Jewish History Month?
"At the end of the month, my son came to me and hung his head and said: 'I waited all month, and we didn’t do ONE thing for Jewish History Month.' Who was he waiting on? And what was I waiting for?"
By Allison Task
April 20, 2006 was a big day for American Jews. On that day, President George W. Bush officially proclaimed May as Jewish American History Month (JAHM). This year, 2024, was our 18th year.
And so here we are. In the month that Jews were globally celebrating Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Ha-Atzmaut, and Israeli Independence Day, the United States was to celebrate the Jewish contribution to American history. According to Wikipedia, the day is to celebrate the inspiring history of Jewish people in America; educate diverse public audiences about Jewish culture; and spark crucial conversations about the American Jewish present and future."
How did you celebrate?
My guess is that like me, you didn’t. My town made a proclamation in a town council meeting, but no, there was no interfaith celebration of Jewish thinkers, no Jewish movie night, or acknowledgement of Jewish contributions to American arts, sciences, etc. No educating of diverse public audiences, latkes or hamentashen in May.
Asian American and Pacific Islander History Month also happens to be celebrated in May. Though the school district acknowledged both, together, in a district wide email, only one group had PTA-sponsored events with authors from that culture reading children's books, in-school assemblies, etc. Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) is an ethnically-focused nonprofit in my community — a formidable force that hosts Diwali celebrations, Lunar New Year festivals, and Lantern events for the whole town. And those PTA-sponsored events in collaboration with AAPI were great. AAPI is funded, resourced, and structured.
My town doesn’t have Jewish cultural organizations that spread the word of Judaism outside of Jews because, well, we're not a proselytizing religion. This is not to say that AAPI is pitching an agenda other than awareness, support and non-hate. No one is trying to get you to convert you into becoming Chinese.
But we Jews could do better PR for ourselves. We’re a small group (globally, more people practice Voo-doo than Judaism), certainly not as big as a group that is celebrating all people from the largest continent in the world. And yet.
No construction paper cutouts of Albert Einstein, no handouts in history class about Golda Meir.
A recent Googling of ’Jewish curriculum for public schools' yielded Jewish curriculum for Hebrew schools, Jewish day schools and homeschools. The American Jewish Historical Society has a terrific set of resources for educating adults, or children at the high school level, but most history months that are celebrated in schools today start with kindergarten. In my children's school, fourth-graders do a wax museum for African American heroes, where all classes and parents are invited to visit. In fifth grade, the children complete slide show projects celebrating individual women for Women's History Month.
In his book Jews Don't Count, comedian David Baddiel makes his title his thesis: while the general public enjoys learning about and is supportive of many global cultures, for some reason Jews don't count as part of a "race" or an "ethnicity." Moreover, at this point in the post-October 7 timeline, Jews don’t seem to be a group that anyone wants to side with, advocate for or learn about.
We have Asian American events in school because Asian Americans are creating the curriculum for those events. Did I volunteer to come in and talk to the students this month? A family came in for Autism Awareness Month and did a fantastic event for the students. I could have done something like that, but I did not.
I held back. My sons are in the middle of a Harrassment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) investigation, as a number of kids attacked a Jewish child on a text thread that had over 50 children on it. The texts made my heart stop when I read them, especially knowing that my children are two of only four Jewish children in the grade.
But even worse was the texts from their parents, saying “kids will be kids”. Admittedly their fifth text thread gets “racial very quickly,” as one of the parents shared, and they’ve been aggressively hateful to their Chinese, Black, and Indian classmates — as well as Jews.
And at this moment, I didn’t feel like coming in to celebrate Jews and putting my kids at the front of the race-of-the-day firing squad. During the HIB investigation, I learned that my children were being harrassed daily in the hallways and in their classrooms by about half a dozen kids. Because they were Jewish.
At the end of the month, my son came to me and hung his head and said: “I waited all month, Mom, and we didn’t do ONE thing for Jewish History Month.” Gah.
Who was he waiting on? And what was I waiting for?
Help. Community. Critical mass. People who saw what I saw.
I spoke with my rabbi about this on a June 1 Shabbat, and she shared that there’s a small group of people in town “about two meetings away from organizing something” to support Jewish people here. We have three synagogues, and about 10-15 percent of our town is Jewish.
This is to be a group talking about Judaism culturally, and might just be the perfect group to support curriculum in the schools for events like this.
I may have Charlie Brown’ed the football this year, sitting alone in my house, protecting my kids and wondering who might figure this out. But next year I’ll be collaborating with other Jewish people in our town, joining one another, with a larger voice to “celebrate the inspiring history of Jewish people in America; educate diverse public audiences about Jewish culture; and spark crucial conversations about the American Jewish present and future."
I encourage folks who care about this cause to consider doing the same.
ALLISON TASK is a Life & Career Coach and the bestselling Author of Personal (R)evolution.
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