The choice of a Jewish educator with no background in Arabic history, culture or language as the new head of an Arabic-themed New York City public school is the latest in a bizarre sequence of events surrounding this ill-conceived effort.
There are those of us who can remember that not too long ago, federally funded remedial math and reading had to be provided to yeshiva students in vans located next door to yeshiva buildings in order to avoid identifying sectarian schools with public funds (thereby violating the rules of separation between church and state.) To be sure, such Draconian notions are no longer in vogue, but the residual notion still obtains that students who receive their secular education in a freestanding yeshiva are sharply restricted in terms of the government-funded programs their public school counterparts receive.
So it was rather stunning when the news came earlier this year that the city planned to open, as an accommodation to its growing Muslim population, a freestanding public school dedicated to teaching, in Arabic, the religion-driven Muslim culture and history along with standard subjects.
Department of Education officials professed to see no problem at all and rejected out of hand anyone raising concerns about the objectivity of what would be taught to the students there.
And so matters stood until a little over a week ago, when the designated principal of the school tried to explain away the sale, by a group with which she was connected, of a T-shirt bearing the logo “Intafada NYC.” She said the phrase “intifada” in the original Arabic means “shaking off” oppression and did not necessarily refer to violence. Incredibly, the DOE responded as if the issue at hand was whether the principal was directly involved with the T-shirts and not whether she had the judgment necessary to walk the fine line required in her new post.
In any event, the public outcry did not subside, as most New Yorkers refused to accept the DOE’s approach. So the principal resigned but, in a parting shot, revealing that perhaps we had all just dodged a bullet. She said of her forced resignation:
Unfortunately, a small group of highly misguided individuals has launched a relentless attack on me because of my religion… I have grown increasingly concerned that these few outsiders will disrupt the community of learning when the Academy opens its doors on September 4th.”
Not to be outdone, the DOE designated as her replacement a veteran Jewish public school educator with no known competence in Arabic language, customs or history. Doubtless this was seen by the Einsteins over at the DOE and City Hall as a way of deflecting criticism of the dangers inherent in a public-school educational enterprise rooted in sectarianism. One can almost hear the guffaws from the bureaucrats as they came up with the incredible idea of preserving a publicly funded Arabic-themed school by having as its public face…a Jew.
Ingenious, no? But lost in the frenzy to save the project at all cost is that the new choice of principal can only reinforce the view that religious bias was indeed a factor in the resignation of her predecessor.
