Other items in today’s column include:
*Ethnic studies battles at high school and university levels in California
*Political bytes
SAN DIEGO — Information provided by U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer in the tax fraud case against Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein and five co-defendants alleges that another religious institution, not yet identified, has also been involved in tax fraud.
In a summary of the case against co-defendant Bruce Baker, who pleaded guilty last week to conspiring with Rabbi Goldstein to defraud the U.S. government of tax revenue, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in an official document:
“Separate from his dealings with Rabbi Goldstein, Baker also admitted that he engaged in a similar tax evasion scheme with the director of a separate religious congregation and community organization in San Diego. In 2006, that individual offered Baker and his family an arrangement where they would pretend to make an “in-kind” donation to the religious organization of an ancient Iranian Torah—although no such Torah existed and the “in-kind” donation was a hoax. This other director provided Baker with a fraudulent appraisal that valued the Torah at $1.2 million. Baker and his family used the fake paperwork to claim exorbitant tax deductions, and gave the co-conspirator a 10 percent fee—or $120,000—in return. On top of that, the director charged Baker $20,000 for the fake appraisal.”
Kelly Thornton, director of media relations for the U.S. Attorney’s office, was asked by San Diego Jewish World if she could provide any more information, such as the identity of the director or the religious institution, or whether that person was soon to be charged. However, Thornton did not immediately respond to the request for information.
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Ethnic studies battles at high school and university levels in California
Battles over ethnic studies are taking place at both the public high school level and at the California State Universities.
At the grade school level, Tammy Rossman-Benjamin of the AMCHA Initiative has called upon Linda Darling-Hammond, chair of the California State Board of Education, to urge local school boards to decline to adopt any model curriculum on ethnic studies until the state board completes its mandated work to consider revisions to a previously promulgated curriculum that ignored Jewish contributions to the United States and took a pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist approach toward the Middle East.
A letter to Darling-Hammond from AMCHA and others said: “We are deeply concerned abut an unscrupulous campaign to mislead district school boards into approving and making plans to implement the divisive and highly flawed first draft of the AB 2016-mandated high school ethnic studies model curriculum before it has been revised by the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC), vetted by the public and adopted by the State Board of Education.
“Several school boards have already rubber-stamped resolutions affirming support for the unapproved curriculum and even committed their districts to moving forward with it, with more school boards expected to do the same in the coming months Shockingly this deceptive campaign to circumvent the state’s curriculum revision process is being carried out by the same individuals who formerly worked with IQC and were responsible for developing the original draft, which received an outpouring of public criticism from more than 19,000 Californians and dozens of state legislators. Governor [Gavin] Newsom stated, ‘We are united in our resolve to make sure the advisory committee draft is only that, a draft, that will be substantially amended … It will never see the light of day.’
“Let us be clear,” the letter continued. “The original draft promotes highly controversial political ideologies that can’t help but exacerbate ethnic divisions and foment bigotry in ur schools. This is not the ethnic studies curriculum that we want for our children, our school districts or our state.”
Meanwhile, controversy also simmers at the state college level. A proposal by Chancellor Tim White that will go before the CSU Board of Trustees will require students to take either a social justice course or an ethnic studies course as a requirement for graduation beginning in the 2023-2024 school year. White’s proposal is an alternative to a bill authored by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) that has passed both houses of the Legislature and is before Gov. Newsom for signature.
Weber’s bill (AB 1460) limits ethnic studies to courses about four groups of people: African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native Americans and Latinos. On the other hand, White’s proposal would broaden the groups that may be studied to include Women, LGBTQ people, Muslims, and Jews, among others, according to an article by Cal Matters appearing in today’s Times of San Diego.
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Political bytes
Joe Leventhal, a candidate in the 5th District San Diego City Council race, has been endorsed by San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore, who said that Leventhal “is committed to working hand in hand with our region’s law enforcement to keep our communities safe and secure. Joe appreciates the very difficult and dangerous job we ask our officers to do every day and I strongly believe we can count on him to bring law enforcement and our underserved communities together so San Diego can remain the safest big city in the nation.”
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
Concerning ethnic studies, San Diego Jewish World received this news release on July 22 from California’s Legislative Jewish Caucus:
SACRAMENTO — Senator Ben Allen (D – Santa Monica) and Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D – Encino), Chair and Vice Chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, released the following statement regarding the upcoming release of a new draft of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum:
“The Jewish Caucus recently had a productive meeting with State Superintendent Tony Thurmond to discuss the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. The Superintendent assured us that our concerns have been clearly heard and that we can be confident that the new version of the curriculum will not include any content that is, or can be perceived as, antisemitic or anti-Israel. We appreciate the Superintendent’s firm commitment and applaud his efforts to develop a curriculum free from bigotry and discrimination.
“The Jewish Caucus also has engaged in productive discussions with our partners in the other ethnic caucuses and shared with them our community’s concerns. We deeply value these partnerships and are committed to continuing to work closely with the other caucuses to advance justice, increase equity, and address systemic racism.
“We look forward to reviewing the new draft of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum and remain hopeful that it will be one that we can all support.”
Background
For over a year, the California Legislative Jewish Caucus has been working closely with the California Department of Education, Governor Newsom, legislative allies, a broad coalition of Jewish organizations across California, and ethnic studies activists to ensure that the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum is free from any anti-Jewish bias or discrimination. On July 29, 2019, the Jewish Caucus released a letter highlighting its strong objections to certain aspects of the initial draft model curriculum. Following widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum, the California Department of Education (CDE) promised to make significant revisions to the model curriculum.
In a recent meeting with the Jewish Caucus, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond reaffirmed his commitment to addressing the Jewish Caucus’s concerns and removing all discriminatory content from the curriculum. He also advised the Caucus that the new draft will focus exclusively on the four core groups—Black Americans, Latinx Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans—that have traditionally been at the heart of Ethnic Studies.
CDE anticipates releasing the revised draft on July 31, 2020, after which it will go through another review process. The Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) will review the draft on August 13th, and solicit public comment on it in September. After public comments are taken into account, the IQC will review another updated draft in November, and then send it to the State Board of Education for final review. The State Board of Education must approve a final curriculum by March 31, 2021.
The Jewish Caucus will remain actively engaged at every step of this process and will work diligently to ensure that the final curriculum meets the highest educational standards and is free from bigotry and discrimination.
The Chabad model is flawed. They throw some twentysomething, trained only in Rabbinical studies, out to someplace that usually has few observant Jews. Then, that very young man and his even younger wife (typically) have to find a way of attracting enough members to sustain the costs of the shul and cover their own family’s expenses. Meanwhile, he’s expected to have 8-12 kids. On top of all that, there’s no oversight of the shul’s finances and the Rabbi/Director can run it like his own personal piggy bank. Sheer lunacy. To be clear, most Chabad Rabbis are not crooks but the structure of the whole thing gives the crooked ones plenty of opportunity. A Modern Orthodox shul with a proper decision-making board, a salaried Rabbi, etc. is a much healthier structure, in my opinion.
Sure, the Chabad structure isn’t perfect — but you can’t expect a proper shul with a board and a salaried rabbi in all the far-out places Chabad exists where there are relatively few Jews. Also, there have been plenty of cases of crooked and sleazy rabbis at plenty of major synagogues and Jewish organizations — that have boards and supposed oversight.
When I look online, I see that there have been some scandals of a romantic nature in non ultra-orthodox shuls but not much of a financial nature (and yes, I do know about the scandal at the Syrian shul in New York a few years back). So sleazy? There are examples. Crooked? Not so much. That’s because it’s MUCH more difficult to pull financial shenanigans as a salaried employee than as a “Director” who controls everything. I don’t think you realize how dangerous these sorts of financial scandals — especially tax evasion which, essentially, is stealing from the average American taxpayer — are in the current climate of anti-semitism and Chabad has set up a very high-risk structure for those sorts of things.