NEW YORK – An outcry in Rockland County has resulted in the pulling of an offensive history presentation.
Critics called it anti-Semitic and wholly inaccurate and the school district is now owning up to its mistake.
Clarkstown High School South discontinued the video last week. The video presentation explained why Jews were persecuted in the ancient world.
“The chutzpah, to show a video and produce a video that suggests that Jews were at fault for the persecution they faced?” Yossi Gestetner of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council told CBS2’s Lou Young.
The video was shown in three 9th grade social studies classes last month as part of a lesson about Judaism and Christianity in the Roman Empire.
Some students were immediately offended.
“It’s horrible that something like that existed and how it wasn’t picked up before is astounding,” Steve Gold of the Rockland Jewish Federation said.
The production offered by Study.com was pulled after complaints hit Facebook: a comparison of Judaism and Christianity that scholars say is completely inaccurate, as well as offensive.
Both the Rockland Jewish Federation and the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council complained. The school district reviewed the video calling it “demeaning and historically inaccurate.” The district said use of the video “was a mistake.”
Study.com issued a statement saying, “We apologize that the video seemed offensive. That was certainly not what we intended.”
It is no longer available. Experts on religion and ancient Rome say it never should have been.
“It was not historically accurate in any way; not religiously accurate either. It perpetuated very, very bad stereotypes because people have bad history and this is bad history,” Iona College Professor Elena Procario said.
Contacted by CBS2, the Anti-Defamation League weighed in condemning the video and praising the school district for its quick action.
Clarkstown’s schools superintendent has apologized after 9th-graders were shown a video depicting Jews in a negative light compared to Christians under the Roman Empire.
Superintendent J. Thomas Morton responded to criticism from parents and Jewish leaders with a letter Tuesday, after meeting with Rockland Jewish leaders on Monday. He declined to comment Wednesday on the video and how it got approved.
The video, which the district had approved for students, portrayed the experiences of Jews and Christians as seen by their Roman overseers during the first century across what’s now Israel and surrounding countries. School officials would not comment further on who, if anyone, had screened it ahead of time or how it came to be part of the curriculum.
The Journal News reviewed a copy of the video on Wednesday. Through the eyes of the Romans, it portrays Jews as aggressors, as warriors and – at the same time – aloof from other members of society and unwilling to speak the language of the community. Christians were portrayed as victims of the Romans.
The video concludes by comparing the Jews to 1960s firebrand Malcolm X and the Christians to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who preached passive resistance.
“The video depicted Judaism in a demeaning and historically inaccurate way,” Morton wrote to parents and staff. “The principal and the teacher have worked with the students and their families to underscore that the use of this video was a mistake and to address any concerns they may have regarding this experience.”
Morton wrote he also had shared those concerns with the company that created the video, and that the company, which he did not name, had responded by removing the video from its offerings.
Clarkstown South High School principal Debra Tarantino also apologized to district families in a separate letter sent Jan.. 24.
School administrators, led by Morton and the history teacher met Monday with leaders with the Rockland Jewish Federation, the Holocaust Museum of Tolerance and Education, and local rabbis.
Rockland Jewish Federation leaders, in a letter to their members on Tuesday, said the video misrepresented Judaism and students troubled by it spoke with their parents, who in turn contacted the federation and their rabbis. The letter said the district counseled the teacher and she discussed with her classes why the video was misleading.
“Our goal in meeting was to insure that this type of incident would not happen again,” the federation’s letter said. “Additionally, we sought confirmation that students and parents could feel comfortable and know they would be taken seriously when speaking to educators about troubling, offensive or inappropriate school events.”
The civil rights’ focused Anti-Defamation League also spoke out Wednesday, saying that the video espoused anti-Semitic myths and suggested Judaism was inferior to Christianity. The ADL also took issue with the video’s chart comparing Jews and Christians that said Jews “got what they deserved.”
“We are profoundly troubled that someone in the school thought that this video would be a good teaching tool to show the differences between Judaism and Christianity,” ADL Regional Director Evan Bernstein said.
The ADL, founded in 1913, said their educators would work with the school district on anti-bias education and combating anti-Semitism.
Among others issuing statements criticizing the video were Rockland County Legislator Aron Wieder, D-Spring Valley and the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council.