Nass Taskin: Honest education on antisemitism important

I’m a Jewish educator working in Northampton Public Schools so naturally, I think honest, good education on antisemitism is important.

I attended the presentation given to the NPS community on Sept. 3 by Project Shema. It was neither honest nor very good. What’s more, I was deeply alarmed by the claim made by a school official in the Gazette that Israel and Palestine did not come up until the Q&A section. That claim is just patently false. It’s not a difference of opinion. It’s just a lie.

Even though the presenter claimed at the beginning of the training that she and her org does not do Israel-Palestine education, that claim later proved to be false as well. The presenter directly made the claim that saying “Zionism is racism” is antisemitic. She made the claim that the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is antisemitic. This is a definition of antisemitism that I and thousands of Jewish educators, parents, and teachers within the Northampton community and across the country sharply disagree with.

The presenter even dismissed these Jewish voices as “tokens” unworthy of paying heed to. This definition of antisemitism is not only irresponsible, but frankly dangerous to both Palestinians facing genocide because of Zionist ideology and dissenting Jews critical of that ideology. Honest education on antisemitism is necessary. Project Shema failed to provide that.

Nass Taskin

Northampton