Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

The ongoing saga of Debbie Almontaser’s ritual immolation on the altar of Jewish wingnuttery continues as she filed a lawsuit in federal court today seeking reinstatement as principal of the Khalil Gibran Academy, the nation’s first public school dedicated to teaching Arab culture.

You’ll recall that the New York Post, New York Sun, Stop the Madrassa and Campus Watch crowd were all baying for Almontaser’s blood and succeeded in railroading her into resigning from her job as founding principal. Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein were willing participants in this charade though they perhaps had to be coaxed into axing Debbie.

A journalist friend of mine who attended the rally for her in front of the courthouse wrote:

Jews, Muslims, blacks, unionists came out for her. The Jews included Rabbi Rollie Matalon of B’nai Jeshurun, Michael Feinberg of something called Interfaith-Labor Alliance.

The NY Times quotes Rabbi Matalon’s affadavit filed in Almontaser’s support:

It was … particularly gratifying that a group of my colleagues signed a letter to the mayor and to the chancellor expressing our view that those who had attacked Ms. Almontaser did not represent the views of the mainstream Jewish community. … There are regrettable antecedents to the litmus test to which the press and the DOE subjected Ms. Almontaser, most notably in the regularity with which African-Americans are asked to denounce outspoken members of their community. The idea that there is only one acceptable view on issues of public concern is not only at odds with our constitutional guarantees, but is a perversion of the Jewish tradition of vigorous debate and discussion on all questions of importance to our people. … I hope that this court will remedy the great wrong that has been done to [Ms. Almontaser].

It’s important to note what was lacking. In the past, I’ve derided the organized Jewish community for permitting whackjobs like Stop the Madrassa to fill the vacuum and represent the Jewish community’s voice on this issue. New York’s Jewish leadership (Abe Foxman, David Harris, John Ruskay, etc.) has been strangely silent. There WAS one such figure though who until now had spoken out on Almontaser’s behalf, Rabbi Michael Paley, rabbi in residence for the New York UJA-Federation. Paley was quoted in Jewish Week and other publications speaking on her behalf and signed a petition for her published online as recently as September 30th. My journalist friend notes that Rabbi Paley was strangely absent today. I wonder why. Did someone tell him not to come?

And does one begin to notice a pattern here with the recent withdrawal, purportedly under donor pressure, of UJA-Federation sponsorship of the Other Israel Film Festival, which was dedicated to Israeli Arab cinema? Why haven’t the Forward, Jewish Week or JTA covered that story? Is there the acrid smell of Islamophobia wafting over UJA-Federation? If so, where is its source? Staff? Donors? Which specific individuals? Best to air out this foul odor in a public setting and let in some fresh air. Then maybe the Islamophobes will retreat back to their fear-filled lairs where they belong.

And it’s about time too as Haaretz reports:

U.S. Rabbi Michael Feinberg defended a planned Arab school in New York on Monday…

Addressing a rally in front of the New York Department of Education, Rabbi Feinberg called on elected officials to come forward in support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, which is scheduled to open on September 4.

Rabbi Feinberg called the virulent Internet campaign against the school “the lowest of McCarthyite tactics.”

Debbie Almontaser: burned at stake by NY Post, Campus Watch and local Islamophobes (Diane Bondareff/AP)

Yesterday, I wrote about Larry Cohler Esses terrific reportage on the Debbie Almontaser ‘witch-burning’ incident instigated by Daniel Pipes’ Campus Watch gang. I said yesterday that it was a shande that the Jewish community has let anti-Arab demagogues like Campus Watch take the lead on this issue. Despite the fact that Almontaser was a committed ally of the ADL, having gone through inter-faith training with them, no one from that group came to her aid during the Intifada incident. They let her twist in the wind.

To be fair, Cohler-Esses notes that Rabbi Michael Paley, Judaic consultant at the Jewish Federation (and someone I knew when he was a college student at Brandeis) has also come to the school’s defense (his daughter is an intern there). But why is he the only Federation official speaking out in support?

And the politicians were equally callow. Mayor Bloomberg expressed tepid support and said she made the right decision in resigning. Joel Klein, schools chancellor said barely anything. The teachers union president, to which Almontaser had belonged when she as a teacher before she was named principal, betrayed her and sealed her fate by denouncing her.

We must remember what happens when good people stand by and do nothing as victims’ reputations and careers are trashed. We may be judged as a society by what we did and what we refused to do in situations like this.

A local journalist tells me that left anti-Semitic elements may have entered the fray on behalf of the school. I replied to him:

When a community’s leaders leave the field of battle to the right-wing crazies, well then crazy things will happen. When people see the mayor, chancellor & teachers union president abandon someone like Almontaser, then the left extremist fruitcakes see their chance to fill the vacuum. The ADL & Federation are also to blame for taking a powder on this.

Leaders are meant to lead. When they don’t, others who are less worthy will.