Sep. 13: In San Francisco Schools, State- and Billionaire-Funded Radicals Mau Mau the Jews
Biden funds booty bumps; Are tanks obsolete?; A shooting in Massachusetts
The Big Story
Earlier this week, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) was scheduled to hold an antisemitism teacher training led by the American Jewish Committee. Titled “Who Are the Jews: Jewish Identity and Antisemitism in 2024,” the seminar was to be a Jewish-focused “anti-bias” training in response to a “major uptick in reports from Jewish students of antisemitism” over the previous school year, which had led to “some Jewish students leaving our district,” according to a calendar listing for the training.
On Wednesday, however, SFUSD abruptly decided to postpone the training. The Jewish News of Northern California (JNNC) reports:
“We are reaching out to share an update about the Jewish Identity and Anti-Semitism workshop scheduled for this afternoon,” according to the email [from SFUSD administrators], which was obtained by J. “Please note that this training will not take place today as we had originally planned, and we are looking for another date to hold this important workshop.”
What happened? Well, as soon as the training was postponed, local “anti-Zionist” groups stepped forward to brag about claiming a Jewish scalp:
The Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Bay Area trumpeted the district’s decision in an email on Wednesday, claiming that they had successfully lobbied to “cancel” the training and considered this a major win against what they called a partnership with a “pro-Israel lobbying group” that is “Islamophobic” and “pro-war.” Jewish Voice for Peace, the anti-Zionist organization founded in Berkeley, was also involved in the effort, the groups said.
The story is even more insane than it looks, however. Scroll readers are likely familiar with CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood front group that’s been integrated into the Democratic Party apparatus at both the local and national level, and with JVP, the faux-Jewish wing of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions Movement funded by the Rockefellers, the Open Society Policy Center, and other major progressive donors. But does AROC ring a bell?
We haven’t reported on the group in a while, but you may dimly recall AROC from the first few months after Oct. 7. It staged two illegal blockades, one at the port of Tacoma, Washington, and the other at the port of Oakland, California, to block ships that it alleged were bound for Israel. It organized a student walkout in San Francisco public schools on Oct. 18 to protest the Israeli “genocide” in Gaza. And its director, Lara Kiswani, attended the May People’s Conference for Palestine, organized by the People’s Forum—which is aligned with the Chinese Communist Party and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine—where she delivered a speech about her success working in schools to “overcome Zionism.”
The punch line? AROC is a fiscal sponsorship—i.e., legal subsidiary—of the Tides Center, the donor-funded dark-money behemoth allied with the Obama faction of the Democratic Party. AROC is also a longtime business partner of SFUSD and is currently under contract (value unknown) with the school district to provide “classroom trainings” and other services through 2026. As Pirate Wires reported in January, since 2016, the San Francisco city government has given Tides at least $800,000 in grants specifically earmarked for AROC for “coalition-building [with] Arab-serving organizations citywide.” And Kiswani herself sits on the volunteer ethnic studies committee for Berkeley public schools, for which her role is to help develop a “five-year plan to implement ethnic studies from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade,” according to another report from JNNC. We think that’s what people mean when they say the call is coming from inside the house.
It’s hard to think of a better illustration of the fate of Jewish Democrats seeking protection from the DEI bureaucracy. Sure, they may let you hold your little seminar, as long as you can keep word from getting out. But otherwise, just like Israel must learn to “share the neighborhood” with Iran, so too must you learn to share the bureaucracy with your enemies—in this case, a Muslim Brotherhood front group, their astroturf “Jewish” ally, and a handful of anti-Jewish lunatics, all of whom are on the party payroll.
IN THE BACK PAGES: Nomi Kaltmann on rising antisemitism in New Zealand
The Rest
→Back in 2022, there was a minor scandal when The Washington Free Beacon revealed that the Biden-Harris administration’s $30 million federal harm-reduction initiative would subsidize the distribution of free crack pipes via “safe smoking kits.” At the time, this was considered so embarrassing that the administration leapt into overdrive to issue denials. The Department of Health and Human Services put out a statement denying that crack pipes were ever part of safe smoking kits, and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki denounced the Beacon’s story as “misinformation” and “inaccurate reporting.” A series of “fact-checks” from The Washington Post, USA Today, and others followed, explaining that safe smoking kits did not contain crack pipes. The Beacon then sent reporters out to request five safe smoking kits from five harm reduction organizations in five cities—and received five free crack pipes.
How innocent we were back then! In a Friday article in City Journal, Judge Glock describes visiting a harm reduction vending machine in Washington, D.C., funded by the city and backed by a federal grant. In the vending machine were free clean needles, safe smoking kits, and “safer rectal drug administration kits,” which are exactly what they sound like. A QR code on the package leads to a page that helpfully explains that injecting drugs into your rectum, aka “boofing” or “booty bumping,” delivers a “fast hit and rush that’s usually stronger than smoking.” Glock describes this as using “taxpayer funds to subsidize addiction,” which is true, but we’d put it a little more bluntly: The Biden administration is paying to help you put drugs up your ass.
→Quote of the Day:
Of the 31 Abrams tanks the U.S. has sent Ukraine, six have been destroyed, according to Oryx, an independent team of analysts that tracks losses. Others are now used only sparingly. … Among other Western tanks sent to Ukraine, 12 of the 18 newer model German-made Leopards have been destroyed or damaged, according to Oryx. Russia has also suffered heavy tank losses, analysts say.
That’s from a Friday article in The Wall Street Journal, on how the advent of drone warfare has neutralized tanks. Although tank manufacturers are scrambling to adapt tanks to the modern battlefield, including by making them lighter and equipping them with electronic jamming equipment and an Israeli-made anti-drone system called “Iron Fist,” U.S. planners quoted in the article worry that the U.S. military remains too heavily invested in tanks that will prove vulnerable in any future peer-to-peer conflict. “In the near term, we absolutely need to urgently make some adjustments to maintain the survivability of our armored formations,” said Gen. James Rainey of the U.S. Army Futures Command.
→What the “Adults in the Room” hath wrought:
→On Thursday, a Massachusetts man became the latest casualty of the anti-Israel meme war, captured on camera in our Video of the Day:
In the video, the assailant can be heard arguing with a group of pro-Israel protesters before charging across the street to tackle and punch one of them: military veteran Scott Hayes. Hayes was armed and fired a single shot at his assailant before attempting to render him medical aid. The assailant, who has not been named, suffered “life-threatening injuries,” according to a report in The Daily Wire, while Hayes has been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon by the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office.
You can blame the injured man all you want, both for his stupid cause and his stupid decision to assault someone for it. But as in the case of Aaron Bushnell, one of the consequences of society’s sense-making institutions promoting deranged conspiracy theories is that some dim-witted or psychologically vulnerable people will take them seriously. So spare some anger for the people who memed the Israeli “genocide” into existence, as well as for the poor sucker who believed the meme and then went out and got himself shot.
→Stat of the Day: $64,700
That’s the value of the welfare payments received by the average working-age household in the bottom quintile in 2022, the last year for which data is available, according to an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal by economist and former senator Phil Gramm and current Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX). That’s up from $7,352 (in inflation-adjusted dollars) in 1967—a 780% increase that is 9.2 times the average rise in wages over the same time period. The authors note that the United States today “redistributes a larger share of its gross domestic product, 29.4%, through transfers and taxes than any country in the developed world except France, with 30.1%.”
→Word of the Day: “Thede”
Middle English term for “nation,” from the Old English þēod, meaning “nation” or “language,” with the implication of shared ancestry and blood relation. Thede was a favorite term of the neoreactionary blogger nywdracu and is the subject of an excellent new essay at Kerwin Fjol’s Substack “Steam Calliope Scherzos” on the relation between historical tribes and digital or neo- “tribalism.” Whereas a thede is defined by blood relation and physical proximity, and only secondarily by shared abstract symbols, a digital tribe is closer to what Fjol describes as a “horde”—a wandering collective lacking blood relation or a geographic center and defined primarily through abstraction, i.e., “discourse” or “intellection.” As Fjol writes:
Being themselves formed through intellection, hordes must find a way to ground themselves, forging bonds to one another through other means, preventing themselves from dissolving off in the ether. They do this by establishing a common semiotic framework that doesn’t rely merely on language or symbolic modes of communication. Instead, they have to recruit from the earth to fasten that bond. They must use their senses of sight and hearing to seek out non-linguistic forms of communication when they make evaluations of each other as well as other things they encounter. Old, archaic enlightenment sciences like physiognomy and “voice physiognomy” once again take on a new significance (this is true for all hordes, in fact, though few will actually come out and say it). Concerns for one’s relationship to the physical world become paramount. If members of a horde can’t be united by a tacitly shared relationship to the world that surrounds them at all times, they must find substitutes.
What Fjol is describing here is how digitally mediated subcultures—incels, antifa, the “alt-right,” etc.—must attempt to manifest their physical reality as part of what Marshall McLuhan described as the “retribalization” of the world. At the very least, it’s an interesting way to think about a phenomenon we’ve seen often: that adherents of this or that Internet sect begin not only to think and talk but also eat and dress alike.
Read the rest here:
TODAY IN TABLET:
AUDIO: How Sept. 11 Still Shapes Our Politics, by Walter Russell Meade and Jeremy Stern
This week, Walter and Jeremy discuss the Harris-Trump debate, Iran selling ballistic missiles to Russia, Europe’s never-ending decline, and how Sept. 11 continues to shape American and world history.
SCROLL TIP LINE: Have a lead on a story or something going on in your workplace, school, congregation, or social scene that you want to tell us about? Send your tips, comments, questions, and suggestions to scroll@tabletmag.com.
In New Zealand, Antisemitism in the Classroom—and Beyond
Since Oct. 7, the country’s small Jewish community has faced growing prejudice
By Nomi Kaltmann
In November 2023, just weeks after the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, New Zealand’s Holocaust Centre in Wellington issued a report focusing on Jewish children age 9 to 18 that revealed that 50% of responding parents reported their children had faced antisemitism in their school since Oct. 7.
“Pre-Oct. 7, we received one or two complaints a year,” said Deborah Hart, the centre’s board chair, who commissioned the report. “After [Oct. 7], the steep rise in complaints we were getting was incredibly concerning and we wanted to know how big this problem was.”
In a follow-up report compiled in July 2024 by the same organization, that number shot even higher: A staggering 80% of respondents said their children had suffered antisemitic episodes in their schools.
These reports, which have more than 30 respondents each, have not been made public to protect the location and identity of children, who are often the only Jewish people in their local area, but the data can be backed up with New Zealand police statistics. New Zealand’s Holocaust Centre found that antisemitism was not limited to one place or demographic in the country. “We have police crime statistics, so we know that there was a 530% increase in the targeting of Jews between 2022-2023,” said Hart. “In New Zealand, Jews are just 0.2% of the population. Unfortunately, Jewish New Zealanders are 160 times more likely to be the victim of a hate crime than a Maori New Zealander, who are also targeted.”
When asked what these antisemitic incidents may look like, Hart was frank: “It looks like graffiti and abuse online. In schools it's everything ranging from name-calling to physical abuse. And some of it is particularly nasty, like a child who went swimming and when he came back to put on his shirt, it was covered in swastikas. Or a report of a child locked in a room with kids outside screaming ‘Free Palestine,’ and when he came out, they tried to assault him with a broom handle.”
In response to this worrying increase in antisemitism, Hart would like to see an antisemitism envoy appointed in New Zealand, mirroring efforts in countries like Australia and the United States, and for the Holocaust to be part of New Zealand’s mandatory education curriculum. None of these have happened so far, but some initial funding has been provided by New Zealand’s government to support an education package put together by the Holocaust Centre to be sent out to teachers and schools across New Zealand to combat antisemitism. “We are developing the education package so it’s pedagogically sound and easy for teachers to use,” said Hart.
Since Oct. 7, Kadimah college in Auckland—New Zealand’s only Jewish school, which has classes from kindergarten to Year 8—has been on high alert from extremism from right- and left-wing groups.
“It’s a bit upsetting,” said Darya Bing, the chair of the school board of trustees. “When you speak to people about it, they are really shocked. Most New Zealanders are very kind and very lovely people who are not at all aware of the outcomes to the Jewish community. Your common reaction will be: ‘What? What do you mean have security guards outside your school?’”
This past year saw a boom in enrollment at Kadimah. The school, which also welcomes non-Jews and has a total of 150 students, usually has a mix of 50% Jewish and 50% non-Jewish students. Today the ratio is closer to 70% Jewish. It has a special status in New Zealand as an integrated school, one that is partly funded by the government and has a special character to teach Jewish studies and Hebrew alongside the regular New Zealand curriculum.
“The school is growing rapidly,” said Bing. While she partly attributed the increase in enrolments to families fleeing rising antisemitism in New Zealand’s schools, she also attributes it to a rise in many professional immigrants moving to New Zealand and their desire to fit into a community that aligns with their values. “In the initial decision to bring their kids to Kadimah, [some families might think], oh, OK, I’m going to New Zealand and might as well go to a Jewish school and mitigate [the chance of antisemitism] before it starts,” she said.
***
Students are not the only ones affected by rising antisemitism.
In Christchurch, on New Zealand’s South Island, members of the Jewish community have been shaken by an antisemitic attack against Canterbury Synagogue. The synagogue had its windows smashed, in an attack captured on CCTV. Shary Baker, the synagogue’s vice president, feels that she is misunderstood as a Jewish person in New Zealand. “There is little to no education in schools here about minorities such as Jews,” she said. “Most [New Zealanders] aren’t taught about the Holocaust. Many non-Jewish students' first experience of what Jewishness is or what a Jew is will be in the context of this current war. There is an issue that we are a minority here, but we are not viewed like a minority.”
It’s a refrain common to many Jewish people working and living across the community.
When New Zealand’s Settlement Centre, a charity that offers free information and services to migrants, was set to reopen in July 2024 after a lengthy renovation, it was meant to be a festive occasion. However, the celebration, in the city of Hamilton, was abruptly canceled when Palestine Waikato, a pro-Palestinian group, threatened to protest the event. The controversy stemmed from the inclusion of an artwork by a New Zealand-Israeli artist. The artwork—which featured pomegranates and doves, but no explicit religious or political imagery—was part of a broader collection created by migrants to decorate the newly renovated center. However, Palestine Waikato charged that the artwork “does not represent culture or heritage, but symbolizes stolen Palestinian land, biodiversity, symbols, futures, and lives.”
Hamilton, with roughly half a million people, including 90 Jews, according to New Zealand’s 2018 census, became an unexpected flashpoint in a country that has a Jewish population of approximately 10,000 among a broader population of 5 million.
“Most of us recognize this [incident at the Settlement Centre] as pure antisemitism,” said Juliet Moses, the president of New Zealand’s Jewish Council. Since Oct. 7, Moses, who works as a lawyer and volunteers in her community role, has found her days increasingly busy as she responds to a massive increase in antisemitic incidents in New Zealand that has made the country’s tiny Jewish community feel uneasy. “What we are experiencing is a large increase in antisemitism that manifests in various ways,” she said, “and people don’t care about it in the same way you would expect them to for other minorities.”
Historically, New Zealand’s relationship with Israel has been mixed. While the country maintains formal ties with Israel, and is part of the Five Eyes Agreement—an alliance between five countries that also includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada—New Zealand has traditionally behaved toward Israel in a way that is out of step with these other countries. This includes abstaining or voting in favor of resolutions against Israel at the United Nations. In 2016, New Zealand was even one of four sponsoring countries that supported United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which called Israel’s settlement activity a flagrant violation of international law with no legal validity.
In the aftermath of Oct. 7, the New Zealand government declared Hamas a terrorist organization, but as the war has continued, the government has become more critical of Israel. “After Oct. 7 they started off pretty strong that Israel has a right to defend itself, condemning Hamas,” said Moses, “but over time, as with most governments, they have begun to call for an immediate cease-fire, while increasing amounts of pressure on Israel and little pressure on Hamas.”
Paul Morris, a Jewish university professor at Victoria University of Wellington/Te Herenga Waka, has seen firsthand student protests against Israel and a heightened atmosphere of tension at the school. “I think New Zealand’s Jewish community both on campus and beyond are disturbed by heightened security and have experienced a kind of break with other communities,” he said. “In many ways the community has been very deeply shaken by the broad and partisan support for Palestine and the lack of sympathy” for Jewish victims.
When asked whether he would leave the country to settle somewhere else, Morris said that he felt “he was too old and settled” in New Zealand but retains ongoing concern for the viability of the country’s Jewish community. “The future of the community has been an issue for 30 years. It’s not growing,” he said, listing high aliyah rates relative to the population size, and migration from New Zealand to Australia, which has favorable immigration policies for New Zealanders, as reasons for the community’s relative decline.
There are glimmers of hope and support during the troubling time for New Zealand’s tiny Jewish community. Michelle Jacobson, an Australian who now lives in Wellington with her husband and children, recently experienced some support. Driving along a street in her neighborhood, she came across some antisemitic stickers at a bus stop. “I was with my husband, who is not Jewish, we pulled over and scraped one off,” she told me. “When we were driving back, we saw some ladies trying to get one off as well. It made me feel like we weren’t so alone.”
Terrifying
You can bet that the teachers union in San Francisco enthusiastically supports the anti Semitic curriculum