California Appropriations Committee Must Reject the Ethnic-Studies Bill
California | August 26, 2021
It Will Encourage Hatred of Jews and Israel, Which Graduating High School Students Might Bring to College Campuses and Beyond
By Morton A. Klein, ZOA National President & Susan B. Tuchman, Esq., Director of ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice
(AUGUST 24, 2021 / JNS) California’s Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote this week on AB 101, a bill that would require the state’s students to take a one-semester course in ethnic studies in order to receive their high school diplomas. The bill may sound benign and even beneficial. But in fact, it’s dangerous. If enacted, AB 101 would permit local school districts to use the ethnic studies curriculum of their choosing. The ones developed in California so far have been anti-Israel and anti-Semitic. If any of them are used, high-schoolers will be encouraged to hate Israel and Jews based on lies—something that should be intolerable to us all, including the appropriations committee.
Take the first draft of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) that was under consideration in California in 2019. Jews were barely acknowledged as an ethnic group. According to the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, which opposed the draft, excluding Jews was purposeful and reflected the prejudice of the drafters… (Excerpts from Zionist Organization of America)