I want to apologize for the unconscionable position that has been wrongfully attributed to me," she said in the written statement. "Those views are not who I am or what I believe."

Her statement did not elaborate on how she was mischaracterized but continued to defend the bill.

"What began as a sincere effort to end state-sanctioned bullying and harassment has been turned on its head, with politicians and left-wing special interests advancing a false narrative to kill the bill and raise money," she said.

Fowler Arthur's office did not respond to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency request for comment. Reporter Morgan Trau, who conducted the initial interview with her, said on-air that she had brought "direct concerns from the Jewish community" to the representative "a full week before the piece aired."

Fowler, whose Northeast Ohio district abuts Lake Erie and the Pennsylvania border, previously served on the Ohio Board of Education.

Her bill as written would prohibit state teachers from teaching "divisive concepts," such as that "one nationality, color, ethnicity, race, or sex is inherently superior to another nationality, color, ethnicity, race, or sex," in nearly identical wording to other state bills seeking to ban "critical race theory" — an academic and legal concept that has become a rallying cry for Republicans across the country.




Indiana lawmaker apologizes for saying teachers should be 'impartial' on Nazis
https://www.jta.org/2022/01/10/united-states/an-indiana-lawmaker-has-apologized-for-saying-teachers-should-be-impartial-on-nazis

A Republican state senator in Indiana has apologized for suggesting during a hearing on his education bill that teachers in the state shouldn't "take a position" on Nazis.

"Marxism, fascism, Nazism, I'm not discrediting any of those 'isms' out there," State Sen. Scott Baldwin had said during a Jan. 5 committee hearing on his "Education Matters" bill. "I believe that we've gone too far when we take a position on those 'isms.'"

"We need to be impartial," Baldwin continued. "We just provide the facts. The kids formulate their own viewpoints."

Baldwin had been responding to a public school teacher, Matt Bockenfeld, who objected to the bill by providing examples of how its bans on teaching "certain concepts" would prevent him from teaching students about topics including slavery, the Jim Crow era and Nazis.

"We're not neutral on Nazism," Bockenfeld told the state's Senate Education Committee during the hearing. "We take a stand in the classroom against it. And it matters that we do."

In an email to the Indy Star the next day, Baldwin said he had misspoken.

"Nazism, Marxism and fascism are a stain on our world history and should be regarded as such, and I failed to adequately articulate that in my comments during the meeting," he told the paper. "I believe that kids should learn about these horrible events in history so that we don't experience them again in humanity."

Baldwin also said he had invited Bockenfeld to help work on the bill with him, an invitation Bockenfeld told the Star he accepted.

Baldwin's bill is co-authored by six other Indiana state senators, all Republicans. The bill does not mention Nazis or any other ideology by name, but contains a long list of "certain concepts" it would forbid schools from teaching — all of which fall under the rubric of the largely Republican-led nationwide push against critical race theory.

For example, the bill would forbid schools from teaching students that "any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, or political affiliation is inherently superior or inferior to" any other, and "that an individual, by virtue of the individual's sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, or political affiliation, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, or political affiliation," among other similar topics.

Jewish scholars have argued that banning such topics would adversely affect instructors' abilities to accurately teach the Holocaust and other examples of historic antisemitism. Holocaust eduction has already been pulled into the critical race theory debate: Last fall, a school district administrator in Texas said that the implementation of a similar law in that state would require teachers to teach "opposing" views about the Holocaust.

Baldwin told the Indy Star that one of his motivations is to prohibit schools from teaching any concepts that "divide and stereotype people." A parallel bill in the Indiana House of Representatives contains similar wording.

Critical race theory is never mentioned in either bill, but the legislation follows all the hallmarks (and nearly identical wording) of efforts in statehouses and local school boards over the past year to sharply curtail the teaching in public schools of issues touching on systemic and historic discrimination. Similar bills in other states have attempted to ban the teaching of what are often euphemistically referred to as "divisive topics," and give parents more power in steering their children's teachers' lesson plans away from such topics. Some Republican-led think tanks have written sample legislation for state lawmakers to adopt.

Baldwin's bill would also require teachers to post their lesson plans publicly online prior to each semester to allow parents to review them, and create a "Curricular Materials Advising Committee," to be chaired by and made up largely of parents, who would have the opportunity to review and provide notes on classroom materials before they are taught.

Critical race theory was also a top issue in Virginia's gubernatorial election last year, which Republican Glenn Youngkin won.

Baldwin's comments were also notable given that his name has been linked to the Oath Keepers, a right-wing extremist group that played a role in the Jan. 6, 2020, attempted insurrection. Baldwin has denied that he is a member of the group.