Analysis of ADL Report

Parents for Excellence in Newton Schools
Analysis of ADL Report Released December, 2013

Introduction
This is an analysis of an ADL Report issued in December, 2013. The Report discusses an
advertisement published by the group Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) in several
Boston-area newspapers in October, 2013. The advertisement claimed that the Newton Public
Schools (NPS) uses biased, anti-Israel material; gave purported examples of those materials;
and urged readers to telephone NPS Superintendent David Fleishman and School Committee
Vice-Chair Matthew Hills to express their concern.
The Report is extremely critical of the APT advertisement. PENS agrees that the ad is unreliable
and misleading. It is inaccurate, antagonistic, and caused division and dissent within the Jewish
community.
However, the ADL Report is problematic as well. Perhaps the most problematic issue is why the
Report was written in the first place. The APT advertisement did not target the ADL, the Jewish
community, or Israel. The APT itself is a small, relatively unknown group ignored by most local
residents.
The ADL only reviewed a small part of material used by the NPS in high school history courses the six items mentioned in the advertisement. The reason for reviewing only a small portion of
the challenged material used by the NPS is unclear.
Regardless of whether the APT advertisement was accurate, it is clear that objectionable, antiIsrael material has in fact been used by the NPS, in some cases for years. An example is The
Arab World Studies Notebook, which was removed by school administrators in June, 2012.
The removal of objectionable material was not done at the instigation of either the NPS or ADL.
The material was discovered by parents and students and removed only after public protest.
Why is the ADL using its limited resources to defend the NPS against claims that it uses antiIsrael statements? There does not appear to be any legitimate answer to this question. In its
Report, the ADL dismisses these claims by giving credence to unsubstantiated NPS contentions.
Why does the ADL believe, without investigation, NPS denials over the proven claims of parents
and students? It is clear that false, anti-Israel material, including the Notebook and other works,
was given to student in NPS high school history classes. Shouldnt the ADL be interested in
reviewing student material instead of spending its resources countering an advertisement by a
small, little-known group?
APT members are not the only residents concerned about NPS class material. Many residents
have spoken at School Committee meetings, emailed and called school administrators, and
made formal requests to review class material. It is clear that many, many more residents
besides the small and almost unknown APT are concerned about this issue.
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PENS itself played a major role in convincing the NPS to remove those chapters of the Notebook
remaining after November, 2011. We are also responsible for the removal of the website
Flashpoints from a list of recommended resources at Newton North High School and changes
made in a chapter of the book A Muslim Primer, given to 9th grade students. (The next goal is
the removal of the book itself).
By analyzing only the materials discussed in the APT ad, the ADL appears not only uninterested
in whether the Newton materials are truly biased, but that its only interest is protecting the NPS,
which neither needs nor deserves ADL protection. It is doubtful that this is the image the ADL
wants to project.
The Report itself is full of inaccuracies and misleading statements. It relies solely upon the
claims of Newton Public Schools (NPS) administrators, with no attempt to ascertain whether
those claims are accurate.
Moreover, the Report is poorly researched to the extent that one wonders whether the material
reviewed was actually read. An example is the ADLs conclusion that the website Flashpoints is
appropriate to present to students with[out] additional context, when even a cursory reading of
the site clearly shows that its numerous factual errors, overt biases, and outright antisemitism
renders it entirely inappropriate for use by students or anyone use.
This analysis will address several matters raised by the ADL Report. Readers should note that
the Reports sections on the materials "A World Where Womanhood Reigns Supreme" and
"Islamic History: The Coming of the West" are not discussed, either because it appears that the
material in question was in fact used for discussion purposes ("A World Where Womanhood)
or because the material could not be fouond ("Islamic History").
Issues and Questions
1. Premise of the ADL Report
Why does the Report discuss only materials mentioned in the advertisement published by
Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT)? Shouldnt the Jewish community, and certainly an
organization purporting to fight discrimination on behalf of the Jewish community, look at all
materials used in the Newton Public Schools (NPS) and not just those used in an advertisement
by a small fringe group?
2. Was the Objectionable Statement in the Arab World Studies Notebook Used To Teach About
Bias?
In the Report, the ADL accepts without question the NPS contention that the statement in the
Notebook claiming:
several hundred [Arab women] have been imprisoned, tortured
or killed by Israeli occupation forces since the uprising, Intifada,
in the Israeli occupied territories began in 1987
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was actually used to teach about bias, and not in the context of advancing a political viewpoint
is problematic. An analysis of the statement shows that it very much advances a political
viewpoint, and that in fact advancing that viewpoint appears to be the statements purpose.
The statement occurs at the end of a section called The March of Veiled Woman and the
Nationalists in the chapter Arab Women: An Introduction in the Arab World Studies Notebook.
The use of the phrases Israeli occupation forces and Israeli occupied territories clearly
indicate that the statement is meant to present a political point of view. Those terms are typically
used by anti-Israel groups in place of the neutral terms Israeli army and disputed territories.
The description of the intifada as a spontaneous uprising instead of a planned outbreak of
violence is also a political viewpoint, one that has been proven wrong by historical sources.
It is doubtful that teacher had the class read an entire six-page chapter in order to illustrate a
single instance of bias. A more likely scenario is that the chapter was used, as indicated in its
description, to teach about Arab women, and that the statements in the chapter were intended to
be taken as accurate.
Certainly the tone of the chapter as well as its topics, which include Women in the
Contemporary Arab World, Women in Education, Professional Women, Women in the Arts
and Humanities, Women in Sports, Women in Government, and Continuing Progress,
confirm that that the chapter is a rather bland overview of the ongoing progress of Arab
Women. There is no indication that the chapter is meant to be used as the starting point for a
discussion of controversial issues. The defamatory statement about Israel and Israelis was
meant to be taken as fact, not as an example of bias.
Of course, the best way to determine how the statement was used is to ask students in the class
where it was presented. The student who brought the statement to public attention did not say
that it was used as an example of bias; her contention (and the reason for her distress about the
statement) was that it was presented as truth. Unless the ADL has another source of evidence excluding the teacher whose job is at stake - confirming its claim that the statement was used as
an example of bias, its conclusion is untenable.
The Arab World Studies Notebook is no longer used in Newton schools. However, the ADL
Report omits the important fact that the removal was not due to the NPS realizing that for years
it had been using a text funded by the Saudi Arabian government and excoriated by religious,
education and community groups including the American Jewish Council, the Institute for Jewish
and Community Relations, Thomas More Foundation, the Textbook League, and Algonquin First
Nations Tribe of Canada.
Somehow, during its several years of use and even after a chapter was found to contain false,
anti-Israel and arguably antisemitic content, not a single person in the entire Newton school
district ever thought to take the ten seconds required to look up the Notebook on a search
engine, or to examine other sections of the Notebook still in use to see if they also contained
false or objectionable claims. It was left to students and parents to find that information. The NPS
failed teachers, students, and community members and ignored its mandate to provide students
with accurate, non-biased, and appropriate class materials.
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Class material not previously approved by the state or local school district must by law to be
vetted and approved by a responsible party. Apparently this was never done with the Notebook
and other material still in use.
There does not appear to be any NPS official responsible for ensuring that material used by
students is accurate and bias-free. When no one is in charge of reviewing class material, is it
any wonder it is substandard?
The Notebook was removed only after parents and community members spent months attending
School Committee meetings, emailing and calling School Committee members and NPS
administrators, writing letters and blog posts, and taking other action to overcome the resistance
of administrators and the School Committee to removing the biased materials. The ADL was
nowhere in sight during this process.
3. Flashpoints
The ADL reports that Flashpoints is not an article ADL would support being presented to
students without further context. Flashpoints is not an article but a website at
www.flashpoints.info. It was on a list of resources recommended by the library at Newton North
High School until removed in October, 2012.
In addition to presenting a biased and inaccurate account of Israeli history in the section
Country Briefing: Israel/Palestine, Flashpoints is overtly antisemitic, and exhibits bias against
Christians and Muslims as well. For example, the section Insight & Analysis states:
[M]any Jews have nearly identical feelings [that they want
to destroy the land of and eliminate Arabs], plus a belief that
they have special rights and entitlements, free from constraints
of the court of world opinion or international law...
Little wonder that Israeli Defense Forces feel free to invade
and re-occupy Palestinian territory at will, or that Zionist
settlers feel justified in driving Palestinians from the land
and establishing new settlements, with little concern that
they might some day be required to return to their internationally
mandated borders
The website contains numerous other examples of anti-Israeli propaganda, almost invariably in
conjunction with the presentation of almost ludicrously false facts. For example, the section
Terrorism & Political Violence states that the U.S. subverted the fledgling pan-Arab movement
(which began in the early 1900s) in an effort[s] to protect Israel (which was not founded until
1948), and that Israel (population 7 million) is a military powerhouse as compared to Arab
nations (population 370 million).
The same section states that there are no democratic states in the Middle East and repeats the
canard that Al-Qaeda was created in reaction to a nuclear-armed Israel. Besides the
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fact that Israel is believed to have had nuclear arms since the late 1960s and al-Qaeda was not
founded until twenty years later, the philosophy of Al-Qaeda concerns the reestablishment of a
pure Islamic state and is not a reaction to Israel (founded 1948).
The website also claims, incredibly and contrary to all historical evidence, that [T]he Jews
attacked immediately after the U.N. declaration of partition in 1947, and equally incredibly, that it
was only high-visibility terrorism that convinced the U.S. of the need to negotiate a solution to
the Middle East concept. These fantastical distortions all appear in just one (Terrorism &
Political Violence) of the thirteen parts of the section on Issue Briefings.
It would take many, many pages to address the anti-Israel distortions in the other twelve parts of
Issue Briefings, much less distortions in the sections on Conflict Briefings, Insight &
Analysis, and Dispatches of the Flashpoints website.
The issue here is not, however, the (undoubtedly vast) number of false anti-Israel statements in
Flashpoints but how the ADL could possibly claim, under any circumstances, that it would
support [the website] being presented to students even with additional context.
The ADL correctly states that the website is no longer being used. It ignores, however, that its
removal did not occur because the NPS realized it was inappropriate, but because private
citizens - the very same people that the NPS attacks as confused and need[ing] reassurance
- reported to the website to school librarians who, to their credit, took their concerns seriously.
4. A Muslim Primer
Regarding the book A Muslim Primer, the ADL Report states that it would not advocate for its
censorship for availability from a library. (sic). Although this sentence does not make sense, it
appears that the ADL is attempting to say is that it would not advocate that the book be censored
from a school library. Considering that no one (except the ADL itself) has suggested censoring
books from NPS libraries or anywhere else, its puzzling why the topic was brought up at all.
The only criticisms of A Muslim Primer in the ADL Report concern its use of a quote by Islamic
radical Sayyid Qutb, non-constructive references to Islams rejection of Christianity and
Judaism, and the books failure to discuss the differences between the three religions in a
thoughtful way. None of these appears in the section of the book assigned to students.
The ADL also helpfully lets readers know that they have been assured by Newton school
officials that [A Muslim Primer] is not being used as a text in classrooms. It does not inform
those readers how this assurance fits in with the admission by the Chair of the History
Department at Newton North High School that students do in fact read A Muslim Primer. It is
difficult to determine what, if any, distinction there is between material that is used in classrooms
and material used as a text in classrooms.
Unfortunately, the ADLs self-imposed restriction on reviewing class material only to the extent is
was used in the APT advertisement has caused the organization to misunderstand how the book
was actually used. As far as can be ascertained, only one chapter, titled The Status of Women
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was used by Newton students (although claims made in other parts of the book are relevant in
determining the books quality).
Although the book purports to be a comprehensive review of Islam, the chapter discussing
womens status under Islamic law omits a vital topic - the age at which women and girls marry, or
are forced to marry. The issue of child marriage, although not an issue in all parts of the Muslim
world, is a major problem. Millions of girls as young as ten or even younger are forced to marry,
and have their marriages forcibly consummated, with religious and parental approval. This and
childhood pregnancy results in childbirth-related problems including hemorrhaging, permanent
physical disability, stillbirth, and death. It is difficult to imagine a more important issue affecting
the lives of girls and young women. Its omission renders to chapter inherently unreliable.
For reasons of time and space, additional inaccuracies in the chapter read by Newton students
will be omitted. These include the contentions, disputed by contemporary scholars, that twothirds of women in pre-Islamic Arabia were slaves who went about scantily attired and often
topless (which would be fatal in desert windstorms and would expose slaves to severe
sunburn). Another contention, that much of what the Quran advocates for women was not seen
in the West until one hundred years ago also ignores historical records and fails to take into
consideration the right to vote, travel, choose ones marriage partner, and several other rights.
The NPS agreed to remove the chapters claim that [s]ocial and economic conditions are forcing
the [Catholic] Church to reconsider polygamy as a Christian option via the use of white-out, as it
might mislead students.
With respect to other statements in A Muslim Primer relevant to its reliability, both the ADL and
the NPS might take into account the books contention that the late astronaut Neil Armstrong was
Muslim, and that it cites the claim that only the threat to his job by government agents
prevented him from spreading that news to the world. Both organizations might also consider the
Primers massive inflation of the number of Muslims in the U.S. and worldwide - up to 300%
more than objective figures suggest. The books description of the late Ayatollah Khomeini as
simply a great Shiite theologian great Shiite theologian also provides a clue to its reliability.
Considering the Primers numerous, significant, and at times almost fantastical errors, the ADLs
mild summation that it would not support its use in a classroom to teach about world religions
(but would allow its use to teach about something else?) is generous indeed.
5. Anti-Israel Map Graphic
The ADL repeats the NPS claim that a graphic outline of four maps used in Newton schools was
revealed as actually one part of a packet of a range of other maps utilized to provide diverse
perspectives. The graphic, which purports to show the shrinkage in Palestinian land between
1900 and 2000, is similar to a controversial advertisement placed in Boston train stations by an
anti-Israel group. The ADL condemned the subway graphic as deliberately misleading and
biased and an attempt to delegitimatiz[e] Israel.
Is the graphic as used in Newton schools truly part of a packet of a range of other maps utilized
to provide diverse perspectives? This educational doublespeak appears to mean that the map
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was one of several used to show both Israeli and Arab perspectives of territorial boundaries and
armistice lines between during the relevant years.
Although one would like to believe the ADL, the fact it relies solely on NPS claims without
independent investigation (in fact, the use of educationalese seems to indicate that the NPS
actually wrote that part of the Report) indicates it is inherently unreliable, as a number of other
NPS statements have been shown to be inaccurate. More information - such as the maps
allegedly used in the packet of a range of other maps - is needed. Absent that, the answer to
the question of whether the ADLs claim can be believed is maybe.
6. Israeli History Timeline
An example of material the ADL ignores is the Timeline of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict used
in Newton high school history classes. The Timeline, which was prepared under the supervision
of anti-Israel Professor Mark LeVine, presents itself as a neutral source of information giving
both Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. In fact, the Timeline is anything but neutral.
The Timeline ignores the Jewish connection with Israel, the fact that Jews were the majority
presence in pre-state Israels two largest cities for hundreds of years, and the fact that there was
not more of a Jewish presence in pre-state Israel because Jews were forbidden to enter. It
distorts the reasons and history behind the 1947-8, 1967, and 1973 wars. Incredibly, the Timeline
completely reverses the meaning of U.N. Resolution 242 by ignoring the original English version
and accepting as true misleading translations by Israels enemies.
The Timeline also downplays PLO and Hamas terrorism, inaccurately describes the first and
second intifadas as spontaneous uprisings instead of planned wars of terror on civilians, and
gives credence to the use of terror as a negotiating tactic by falsely claiming that the 1987-1990
Terror War was responsible for changing Israel public opinion to favor a two-state solution.
The group StandWithUs has issued an analysis of the Timeline, and CAMERA researcher Steve
Stotsky has written an excellent article about both the Timeline and the situation with classroom
materials in Newton schools. ADL officials would be well advised to read them.
The ADL is supposed to be standing against anti-Jewish discrimination, including inaccurate and
biased school material. Why is the organization taking the side of a school district that distributes
clearly anti-Israel and arguably antisemitic materials such as the Timeline and the Arab World
Studies Notebook?
7. 2010 Professional Development Workshop at Newton South High School
The Report states:
On several occasions, APT has also claimed that Newton
schools use of Paul Beran, Director of the Outreach Center
at Harvard Universitys Center for Middle Eastern Studies,
to present to Newton school teachers on potential teaching
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approaches and resources reflected its use of Saudi-funded
hate speech...
This convoluted sentence appears to be a statement by the ADL that the APT claims that Paul
Berans, Director of the Outreach Center at Harvard Universitys Center for Middle Eastern
Studies (CMES), presented material to Newton teachers, and that the presentation reflected its
[whose?] use of Saudi-funded hate speech.
In other words, the ADL is claiming that the APTs concerns are invalid because it has now been
revealed that Berans never spoke to Newton teachers about potential teaching approaches
and resources but instead spoke about the Oslo accords sometime prior to 2009.
However, the Outreach Center website states that Berans presented a workshop to eighty
Newton teachers at Newton South High School in 2010 about Conflict in Israel and the
Occupied Territories. Matthew Hills, Vice-Chair of the Newton School Committee, also verbally
confirmed that the workshop took place. A report by the Committee on Accuracy in Middle East
Reporting in America (CAMERA) also references a seminar given by the Outreach Center at
Newton South High School, although it gives the date as 2011, not 2010.
In fact, there has been an ongoing association between the NPS and the Outreach Center dating
from at least 2008 (when a Newton teacher co-taught with Berans a workshop on Teaching
Religion Using the Cultural Studies Method, using Islam as an example, and Newton South
High School students participated in a workshop taught by Berans) through 2010, with Newton
teachers participating and co-facilitating a wide variety of programs.
Reporting this is not intended in any way to impugn the teachers who participated in Outreach
Center programs or imply they did anything wrong. The fact that they participated in professional
development activities is commendable.
Instead, the question must be asked of the NPS and ADL: Why was the NPS not forthcoming
about its relationship with the Outreach Center, and why did the ADL repeat their claims without
question when basic research would uncover the truth?
7. Evidence that the APTs Allegations are Without Merit
The ADL cites statements from the American Jewish Committee, Barry Shrage (President of
Boston Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJ)), and a Joint Statement by CJP, the Jewish
Community Relations Council (JCRC), and itself claiming that the APT advertisement is meritless
as proof that it is. The evidence presented by the ADL is a tautology. Saying that something
isnt true does make it so.
In addition, the evidence does not address the real question. The issue is not whether the
APT advertisement is accurate, but whether Newton schools are using anti-Israel
materials in the curriculum. Unless and until the ADL issues a full report on the real issue - one
that is truly independent and does not reply on the NPS self-serving statements - it will continue
to fail not only the Jews of Boston, but the entire Jewish people.
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8. The ADL Misrepresents the Decision by the Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education
The Report states:
In response to a complaint filed in May 2013, the Massachusetts
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education found that
no violation of education law, regulation or policy has occurred
with regard to concerns about anti-Israel curriculum and materials
in Newton public schools.
This claim entirely misrepresents the finding made by the Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education (DESE) (the DESE was formerly called the Massachusetts Department of
Education).
The ADL Report takes the partial sentence no violation of education lawoccurred and adds
to it an entirely different meaning than was originally written.
The full text of the sentence, which appears in a DESE letter dated September 17, 2013, reads:
Based on the information gathered, my inquiries indicate that no
violation of education law, regulation or policy has occurred with
regard to the specific concern(s) you have raised. I am advising
the District of this finding by copy of this letter.
The specific concerns raised are set forth in a letter from the DESE to the NPS dated June 10,
2013. The letter states that with respect to the Complaint, the only issue to be addressed by the
DESE is whether the NPS conducted the requisite review of instructional material pursuant to
603 CMR 26.05(2). That provision reads:
Teachers shall review all instructional and educational materials
for simplistic and demeaning generalizations, lacking intellectual
merit, on the basis of race, color, sex, gender identity, religion,
national origin or sexual orientation. Appropriate activities, discussions and/or supplementary materials shall be used to provide
balance and context for any such stereotypes depicted in such materials.
The finding that no violation of education lawoccurred relates to the alleged violation of 603
CMR 26.05(2), regarding the review of educational materials. It is not a finding with regard to
concerns about anti-Israel curriculum and materials in Newton public schools. That
sentence is the ADLs own addition to the DESEs findings.
The ADLs statement regarding the DESEs findings is both inaccurate and misleading.
9. Failure to Obtain Complete Set of Materials or Investigate NPS Refusal to Provide Class
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Materials as Required by Law
The APT advertisement states that the NPS wants $1,600.00 for a set of materials used in high
school history classes, and also states that School Committee Vice-President Matt Hills
instructed NPS staff not to let citizens see the offending material.
The ADL report does not address these charges, which are essentially true.
At a time when both private institutions such as Harvard and MIT, and other Massachusetts
public schools including nearby Hopkinton, publish not only course material but teacher notes,
assignments, etc. online, a charge of over $1,600 is unreasonable, especially because the way
the charge is computed violates Massachusetts public records regulations.
Pursuant to those regulations, staff time must be charged at the rate of the lowest-paid employee
capable of obtaining the material. Considering that all or almost all class material is accessible in
digital form, it would take no more than a few minutes per class for an employee of average
intelligence to collect the necessary files.
Instead, the NPS demands that citizens pay up to $81.09 per hour for staff to find and copy a
computer file, and states it will take approximately two hours per class (for a total of nearly 80
hours) to print out class materials. (NPS letter dated November 19, 2012, below). Although other
public records requests asked for digital files instead of copies, the NPS continued to respond as
if the request for digital files was not made (copies, and the time required to make them, are
many times more expensive).
With respect to the NPS policy that parents and others who request materials are not given
relevant records, an email from School Committee Vice-Chair Matt Hills dated July 8, 2012
reads:
We have spoken to David Fleishman] about questions regarding
the controversy surrounding the history class in the high school.
This was an issue dealt with early last fall and has long ceased to
be a concern for almost every person who has weighed in on the
issue. As a matter of policywe asked David and the NPS team
not to collect and disseminate curriculum information for this or any
other course other than to the extent it is normally distributed to students
There is an FOIA request outstanding that, if pursued, will lead to
the NPS compiling certain curriculum information. Given the policy
issue and given the FOIA request, we have asked David to avoid
compiling and distributing curriculum for this or any other course,
including the request that you sent to him.
The person responsible for responding to public records requests is Superintendent Fleishman,
not Matt Hills. The emails implication - that Hills, rather than school administrators, called the
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shots with respect to what material parents would receive, and whether the issue of inaccuracy
and/or bias in school material would be taken seriously - is stunning.
While the response (if any) from Superintendent Fleishman or other administrators is not known,
the tone of the email indicates that Hills was accustomed to directing administrators on how to
perform job functions. Hills directive is unlawful. School administrators are required to perform
their jobs, which include responding to public records requests, to the best of their ability.
Deliberately withholding relevant information in the NPS response to those requests violates not
only the responsibilities of the position of Superintendent, but public trust. It is disturbing that one
individual was apparently freely given the power to determine not only policy, but whether the
NPS would act in a responsible and lawful manner.
Moreover, the same person appears to be in charge of determining how, or whether, the NPS
responds to a matter of public importance. Despite the fact that Superintendent Fleishman had
ordered the remaining sections of the Arab World Studies Notebook removed less than three
weeks before the email was written, the fact that Matt Hills had decided that the issue had long
since ceased to be a concern was the apparently the factor determining whether or not the NPS
would continue to address the issue.
From nearly a year after the email was written, the NPS refused to respond in any way to
parents remaining concerns about the curriculum. It was only after a formal Complaint was filed
with the DESE that NPS administrators agreed to meet regarding these concerns.
The Reports failure to address these issues renders it useless for any reason other than to
answer several allegations by a small, relatively unknown group. If that is all the ADL has to offer
with respect to the important issue of anti-Israel material in Newton schools, it might as well not
address the issue at all.
Conclusion
The APT advertisement is inaccurate and misleading. Unfortunately, the ADL Report purporting
to investigate the charge that:
Newton public schools curriculum uses Saudi-funded hate
And anti-Israel materials and texts in classrooms in order
to demonize Israel and Jews, and glorify Islam
is inaccurate and misleading as well.
Although the first sentence of the Report concerns the depiction of NPS materials and texts,
the Report itself only addresses charges set forth in the APT advertisement. Obviously, the
specific items mentioned in the advertisement do not include all material used in NPS high
school history courses.
The first sentence of the Joint Statement by the ADL, Jewish Community Relations Council
(JCRC), and Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) also states that the APTs claims concern
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classes and programs at Newton Public Schools. The following sentence, Based on a careful
review of the materials at issuethere is substantial reason to believe that the allegations made
in the ad are without merit. The Joint Statement does not clearly state that the allegations it is
investigating are not classes and programs at Newton Public Schools, but five specific claims
made in an advertisement. Instead, the wording of the Joint Statement might lead a reader to
believe that the ADL had reviewed classes and programs at Newton Public Schools instead of
only five pieces of material.
The first sentence of the Joint Statements second paragraph exemplifies the weaknesses of
both it and the Report. It reads:
We trust that this is reassuring to members of our community
and that claims made against members of the Newton School
Committee can now be put to rest.
There is no reason why a careful review (which in fact does not seem to have been all that
careful, infra.) of only five items given to students in a two-year course at two Newton high
schools would be reassure anyone as to the use of anti-Israel material in those schools, especially since the use of those materials had already been proven.
Also, there is no reason why Newton residents (or anyone else) would be concerned about
claims made against members of the Newton School Committee. In the first place, the APT
advertisement (assuming that is what the Joint Statement was referring to) did not make any
claims against members of the Newton School Committee. The advertisement did make one
claim about one School Committee member - Vice-Chair Matt Hills.
The advertisements claim was that Hills told NPS staff not to let citizens view offending
materials. While the ads claim is not entirely accurate - Hills did not tell NPS staff to withhold
offending material per se - Hills did in fact tell NPS staff to withhold material.
Nothing in the Report gave any reassurance to Newton residents that this unlawful situation had
been addressed, and indeed the Report makes no note of this.
Is the Report meant to be a review of all NPS high school material or the entire NPS curriculum
(which is what it implies), or is it meant solely to refute the APT advertisement? If the Report is
meant to address the NPS curriculum as a whole it has not done the job, as it only addresses a
small part of that curriculum. If the Report is meant to address only the APT advertisement, it
should clearly say so. And if the Report is meant to address only the
advertisement, one may reasonably ask why the ADL is spending its limited time and resources
on an argument it has no reason to be involved with at all.
There is no doubt that the NPS has utilized inaccurate, anti-Israel material in the past, until
forced to remove it by parents, students, and other community members. It is likely that
inaccurate, anti-Israel material is in use right now - the Timeline described above is an example.
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Because of NPS tactics such as withholding material it is required by law to give to the parents,
and because of the failure of the ADL and other Jewish communal organizations to provide
leadership on this issue, the extent to which anti-Israel material appears in the NPS curriculum is
unknown.
The Report sheds no light on this topic, and instead obfuscates the issue. If the ADL is to retain
credibility, it needs to fulfill its mandate by obtaining a complete and accurate set of materials in
NPS World History and European History classes, reviewing those materials thoroughly,
requesting the NPS to place the materials online, and placing its full report online. The Jews of
Boston, and the Jewish people, deserve no less.
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Analysis of ADL Report

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Analysis of ADL Report

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Parents for Excellence in Newton Schools