Regarding the debate over Critical Race Theory for educational officials in American states, the Jewish Virtual Library republished this piece by David Bernstein, the founder of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values:
"Some critics assert that Critical Race Theory ("CRT") and other related ideological approaches are fanning the flames of anti-Semitism. They argue that CRT’s binary “oppressed vs oppressor” paradigm often erases the distinct experience of Jews, who do not fit neatly in either category.
They further argue that linking one’s identity to privilege will inevitably connect Jewish identity to “Jewish privilege” and power. It will also, they assert, generate a simplistic, one-sided view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as Israel will invariably be deemed the oppressor. The critics express grave concern that the related concept of “equity” as popularized by Professor Ibram X. Kendi – that all groups are standing in roughly equal footing or representation – will exacerbate anti-Semitism.
The problem with this definition is that it treats differences among groups as expressions of racism and white supremacy. Such a view, they worry, will be weaponized to scapegoat Jews and Asians, among others, whose average income and educational achievement significantly exceeds the mean. Lastly, those concerned about CRT’s role in inflaming antisemitism worry that in claiming a monopoly on discourse, critical race ideologies undermine society’s enlightenment values of liberal discourse and free expression, which have always inured to the benefit of minority communities. A more illiberal society, they argue, will be bad for Jews.
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens contends that the ideology spawned by CRT is particularly dangerous to American Jews:The intellectual battle against critical social justice theory (often called “woke” ideology) is one no true Jewish leader can shirk. That isn’t merely because a spirit of liberal-mindedness matters to Jewish well-being. It’s because woke ideology invariably combines three features that ought to terrify Jews: a belief that racial characteristics define individual moral worth, a habit of descending into anti-Semitism, and a quasi-totalitarian mindset that insists not only on regulating behavior but also on monitoring people’s thoughts and punishing those who think the wrong ones."
Four years ago, we met with nonagenarian, Daniel Szafran, who survived the Nazi genocide of European Jewry as a slave laborer. Having relocated to Las Vegas, he delivered a parlor talk before a small group of Israeli-American Girl Scouts who had returned from took an educational trip to one of the camps in which he was a slave-laborer- the Auschwitz death camp. Mr. Szafran didn't believe that Holocaust education is emphasized sufficiently in America - or even in Israel.
Mr. Szafran's host for the parlor talk, Mr. Natan Barashy, bemoans leftist influence in minimizing history resulting in the Holocaust in educational curricula. He also condemns Democratic Socialists throughout the world buying-into the libel which reverses Israel's defense against Islamist-Imperialist, Iranian-armed, Palestinians as "aggressive" - but supporting the anti-Semitic Muslim world, religiously mandated to annihilate the Jews of the world in a Muslim-led Holocaust against Israel.
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