Newtown, Massachusetts, Public Schools sued for ‘Anti-Semitism,’ and ‘bigotry against Israel’
Americans for Peace and Tolerance has issued the following statement:
“On March 12, 2019, Newton taxpayers filed a lawsuit in Middlesex Superior Court against the Newton School Committee, Superintendent of Schools David Fleishman, the principals of the Newton high schools, and certain high school history teachers. Plaintiffs are asking for a court order that would compel Newton school officials to stop indoctrinating students with anti-Semitism, bigotry against Israel, and Islamist religious dogma as part of the high school history curriculum.
“This suit was made necessary because the embattled school administration is shielding its teachers from scrutiny and refusing to supervise what is being taught in its classrooms. The taxpayers claim that Newton Public Schools (NPS) has deliberately failed and refused to comply with the Equal Rights Amendment of the Massachusetts Constitution, with the Massachusetts Student Anti-Discrimination Act, and with civil rights regulations that require schools, through their curricula, to encourage respect for the human and civil rights of all individuals regardless of race, identity, religion, color, sex, and national origin.
“The extensively documented 469 page legal complaint, available here, details the lengthy history of Newton residents’ efforts to have NPS address and correct the factually flawed teaching. Plaintiffs and their attorney were provided with an enormous volume of factual documentation by Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) Executive Director Ilya Feoktistov, whose investigations over the past several months formed the basis of this action.
“‘In looking for the sources of the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel bigotry in the Newton curriculum, we discovered a few bad apple teachers who view their teaching positions as giving them license to promote their personal political agendas,” said Mr. Feoktistov. “We are also looking closely at a common pattern with these politicized teachers — most, if not all, have taken professional development courses developed with foreign funding by the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia.’
“’Newton history teachers and school administrators must think either that anti-discrimination laws do not apply to them, or that these laws do not protect their Jewish and Israeli students,’ said the President of APT, Charles Jacobs. ‘There is no academic freedom to brainwash students with fake history and pro-Arab or anti-Semitic propaganda that is, these days, alarmingly too common on the left in America.’
“Evidence described in the complaint shows how Newton teachers teach that Jews and Christians deliberately forged their holy texts to contradict the Muslim Qur’an; that Zionism has ‘little connection’ to Jewish history in ‘Palestine;’ that the Jews took advantage of the Holocaust to gain sympathy for Zionism at the expense of ‘Arab plight;’ and that the Israelis treat the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews. After being taught all this, students are asked to debate whether there should be a one- or two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“Karen Hurvitz, attorney for the taxpayers, stated that her clients are not asking for money damages, even though defendants have certainly caused years of incalculable damage by their insistence on teaching impressionable students materials that slander Israel and Jews. ‘This is the type of teaching that leads to anti-Semitism — and it has. The taxpayers here are merely asking NPS to perform their duties and obey the law, which requires that their curriculum encourage respect for all people. Education should be based on fact, not on stereotypes and propaganda.'” — From Americans for Peace and Tolerance
Halbertal advances to CEO of the Rambam Medical Center
Dr. Michael (Miki) Halbertal, who served in recent years as deputy director of Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, was recently appointed as its CEO. He took over February 28, replacing Prof. Rafi Beyar, who served as Rambam’s director for the last 13 years and retired. Upon his appointment, Halbertal, 60, married and father of four, from Zichron Yaakov, became the 14th director of one of the largest hospitals in Israel.
Dr. Halbertal studied medicine at the Technion Medical School, followed by a fellowship in England in 1992 and at the Children’s Hospital in Toronto in 1996. Dr. Halbertal’s experience at Rambam was first in Pediatrics, followed by Pediatric Intensive Care and then in Medical Administration when he received an MHA from the Tel Aviv University of the Recanati Faculty of Business Administration. Dr. Halbertal served for many years in the reserves as an airborne operations doctor in the air force.
Since 2001, Dr. Halbertal was in charge of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Rambam, which he established at the hospital. In 2009, he moved to the Rambam Medical Center, and in 2013 began his duties as Deputy Director of the hospital. — from Rambam Medical Center
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Stephanie Blumenkranz named director of Hadassah Foundation
The Hadassah Foundation, which invests in social change to empower girls and women in Israel and the United States, has named Stephanie Blumenkranz as Director, according to Susan Beller, Hadassah Foundation Board Chair.