Yes, we should be challenging Zionism in schools

As a retired public high school teacher and Jewish peace advocate, I was excited to co-organize a summer series titled “Challenging Zionism in Schools.” 

Our series of four workshops — which was noticed and not appreciated by a recent oped writer — was designed to challenge existing indoctrination embedded in the curriculum, which conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism in an effort to censor teaching and learning.

I have tried to set the record straight by testifying before school boards to clarify that antisemitism is bigotry toward Jews for being Jewish, whereas anti-Zionism is political opposition to a nation-state. To conflate the two risks the safety of Jewish people around the world who may be unfairly blamed for Israel’s militarism, including what Amnesty International and the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry have labeled Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza. 

To teach students that anti-Zionism can be labeled as “contemporary antisemitism” borders on antisemitic tropes. It stereotypes Jews as monolithically supporting the state of Israel.  Furthermore, such conflation threatens to rob our students of the opportunity to critically examine Zionism.

Is Zionism simply a desire for Jewish self-determination and statehood in an ancestral homeland? Or is Zionism a colonial project to violently impose a Jewish state on a subjugated Palestinian population?

Critical analysis should never be off-limits. To........

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