Curriculum watchlist
Organizations, Curriculum, Training or Lesson Plans that Promote Falsehoods or Bias about the Middle East, Jews or Israel
We have been reporting on specific curriculum, lesson plans and educators associated with these sites for years. Much of the issue is now systemic and institutionalized, but we list examples below from curriculum that seeks to manipulate, erase fact and history and create bias and propaganda in the classroom. If you find these in your school, this should be a red flag and a warning to investigate:
HOW TO SPOT NON-FACTUAL CURRICULUM
For Years Schools Have Been Telling the Story of the Jews and the Middle East Without The Input of Jews
As a minority population, Jews do not have the same representation as some people. We are only .2% of the population after all. Even where we are involved and active, our voices are often not heard. Sometimes even Holocaust curriculum can become a trojan horse for biased and non-factual curriculum when we are not represented or included in every step. In the advent of DEI our voices were not included, because we were viewed as "oppressors" or overrepresented in history. We do not fit into any of the approved protected or amplified categories indicated by identity either. Also, because Jews tend to focus on the civil rights and inclusion of others, regardless of our struggles, for many years, we never noticed we were being excluded or misrepresented. In the framework of the approved binary in academia, how can Jews who have been resilient for so many years, have also struggled and been abused? Jews don't fit the narrative, so the answer was to rewrite the identity and history of the Jews.
Here are some things to look out for in curriculum when you want to ensure it's factual and not biased against Jews or Israel:
red flags in curriculum
Our schools and classrooms lack transparency about what they're teaching. What are some red flags to look for?
Look for these red flags as either warnings of or incidents of non-factual information about the Middle East, Jews or Israel in curriculum .
The Middle East
Erasing the MIddle East, its indigenous ethnicities and amplifying the false notion that the Middle East is "Arabian" and promoting Arabian Imperialism.
Example:
Map describing the Middle East as the "Arab World"
Political Bias
Erasing a historical fact or reality in lieu of a political agenda or appeasement is not fact-based curriculum. Regardless of its intent, manipulating facts to suit bias is not appropriate in academia.
Example:
Solutions Not SIdes is a "curriculum source" used in k-12. They demand teachers don't call Judea and Samaria, Judea and Samaria, because they believe it's in opposition to their western perception of "peace". This erases Jewish peoplehood, identity, history and supports the idea of a Jordanian occupation.
Incorrect History of Israel
Calling Israel a "settler colonialist" state is an erasure of actual history of Israel and its establishment. There are many aspects of curriculum that currently seek to delegitimize the state of Israel. Rejection of Jewish civilization, historical timelines, made up maps are common in currently k-12 currilculum. But one way DEI seeks to deligitimize Israel is by comparing the establishment of an ancient nation and our modern state to colonization of Native Americans by British & Europeans. This is not the story of Israel at all, but easy to fool students who don't have any prior knowledge of the Middle East history (also, see below Academically Inappropriate)
Example:
One unit from a commonly used resource encourages students to compare the establishment of the modern state of Israel to a colonialist occupation. This erases the nature of sovereignty of other nation and disinforms regarding native populations in the Middle East.
Rewriting Jewish Identity
Calling Jews "white Europeans" or "settler coloniaists" erases the indigenous identity of Jews, our cilvization and heritage and observances that are tied to the land. Worse, it's really just an attempt to demonize Jews under the "moral" binary of DEI framework. Sometimes by expressing Jewish identity as solely a "religion" and sometimes appropriating and slandering our indigeous identity using the term Zionist as a slur. Often our ancient heritage we have continued to observe and engage in for millenia is erased, as is our experience in exile as slaves in the Roman Empire, victims of the Holocaust and dhimmis under Arab Imperialism,
Example:
Oakland Elementry school students are given a worksheet claiming Israelis or Zionists are "bullies" who "steal land". This also erases the Nishul or the expulsion of Jews from Arab lands. Most Israeli Jews are either the survivors or descendants of the Nishul.
Developmentally or Academically Inappropriate
Teaching students about topics for which they have no basis of knowledge or are at a level inappropriate for their grade is a red flag. When students don't have the capacity to properly process information or reflect on it in context, that is not suitable. A child who doesn't know anything about Jewish identity or civilization should not be told inaccurate information about "Zionism" nor should they learn about a region's "conflict" when they don't yet know basic geography. Delivery vocabulary which no sense of context or background is also questionable (see below).
Example:
Political slogans and misplaced information like a coin from the British Mandate of Palestine are not appropriate for impressionable elementary school children, who don't and can't understand or be involved in political issues. In addition, some Jews are careful to protect our children from the knowledge that their families are targets of genocide at this vulnerable period as they are developing a sense of identity.
Incorrect Vocabulary & Etymology
Curriculum today often uses or appropriates vocabulary to make a political point or even misused to attack Jews in a form of antisemtic inversion, without understanding of its actual defintion or origin.
Vocabulary created to define the Jewish experience:
Genocide
Diaspora
Ghetto
Zionism
Antisemitism
Vocabulary misappropriated to attack Israelis and Jews:
Genocide
Diaspora
Zionism
Antisemitism
Settler Colonialist
Occupied
Apartheid
Example:
Stuyvesant High Schools calls Israel's response to genocidal attacks on Israeli civilians on 10/7 a "Genocide". This is obviously inaccurate and meant to confuse and inflame hatred. This was distributed to the entire school without any academic oversight.