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February 10, 2008
Madre de Dios, the Principal is a JEW!!
I'm surprised the Feb. 8 NY Times story "In Bronx School, Culture Shock, Then Revival," didn't get more blog comment. The story was about a Chabadnik becoming principal (the 7th in two years) at a junior high in the Bronx. Reporter Elissa Gootman laid the ethnic anxieties on thick and heavy from the beginning. The story practically writes itself:
Teachers, parents and students at the school, which is mostly Hispanic and black, were equally taken aback by the sight of their new leader: A member of the Chabad-Lubavitch sect of Hasidic Judaism with a beard, a black hat and a velvet yarmulke.“The talk was, ‘You’re not going to believe who’s running the show,’ ” said Lisa DeBonis, now an assistant principal. . .
Mr. Waronker, 39, a former public school teacher, was in the first graduating class of the New York City Leadership Academy, which Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg created in 2003 to groom promising principal candidates. Considered one of the stars, he was among the last to get a job, as school officials deemed him “not a fit” in a city where the tensions between blacks and Hasidic Jews that erupted in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in 1991 are not forgotten.
Think about that "not forgotten." What is that supposed to mean? Who's not forgetting, and what are the implications of memory? That blacks and Hasidic Jews are in a state of eternal warfare?
The story really gets priceless when Gootman interviews a parent:
In fact, one parent, Angie Vazquez, 37, acknowledged that her upbringing had led her to wonder: “Wow, we’re going to have a Jewish person, what’s going to happen? Are the kids going to have to pay for lunch?”
Let's deconstruct what's going on here.
First, I give the Times credit for printing a quote that makes the woman sound like a classic Jew-hater trafficking in stereotypes. I bet Gootman got a lot more quotes like that, and she softpedaled what she really heard. Second, I would like to hear a lot more about Ms. Vazquez's "upbringing" and what else she thinks about Jews. The Times let her off easy (she did become a supporter of Waronker, by the way). Incidently, Ms. Vazquez, what's wrong with paying for your school lunch?
I wonder how the premise would play out in a Jewish or white neighborhood if a minority principal came in. Would the Times go all googly-eyed that the principal succeeded, or would we get a story more along the lines of, "Facing waves of hostility from the racist swine -- many of them Jewish -- who have long treated the school as a bastion of elitist achievements, the new principal remade the school with a bracing dose of multicultural celebration and a grudging acknowledgement of the evils of white privilege."
Honestly, that's the way the story would play.
Van | 02/10/08 at 02:27 PM | Categories: - Jews in odd places
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Comments
"Teachers, parents and students at the school, which is mostly Hispanic and black, were equally taken aback by the sight of their new leader:"
"No, doggonit dagnabbit, Ah said the Sherrif was a n..."
Ben
Ben | February 11, 2008 11:40 AM
While the Crown Heights reference was a bit jarring, it did sort of beg the question: Who has done more for minorities: Al Sharpton in his whole career or Shimon Waronker in the past couple of years?
soccerdad ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.keshertalk.com/nav-commenters.gif)
| February 14, 2008 08:51 AM
'Wow, we're going to have a Jewish...Are the kids going to have to pay for lunch.' In the story of Christ from last Sunday's Mass, an episode of temptation is inserted as he begins his public life. 'The tempter approached and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread." ' It is considered to be expected that a Messiah will provide for peoples demands from 'stones.'
ichael | February 15, 2008 10:37 PM
