Jewish American history added to ethnic studies curriculum

GABE STUTMAN | J. STAFF

Following a bruising political struggle lasting more than a year, Jewish organizations marked a modest victory last week after California education commissioners approved a statewide model curriculum in ethnic studies for high school that includes two lessons on Jewish Americans.

In the latest draft of the more than 400-page curriculum, the Jewish lessons are preceded by “framing language,” which reiterates ethnic studies’ central focus on four core groups: African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. A lesson on Sikh Americans and another on Armenians also receives framing language.

“The model curriculum focuses on the four ethnic groups that are at the core of the ethnic studies field,” an appendix introducing the added lessons reads. “At the same time, this course … is relevant and important for students of all backgrounds.”

The decision to include the lessons came on Nov. 19, the second and final day of a meeting of the state Instructional Quality Commission. The 18-member commission is responsible for overseeing the development of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum and recommending a final draft to the State Board of Education.

The IQC approved a host of revisions to the model curriculum draft, including adding a total of 29 lessons submitted by members of the public during the most recent public comment phase. The proposed lessons were edited by staff inside the California Department of Education.

While steps remain before approval of the curriculum — the first of its kind for high schools in the country — Jewish stakeholders were heartened about the prospect of representation in the final draft, which looked more certain after the IQC vote.

“This week’s IQC meeting proved encouraging,” a statement from the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council read. “Most of the CDE’s salutary recommendations were approved, including important protections for all students and the addition of lessons on the Jewish American experience.”

CDE staff members are now assembling the draft based on the IQC’s decisions. The final version will be posted in December for a one-month public comment phase, before review and approval by the State Board of Education. March 31 is the deadline for final approval, which already was postponed one year because of controversy surrounding the model.

Both of the lessons, submitted by California Jewish organizations, sought to tie the experience of Jewish Americans directly to themes relevant to the field of ethnic studies, the interdisciplinary study of race and ethnicity with a focus on people of color.

The first lesson, introduced by JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa), examines antisemitism “and its manifestations through the lens of Jewish Middle Eastern Americans, also known as Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews.”

The second, “Jewish Americans: Identity, Intersectionality, and Complicating Ideas of Race,” was submitted by the Institute for Curriculum Services, an organization dedicated to “improving the quality of K-12 education on Jews, Judaism, and Israel in the United States,” according to its website.

The lesson explores “how Jews have been stigmatized as outsiders, sometimes seen as a racialized other, and sometimes have experienced conditional whiteness and privilege.” It asks, among other questions, “how do conceptions of race change over time and place?”

Gina Waldman, president of JIMENA, was buoyant about the IQC decision.

“This is a really exciting development in the Ethnic Studies process,” she wrote in a statement to J. “Imagine if high schoolers all over California will have to learn the Mizrahi story? Inshallah and mashallah we shall win for the entire Jewish community.”

State Sen. Ben Allen, Democrat of Santa Monica and chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, sits on the IQC and participated in the two-day meeting. He said he was encouraged by the process and by the result for Jewish Americans and other ethnic groups.

“I’m glad the decision was made to include two different lesson plans that relate to Jewish people,” he said. “There was discussion about whether it fully belonged in the ethnic studies conversation. Ultimately the commission felt that it did.” n

Assembly member Marc Berman discusses the ethnic studies curriculum at the Jewish Community Federation in San Francisco, Sept. 16, 2019. (Photo/Gabe Stutman)

continued from page 3 preschool enrollment at Beth Abraham in Oakland, from 62 children pre-pandemic to a current count of 46. And Ruth Levitch, director of the Congregation Netivot Shalom preschool in Berkeley, said enrollment fell

from 30 to 22 children. Lael Gray, CEO of the Addison-Penzak JCC in Los Gatos, said enrollment at the JCC’s preschool is down by half, from 160 to 80.

Preschools are also limited by each county’s guidelines on the number of children that can be in a classroom, which puts a strain on the amount of available space.

“With the Covid restrictions, we weren’t going to be able to be at full capacity,” said Gray. Her preschool is located in Santa Clara County, which allows up to 14 children in a pod.

The Addison-Penzak JCC’s summer camp had a staff member with an asymptomatic case toward the end of the summer. Gray said that all of the campers and staff were immediately tested, and all results came back negative.

“That really taught us, there’s tremendous value in staying ahead of it,” she said.

Meanwhile, the preschools at Temple Sinai in Oakland and Congregation Beth El in Berkeley reported that either a child or a family member had been exposed to the virus, but immediate testing came back negative.

Early childhood education directors Ellen Lefkowitz of Temple Sinai and Jodi Gladstone of Beth El said that a sense of trust, transparency and quick communication with the community were deciding factors in mitigating a potential outbreak.

“What is keeping us safe is that we’re all working … in this partnership,” Lefkowitz said. “We’ve made this agreement that we’re in this together.”

She assumes that a positive case is likely at some point.

“I imagine [zero cases] will not last forever,” she said. “We’ve had things happen close enough to us that we feel like it is inevitable.”

Aside from lower enrollment, preschools also are reckoning with the fact that parents aren’t able to connect with one another, connections that are the bedrock of a preschool community.

“That’s been the biggest challenge,” Fenyves said. “There is so much we can’t do. [The parents] aren’t coming on campus, they’re dropping off at the gate. [It’s] making it really challenging to do community building.”

Gray said she’s been witnessing the same. “This is when parents build relationships that last a lifetime,” she said. “That relationship between families is pivotal.”

Rabbi Cohen of Beth Israel said the preschool’s community devised a plan to help minimize the social isolation among its families.

When he had to enforce a quarantine for one of the preschool’s two pods, the community also got together and matched up families within each cohort for daily check-ins and to see if anyone needed help with errands, knowing that the kids in the stay-at-home pod would now be in the care of their parents.

“These are important moments of community,” Cohen said. “Moments of crises offer opportunities for deeper connections.” n