NEW YORK (Yaakov M / VINnews) — Jewish leaders blasted a Regents exam which was administered last week as “unconscionable and shameful” for asking questions biased against Israel and the Jews.
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Dov Hikind and others condemned the Global History and Geography Regents II which asked two egregious questions, and gave a distorted version of the Jewish nation’s right to dwell in Israel.
“It’s unconscionable and shameful that at a time of heightened violent antisemitism our state’s educational materials would include what amounts to anti-Zionist propaganda—a truly pathetic attempt at surreptitiously harming Israel,” said Dov Hikind. “We’re calling on NYS Education Department commissioner Betty A. Rosa to swiftly remove the disingenuous questions and conduct a thorough audit to ensure such egregious distortions of history that invariably lead to animosity for the sole Jewish state aren’t being inadvertently fed to our children.”
One of the questions asked “Which historical event most directly influenced the development of the 1947 plan shown on map A (and showed a map of Israel from 1947).” The possible answers were 1) Russian pogroms, 2) the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire 3) Paris Peace Conference 4) the Holocaust, with 4 being the right answer.
The other asked “Which group benefited most from the changes shown on the maps?” The right answer, according to the test, was “Zionists and Jewish Immigrants.”
“Test transparency can raise legitimate issues of questions’ appropriateness and wording,” said David Bloomfield, education professor at Brooklyn College. “It’s not a matter of ‘wokeness’ to civilly debate these matters.”
“Preposterous, biased and lacking context, these questions are on par with the woke agenda and brainwashing of our young adult generation to make them think the way the biased officials want them to think,” said Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov. “It’s unacceptable and must be corrected immediately.”
Hikind said that reducing the creation of Israel to the Holocaust ignores all historical, ancestral and Biblical connections of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. “That connection goes back thousands of years.”
“One proctor was so angry, she was beside herself,” Hikind told The NY Post.
He also said that the test included the trope that the Holocaust was the prevailing reason for the state of Israel and that “Zionists and Jewish immigrants” benefited most from the “changing borders.”
“The maps lack all context,” added Hikind, “Specifically that border changes were the result of successive wars started by Arab states to annihilate Israel. Second, the questions, at best, lend themselves to debate, not to singular answers from among false choices.”
“When you show these maps, and ask why the state of Israel was created, it just attributes it to the Holocaust.” The former assemblyman added that the Zionist movement actually began in the 19th century under Theodor Herzl.
In addition, he objected that the test referred to the Golan Heights region, recognized by President Trump in 2019, as being “annexed” by Israel.
According to the Post, the Board of Regents said the two questions on Israel were “designed to test students’ knowledge of geography as it relates to historical events.”
Anyone remember last year the regents were cancelled because certain questions would make black people and “certain gender people” feel uncomfortable……
Make the woke go broke !! Stop electing Democrats vote for the right leadership!!
Board of Regents says Ultra-Orthodox schools lack an education substantially equivalent to public schools. Public schools should need an education substantially equivalent in truthfulness to private schools. The Balfour Declaration was in action BEFORE the Holocaust etc. etc. etc. Distortion after Distortion!
This is stupid. There is nothing wrong with the questions and the correct answers. Israel’s declaration of independence mentions the justification for founding the state as the holocaust! As for the other question: Jews and Zionists benefited a lot more than the Arabs from winning the war of independence and the 6 day war that expanded the borders. The question was not about who was right and who was wrong.
I’ve been teaching history in Jewish high schools for nearly 25 years. these are perfectly reasonable question. Question 1 is not about the process of how zionism developed or why Jews had a connection to the Land; it’s about which historical event most directly impacted the decision made by UNSCOP to partition Palestine. They weren’t thinking of the Torah or the Balfour Declaration or brochos in Shmoneh Esreh–they were thinking of the DP camps. We know that, because we know what UNSCOP saw and did during their decision-making process. We know that because of what they wrote and said at the time.
As for the second question, well, whom else did the partition plan benefit? The Amish?
What’s funny here is that you have a bunch of frum Jews who constantly go on about how this group or that group are snowflakes or overreact and cry “racism,” but as soon as there is something they find offensive–largely because of their own ignorance–they begin to bawl.
Just goes to show that as I always say, the people who are the most critical of “snowflakes” tend to be the biggest snowflakes themselves.
Putting personal views on the issue aside this is indoctrination not education. There is no clear cause and effect direct influence of the holocaust on the development of the 1947 UN partition plan.
You may believe that to be the case but that remains an arguable opinion. The holocaust was not an official factor at the time it was proposed. The Peel Commission which led to the proposal actually started in 1937 two years before the advent of the holocaust. The Arab delegations at the UN consistently tried to keep separate from the issue of Palestine from the issue of Jewish refugees in Europe. You can argue that they were unsuccessful and had the holocaust not happened their view would have prevailed. But again that remains an opinion. Not education.
Shameful and horrific! This whole incident. Kudos to Dov Hikind, one of the only fearless honest spokesmen for Klal Yisroel and our right to exist – always saying it like it is, without pussyfooting around the goyim and those that lek up to them, pathetically and without any Jewish self-respect or pride. Also, the entire NYS Education Dept deserves to gei in drerd, deeper than it is already. How close we must be to Moshiach’s arrival because, boy, are we surrounded by sonei Yisroel, from inside and out !!
It is so Satmar will agree to give regents.
If Dov Hikind did not jump up and down every few weeks about something else that bothers him, we would think he was dead.
I remember seeing a picture of Betsy during the yeshiva vote. She is scary looking.
Why is the 2 simchas who oversee DeRosa and who got $32,000 salary bumps silent?
Does anyone else play the drinking game where you take a drink everytime Dov H. says “Horrific” “Antisemitism” “1930’s Germany” or “Holocaust”?
(My liver is done for)
If i were looking for a spokesperson against Anti-Semitism (which wasn’t evident in the above Regents exam), I wouldn’t choose a man who thought that wearing Blackface makeup and an Afro wig was an appropriate Purim costume (for a public servant no less).
So now hochul has satmar writing regents? But they can’t write in English unless it’s to sign a snap application
The 3 or 4 word short answer to the simple basic first historical question are 100% correct. What should the choices/answers have been?
e) tasteless kugel
f) burnt borscht
g) feshtunkena schmatas
Second question-
e) neturi karta
f) George Santos’ bubbe
g) Transjordan halal cooks
???
Why does Dov always look angry?
I don’t see anything so out of line here.
The questions and answers happen to be right, and are not anti-Jewish at all, though Zionists obviously aren’t excited – or rather are very excited – about them.
During WW II, a prominent Zionist infamously stated “Rak bidam tihye lanu haaretz”, meaning “only with blood (of millions of Jews) will we get the land (for our Zionist State)”.