I have to agree with Henry. The student is exploring a topic. Perhaps he didn't phrase it well; perhaps he doesn't yet understand what his research question is. Perhaps he intends to be provocative and is daring the adults around him to come down on him with a hammer. Perhaps he means something quite different than what he expressed. Our role is to get people the resources they need to get to the next stage in their thinking, not to give them a good lecture on what they are or are not allowed to think.
I came up with exactly one research avenue for this student, but there are going to be more out there, and there are people on this list who know tons more about it than I do. I'd like to challenge this group to come up with two more references for this student by the end of the day. Then we'll be doing our job as librarians. Best, Faith On Sun, Feb 28, 2016 at 9:00 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2016 00:19:42 -0800 > From: Henry Hollander <[email protected]> > To: "[email protected]" > <[email protected]> > Subject: [ha-Safran] Research Ideas for Robin Gluck - Mind Your Tongue > Message-ID: <0039AC3BEE734B23B21D8EA13DA61354@HenryHP> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Dear Friends, > My son attends the same school as the youth whose > inquiry is the initial subject of what appears to be a discussion that has > gotten off track. I will not speak for Robin in this though I have spoken > to > her about the project and about problems with the initial idea. > "Power and Privilege," is the name of the class not > the name of the assignment. The class description is as follows - "Power > and > Perception in Prophetic Literature: Through in-depth textual analysis of > the > literature of the prophets, students will explore issues such as conflict > and identity, seeing and being seen, and the role of ?perspective? in > creating and resolving conflict. Students will study biblical figures such > as Gideon, Samuel, David and Jeremiah using both traditional methods > (kushiot and terutzim) in combination with modern methods of literary > criticism to wrestle with questions related to personal responsibility, > ethics, power, love and conflict." > The Jewish Community High School of the Bay is a > community school, which does its best to maintain a balanced community of > students and teachers across Jewish denominations. JCHS is not a bastion of > anti-semitism and I don't think that the honest inquiries of one of their > students deserves to be demeaned. Remember, this is a young person ASKING A > QUESTION. > In my view the problem in the question is that it > implies an understanding of race and class that emerge out of 19th century > racial and political philosophical thinking. Jewish history vastly predates > these ideas. As a result there are no pure answers to these sorts of > questions in Jewish texts that predate these ideas. Jews have involved > themselves in issues of class and race in the era in which these ideas were > available. How Jews have acquitted themselves will be the subject of > discussion on campus when this youth is in college. I humbly suggest to you > that anxiety over how to deal with anti-semitism may be precisely the > source > of this student's question. > As librarians (and booksellers) I thought that the > mission was to help our patrons in their inquiries. As Jewish librarians > (and booksellers) I thought that the mission was to help our patrons with a > Jewish understanding that might be lacking in the larger world. Can we go > with that? > > All the best, > Henry > >
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