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2007-08-25 Home Front: Culture Wars

US school ordered to halt Hebrew classes

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Posted by gromgoru 2007-08-25 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 Guilty until proven innocent.

Posted by gorb 2007-08-25 01:37|| 2007-08-25 01:37|| Front Page Top

#2 So, now we're less enlightened than people during the Middle Ages? It's not like you couldn't take a Herbew lessen in mideavel France, you know.

I wonder what would happen if you banned Arabic...

Posted by Secret Master 2007-08-25 01:46|| 2007-08-25 01:46|| Front Page Top

#3 Public schools in San Francisco teach all sorts of languages, including Hebrew.

This is plain anti-semitic harassment - that or politically motivated harassment of a charter school because it is a charter school.

Posted by buwaya 2007-08-25 02:40|| 2007-08-25 02:40|| Front Page Top

#4 According to Kabbalistic legend, the Hebrew language is inextricably interwoven with the Jewish faith. Go ahead, ban it right along with how Arabic is the sole and proper language of the Koran. No? THEN FUCK OFF!

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-08-25 03:39|| 2007-08-25 03:39|| Front Page Top

#5 Every Muslim text includes a reference to Muhammed as the "last prophet." Ergo: they negate ALL other faiths. In fact, one Muslim cult - Ahmadiyyah - with dogma that allows for belief that the nominal Muslim deity communicates to post Muhammed humans, is banned throughout the Muslim primitivocracies. The Paki constitution has a provision, denouncing the Ahmadiyyahs as a "non-Muslim minority." Real tolerance! They should get, what they give us.

Posted by McZoid 2007-08-25 03:55|| 2007-08-25 03:55|| Front Page Top

#6 Maybe I'm missing something here, guys, but....

1) There's no mention of any kind of Islamic "problem" with the school, so what's up with the anti-Muslim stuff? Please keep it on topic.

and

2) If there is actual religious teaching going on, paid for by taxpayer dollars, that's a big negatory, regardless of what faith is being taught.

It can a thin line, and based on the info in the article I don't know where to draw it in this specific case. I give credit to the people running the school who are trying to encourage the study of Hebrew and yet stay within the laws governing a charter school.

If the parents want religious instruction during the school day, that's perfectly ok. They just don't have the right to have it funded with taxpayer dollars.

Posted by Swamp Blondie 2007-08-25 07:55|| 2007-08-25 07:55|| Front Page Top

#7 SB, without likely additional factors not mentioned in the article, in principle, I agree with you.

If the school decides to fight the ruling, they'd have ample precedent established by the US 9th circuit court of appeals, as mentioned at this link (the Supremes recently denied cert for the appeal against the 9th's ruling).

Posted by mrp 2007-08-25 09:04|| 2007-08-25 09:04|| Front Page Top

#8 Banned Hebrew phrases, BIN, Au, Ast etc:

1. "She BIN had dat han'-made dress" (SE: She's had that hand-made dress for a long time, and still does.)
2. "Befo' you know it, he be done aced de tesses." (SE Before you know it, he will have already aced the tests.)
3. "Ah 'on know what homey be doin." (SE: I don't know what my friend is usually doing.)
AAVE: "Can't nobody tink de way he do." (SE: Nobody can think the way he does.)
4. "I ast Ruf could she bring it ovah to Tom crib." (SE: I asked Ruth if/whether she could bring it over to Tom's place.)

Posted by Besoeker 2007-08-25 09:37|| 2007-08-25 09:37|| Front Page Top

#9 Interesting that the scrutiny here seemed to have begun from within the school (probably from some anti-Semite) but the so called Arabic school in NYC (which is more likely a madrassa and certainly had an Islamic component) had no such scrutiny from within.

Posted by hammerhead 2007-08-25 10:39|| 2007-08-25 10:39|| Front Page Top

#10 I'm hoping trailing wife might please weigh in on this topic and provide us with some insights regarding whether it is possible to properly teach Hebrew without making any allusions to or transmission of knowledge about Judaism.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-08-25 12:49|| 2007-08-25 12:49|| Front Page Top

#11 There's a big difference in proselytizing and putting a religion in a favorable light.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2007-08-25 12:56|| 2007-08-25 12:56|| Front Page Top

#12 Zenster: Hebrew is a modern language (once again), and can easily be taught without any reference whatsoever to the Jewish religion or even to Israel as a Jewish nation. There are 2000 years worth of secular literary works -- fiction, poetry, the various sciences, philosophy, history -- that can be studied once a higher level of language fluency has been acquired, just as is available to serious students of French or Chinese. On the religious side, the fact that some of the books of the New Testament were clearly originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, or were written in Greek by native Aramaic speakers, allows for discussion even of the religious side of the language taking a purely Jewish approach. Even some of the literature of the Old Testament, say the Song of Songs, can be addressed as a beautiful example of a Middle Eastern wedding song, still composed and sung by Muslims in the Arab world today.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-08-25 16:27|| 2007-08-25 16:27|| Front Page Top

#13 tw, thank you for clarifying. Now, I have to wonder what all the brou-ha-ha was about in Hollyweird.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-08-25 16:37|| 2007-08-25 16:37|| Front Page Top

#14 #8 Besoeker, have you been spying on my 6th, 7th and 8th grade classes???

Posted by WolfDog 2007-08-25 21:01|| 2007-08-25 21:01|| Front Page Top

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