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Should Synagogues be Allowed to Fire Anti-Zionist School Teachers

JBG

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Back in May 2021 a New York area synagogue hired an instructor. Long story short, she was fired when a virulently anti-Zionist blog post she co-wrote ten or so days after she was hired a blog post came to light. Excerpt from blog:
Jessie Sander and Elana Lipkin said:
As co-founders of an American Jewish organization seeking to confront the Jewish community's racist practices and beliefs, we must speak out against israel's most recent attack on Gaza. While it is especially abhorrent that israeli settler-colonial violence escalated during the holy month of Ramadan, israel's legalized apartheid regime has been brutalizing Palestinians for decades. We believe our role as white American Jews is to resist the American-israeli military-industrial complex and the ways in which American Jewish support for israel has enabled the genocide in Palestine to continue.
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Additionally, Judaism's survival is not conditional upon the existence of israel. The notion that israel must exist in order to prevent another Holocaust is predicated on the belief that eradicating global antisemitism is such an unattainable goal that we cannot exist elsewhere safely. We believe that this is a false Zionist narrative perpetuated by those who wish to conflate an issue of settler colonialism with religious freedom.
Note that the blog refuses to capitalize Israel, the name of the country.
This was the subject of a New York Times article (link). More recently, Jonathan Tobin posted this blog post,Jewish institutions shouldn’t be hiring anti-Semites. Excerpt from Tobin article (link in title of article)
Jonathan Tobin said:
The notion that a person capable of spewing such bile at fellow Jews should be entrusted with the Jewish education of the children of families affiliated with this synagogue seems like the stuff of parody.
What are people's views? Is this a violation of academic freedom? On the other hand should a synagogue have to hire an anti-Zionist, borderline anti-Semitic Jew?
 
Falls under freedom of association. An employee may quit or be fired for any reason, just like any other voluntary relationship. Either party may withdraw from the relationship for any reason whatsoever.
 
Back in May 2021 a New York area synagogue hired an instructor. Long story short, she was fired when a virulently anti-Zionist blog post she co-wrote ten or so days after she was hired a blog post came to light. Excerpt from blog:

Note that the blog refuses to capitalize Israel, the name of the country.
This was the subject of a New York Times article (link). More recently, Jonathan Tobin posted this blog post,Jewish institutions shouldn’t be hiring anti-Semites. Excerpt from Tobin article (link in title of article)

What are people's views? Is this a violation of academic freedom? On the other hand should a synagogue have to hire an anti-Zionist, borderline anti-Semitic Jew?

I agree 100% with what the bloggers said, I see no lies there! Really telling it like it is, and I admire that.

OTOH, an employer may fire employees it doesnt want around anymore, depending on Union representation and just cause laws and so forth.

Why is a synagogue "hiring schoolteachers" to begin with? Do they teach school in the Synagogue? I'm not trying to criticize, I just seriously dont know.
 
>>We believe our role as white American Jews is to resist the American-israeli military-industrial complex and the ways in which American Jewish support for israel has enabled the genocide in Palestine to continue.<<

applause.gif
 
I agree 100% with what the bloggers said, I see no lies there! Really telling it like it is, and I admire that.

OTOH, an employer may fire employees it doesnt want around anymore, depending on Union representation and just cause laws and so forth.

Why is a synagogue "hiring schoolteachers" to begin with? Do they teach school in the Synagogue? I'm not trying to criticize, I just seriously dont know.
Similar to an islamic madrasa?
 
How about this consideration: Could a rabbinical school fire a teacher who comes to the faith that JESUS is the MASSIAH? I would say absolutely! It is in THEIR interest from their perspective. Do we really need to make an issue of the obvious?
 
I agree 100% with what the bloggers said, I see no lies there! Really telling it like it is, and I admire that.
A wise man once said "there are three sides to every story", your version, the other person's version and what really happened. I find it very hard to draw an equivalence between the Nazis and South African whites during apartheid on one hand, and the Jews on the other.

OTOH, an employer may fire employees it doesnt want around anymore, depending on Union representation and just cause laws and so forth.
That is the law and with some reservations I support it.
Why is a synagogue "hiring schoolteachers" to begin with? Do they teach school in the Synagogue? I'm not trying to criticize, I just seriously dont know.
Childhood Hebrew, mostly for the Bar Mitzvah and weekend religious school. There are Jewish day schools that give "readin', writin' and 'rithmetic" as well but this isn't one of them.
 
A wise man once said "there are three sides to every story", your version, the other person's version and what really happened. I find it very hard to draw an equivalence between the Nazis and South African whites during apartheid on one hand, and the Jews on the other.

I stand with the Freedom Fighters of Palestine JB, may they be shepherded safely through their Holocaust
That is the law and with some reservations I support it.

OK.

Childhood Hebrew, mostly for the Bar Mitzvah and weekend religious school. There are Jewish day schools that give "readin', writin' and 'rithmetic" as well but this isn't one of them

Got it, thanks.
 
What are people's views? Is this a violation of academic freedom? On the other hand should a synagogue have to hire an anti-Zionist, borderline anti-Semitic Jew?
I think calling people anti-Semitic if they criticise any actions or policies of this Israeli government or disagree with the concept of Zionism is disgusting. If that was valid, I don't see why criticising Jews who don't support Israel or Zionism would have to be anti-Semitic too. The core problem here seems to be the idea that some Jews have that there is a fundamental requirement of Judaism to be Zionist and blindly support the state of Israel in anything and everything it does, so anyone who doesn't unconditionally submit to that position can't be a proper Jew. That doesn't make sense to me (for all that matters as a non-Jew) and, more significantly, doesn't make sense to a significant (and apparently growing) number of Jewish people.

Now the specific employment issue is somewhat separate and I'm not clear on the legal basis of the suit being brought but the implication of it being lost would seem to imply that there must be segregation of the Jewish community between Zionists and non-Zionists, which doesn't feel like the right direction for anyone.
 
I think calling people anti-Semitic if they criticise any actions or policies of this Israeli government or disagree with the concept of Zionism is disgusting. If that was valid, I don't see why criticising Jews who don't support Israel or Zionism would have to be anti-Semitic too. The core problem here seems to be the idea that some Jews have that there is a fundamental requirement of Judaism to be Zionist and blindly support the state of Israel in anything and everything it does, so anyone who doesn't unconditionally submit to that position can't be a proper Jew. That doesn't make sense to me (for all that matters as a non-Jew) and, more significantly, doesn't make sense to a significant (and apparently growing) number of Jewish people.

Now the specific employment issue is somewhat separate and I'm not clear on the legal basis of the suit being brought but the implication of it being lost would seem to imply that there must be segregation of the Jewish community between Zionists and non-Zionists, which doesn't feel like the right direction for anyone.
I probably will write more later but let's start with the fact that one-third of world Jewry lives there. Also, remember, one-third of world Jewry was exterminated in Europe in the recent past. Israel and the Jews will, never again, be sitting ducks just to make "world opinion" happy.
 
Spelling the name of Israel with a small i shows quite an amount of stupidity and spite and hatred.
For that alone this person has well deserved to get sacked.
 
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Note that the blog refuses to capitalize Israel, the name of the country.
For that alone this awful person deserved to be sacked.
 
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