Eliana, or any other Orthodox Jews....I need your opinions....

[astrid]

I need to know whether or not you would take offense at this--- sincere question:

 

I do consulting work for my state's department of education. Part of my job is to oversee adult education programs, and a specific diploma program in particular. It's available in 12 states and is a portfolio-based alternative to the test-based GED.

 

So I was sitting with an adult ed teacher who administers this program for her town's adult education program, and we were going over one student's portfolio. As part of this program, the students must find a newspaper or magazine article about a country other than the United States, read it, state what the problem is and then extrapolate how that country's economic problem has affected/might affect the economy of the United States. These articles are notoriously hard to find in American newspapers, believe it or not. The teacher was lamenting about how her student had such a hard time finding anything.

 

I agreed, and offered some suggestions where her student might find articles that are appropriate. One publication I mentioned was The Christian Science Monitor, which is well-known in adult-ed circles for having excellent coverage of world news, and for being written on a relatively moderate reading level and thus helpful for adults whose literacy level isn't up to par. One district for which I work keeps a stack of them available for student use for this project. I've always found it to be pretty secular in nature.

 

When we finished, this teacher told me that she was an Orthodox Jew and really let me know in no uncertain terms how offended she was that I should suggest such a publication to her. She was really quite irate, and obviously very upset. I was kind of taken aback---in no way did I intend to make her uncomfortable or offend her--- it's just the standard answer to the questions she asked about that particular task. In addition:

 

A. I had no idea she was Jewish,

B. I merely suggested it as a resource for her student, along with several others resources such as The Economist, Time, Newsweek, and others of that ilk.

 

Did I really do something wrong? I"d like to apologize, but I"m not sure exactly how to do that!

 

Thanks so much for any insight,

Astrid

[stripe]

I'm not Christian Scientist, and I occasionally read the CS Monitor. It does have a religious article daily, but the rest is very...non-religious. I wouldn't be offended [ETA: I'm not Jewish], and it's entirely possible that she doesn't know anything about the paper, or the religion, and thinks it is a religious publication aiming to convert others. I am not sure what to do to mend things, though, sorry. This is one of those "sorry if I offended you" type of moments, I guess. I don't know how to redeem yourself without irritating her more. Ugh.

Edited August 6, 2009 by stripe

[Nicole M]

I am confused. I would totally have recommended the CSM. We are not Christian Scientist, (and, in fact, my mother was rather adamantly not Christian Scientist) but we had a subscription all through my childhood. Sometime in the 80s in became a rather thin publication -- thin as in not many pages, not thin with regard to content. I haven't seen in often in recent years, but I always understood that it was a high quality source of news.

 

Shoot. I'm sorry this happened, though. I am curious to hear from others.

[Liz CA]

I am not even sure this issue is about being "Jewish".

It is more about that this lady got very easily offended at something you suggested not to her, but for her students as a resource.

 

I would not consider anything you have done offensive.

I work with Jews and they are like any other group of people, some are easily offended and others understand that no harm was meant.

 

Don't lose sleep over it!

[Stacie]

It sounds to me like this lady has a chip on her shoulder, and it has nothing to do with news publications. You were merely suggesting something for her to suggest as an option for her students. You were not suggesting it as something for her to read herself, for her own education. Unfortunately now that you know of the chip, you'll have to measure your words or risk provoking the irritable side of her personality.

 

I wish people would just think before reacting in situations like this. And even if there is reason to be offended (again, there wasn't) there are very polite ways to communicate it. Vinegar...sugar...flies...you know the saying. You are there to help her out and she's now isolated you to a certain degree. Her loss, but sadly, it's her student's loss too.

[astrid]

I am not even sure this issue is about being "Jewish".

It is more about that this lady got very easily offended at something you suggested not to her, but for her students as a resource.

 

Yeah....I"m just shaking my head about it too, but knowing next-to-nothing about the Christian Science movement, I guess I just wanted to know if there was some sort of anti-Semite history there that made my suggestion touch a nerve with her. I'd feel awful if I had inadvertently implied something.

 

Anyway, Thanks for your input everyone.....I'll just chalk it up to "whatever!"

 

Astrid

[elizabeth]

 

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/christian-science-monitor-why-the-siege-must-end/ Hard to know , Not an orthodox Jew but married to a gentleman raised as such . This really ticked him off. Who knows they might have an editorial history of being not strident and unequivocal in their support of Israel . That can be problematic for some people. Perhaps she is highly senstive in this regard. http://books.google.com/books?id=IMELYD5xxXAC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=Christian+Science+Monitor+and+anti+semitism&source=bl&ots=7N2t4JtZEE&sig=-OyyXgmsDv5zCkFPn61BsBfNGI4&hl=en&ei=ykl6SuuCNZX4Nbj_7NkC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=&f=false Page 42 is a darn good reason to reject the CSM .

[Nicole M]

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/christian-science-monitor-why-the-siege-must-end/ Hard to know , Not an orthodox Jew but married to a gentleman raised as such . This really ticked him off. Who knows they might have an editorial history of being not strident and unequivocal in their support of Israel . That can be problematic for some people. Perhaps she is highly senstive in this regard. http://books.google.com/books?id=IMELYD5xxXAC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=Christian+Science+Monitor+and+anti+semitism&source=bl&ots=7N2t4JtZEE&sig=-OyyXgmsDv5zCkFPn61BsBfNGI4&hl=en&ei=ykl6SuuCNZX4Nbj_7NkC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=&f=false Page 42 is a darn good reason to reject the CSM .

 

Oh. Now I get it.

[stripe]

Okay, but that was in 1933 -- did any mainstream American newspapers suggest that, say, Americans should enter the war in order to "save the Jews" or other similar sentiment? I'd be curious to know. Americans entered after Pearl Harbor, not before.

[elizabeth]

I cannot answer the question about mainstream newspapers but read an excellent book about the failure of the US to respond

http://www.amazon.com/While-Six-Million-Died-Chronicle/dp/0879518367 An excellent book that I will read with dd again this year. This is a fantastic tale about the Holocaust and Churchill http://books.google.com/books?id=nsDUNQNUwz0C&pg=PA80-IA1&lpg=PA80-IA1&dq=churchill+and+angels+with+flaming+swords&source=bl&ots=OYX-GZ-ypZ&sig=SL-Jox2UaBVMj2b45Fj6os3BbSs&hl=en&ei=UlJ6SomLG4jSMseKsOkC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

[astrid]

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/christian-science-monitor-why-the-siege-must-end/ Hard to know , Not an orthodox Jew but married to a gentleman raised as such . This really ticked him off. Who knows they might have an editorial history of being not strident and unequivocal in their support of Israel . That can be problematic for some people. Perhaps she is highly senstive in this regard. http://books.google.com/books?id=IMELYD5xxXAC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=Christian+Science+Monitor+and+anti+semitism&source=bl&ots=7N2t4JtZEE&sig=-OyyXgmsDv5zCkFPn61BsBfNGI4&hl=en&ei=ykl6SuuCNZX4Nbj_7NkC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=&f=false Page 42 is a darn good reason to reject the CSM .

 

I guess. I wasn't suggesting it as a resource for HER, but one for the students at her center (an adult education center that's part of a town's public school district, not a religiously-based one.) And it's well known among those of us who administer this program that CSM is a useful resource for adults who need to find these articles.

 

Thanks for the links, Elizabeth.

 

astrid

[Spy Car]

*duplicate post* :blush:

Edited August 6, 2009 by Spy Car

[Spy Car]

This article is pretty representative of the Christian Science Monitor today:

 

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0227/p09s01-coop.html

 

It links to an Opinion piece by Brad A. Greenberg, a senior writer for The Jewish Journal, against the bias of blame put on Jews for the current financial crisis.

 

I'm surprised that the CSM included articles in the 1930's that were so unsympathetic to Germany Jews under the obvious and growing repression they faced from the Nazi Reich.

 

Or am I really surprised? Attitudes were pretty unenlightened 60 or 70 years ago. And still are with some. A couple weeks ago they released more tapes of Billy Graham and Richard Nixon engaging in anti-Semitic conversations back in the 70's. This stuff was (and is) pervasive.

 

However, while I haven't read the Monitor in recent years they way I once did, I've always found the CSM to be an outstanding source of news, and in particular of carrying a wide variety of stories from other nations that no other general publication covered (with the possible exception at time of The Economist). Exactly the sort of things your students needed. I've never seen a trace of anti-Semitism in the Monitor. Ever.

 

I would have recommended the CSM to a student whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian, atheist or what-ever without the slightest hesitation. And I'm a guy that frequently reads the Jewish Journal and is working with Rabbis on a Jewish cause. And is pretty sensitive to a community I'm very much at home with.

 

So I'd grant you grace :D

 

Not to worry :001_smile:

 

Bill

[Unicorn.]

I wouldn't worry about it. Some people are offended by things most of us can't understand at all. I have a Jewish friend who is a doctor. He told me one time he was finishing up an appt., and as the lady was walking out he wished her a Merry Christmas. She got highly offended and went off on him like this lady did to you.

 

So I wouldn't feel any guilt over anything you said, and would just move on! hth

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

the bias of blame put on Jews for the current financial crisis.

 

 

 

 

Is that really happening today?! I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around it. Ick. :001_huh:

[stripe]

I guess. I wasn't suggesting it as a resource for HER, but one for the students at her center

Yes -- I noticed that, and it is VERY relevant. Also, if they STOCK the CSMonitor, then it would be an easy resource for the students to at least know about, even if they chose not to use it for fear of being converted and/or forced to give up medicines or whatever dire consequence is being imagined.

 

Anyway, my point was, I am not really surprised that some magazine or newspaper said something unusual 76 years ago. I don't think that's the current stance of the Monitor, nor something they made a giant point of (I could certainly be wrong, but that's my impression). I thought it was a truth almost universally acknowledged that Jews were an easy target of the Nazis because of prejudice against them, where no one felt overly compelled to step in and help them. Obviously wrong, and generally not the case today. Now we have other groups that are dear to almost no one's heart who are being slaughtered without particular worldwide interest or intervention.

[kalanamak]

I haven't read the paper since I was 14 (it was a good source of info during Watergate, and a friend's mother got it), but I went to a Jewish school, and the "general opinion" I heard there maybe 4 times over the 4 years I was there, was that the CSM was anti-Semitic.

 

Whether it is or it isn't, that was the "feeling" I got from my classmates. I could well bet, considering the fact I had read much more of Jewish European 20th century history (and even taken a class on it) than most of my Jewish classmates, many of them had never read a single article, but were repeating what they had heard. I think that is human nature.

 

Some of my classmates were jumpy about anything "Christian" as they were unhappy about attempts at conversion foisted on them. Indeed, one of the reasons I loved that school was that, as a non-Jew, not once was I offered to "attend Torah study", etc.

 

Having spent much of my life around Jewish teachers, students and doctors, I can understand their jumpiness. When I met my current husband, I was shocked, just shocked, at the anti-Semitic comments I've heard (and anti-Asian). (Not from him). I believe his parent's religion (as he has left it) uses it at as unifying (supposedly) "Jewith Other".

 

But, the lady was rude.

:grouphug:

[stripe]

Do people think the Christian Science Monitor is the place to go for biology updates from a Christian perspective?