H eadlines
Community Continued from Page 1
2020. Forty-five were reported
in 2019.

“In recent years, Sikh
temples have been targeted;
African American churches
and mosques have been
attacked. Other churches from
other denominations have all
been targeted,” Holtzman said.

Following the Colleyville,
Texas, hostage crisis at
Congregation Beth Israel
synagogue on Jan. 15,
Philadelphia’s faith commu-
nity coalesced to support the
Jewish community, the most
recent victims of hate.

Jewish organizations,
including JCRC, received
letters of solidarity from
advocacy organization
Interfaith Philadelphia Board
Chair Imam Quaiser Abdullah
and Director of Religious
Community Initiatives Rev.

Edward Livingston.

However, according
to Interfaith Philadelphia
Executive Director Abby
Stamelman Hocky, the most
potent way to build solidarity
is not retroactively, but
proactively. “It takes the day-in and
day-out work at every level of
building relationships at the
12 FEBRUARY 17, 2022
Jewish Community Relationsh
Council Director Jason Holtzman
Courtesy of Jason Holtzman
academic level, at the commu-
nity leadership level, at the
religious leadership level, at the
grassroots level,” Stamelman
Hocky said.

Community events around
security are not in and of
themselves a means of commu-
nity building, Stamelman
Hocky said, but they are a
reminder of opportunities
to be “good neighbors” and
share resources that help build
solidarity in the long term.

Community building
is aspirational, Stamelman
Hocky said, something that is
ongoing. One goal of commu-
nity building, according
to Stamelman Hocky, is for
Interfaith Philadelphia Executive
Director Abby Stamelman Hocky
Courtesy of Abby Stamelman Hocky
Jewish community members to
become “trusted messengers,” a
term coined by former Surgeon
General Vivek Murphy about
those providing COVID
vaccine information to vaccine
skeptics. “Our goal is not to make
people feel judged or to look
down upon them in any way,
but everyone should make
sure they get their questions
answered,” Murphy said in a
May 2021 NPR interview.

A trusted messenger is
someone who “builds bridges”
over time, Stamelman Hocky
said. “Trusted messengers don’t
come overnight,” she said.

The aspiration of becoming
a trusted messenger has been
reflected in security train-
ings following the Colleyville
hostage crisis.

“It’s really uncommon
to confront somebody at the
door who is an actual threat,”
Congregation Rodeph Shalom
Rabbi Jill Maderer said. “It’s
really common that we are, in
that moment, at risk of making
someone feel unwelcome.”
Rodeph Shalom, in partner-
ship with the Jewish Federation
of Greater Philadelphia and
Interfaith Philadelphia, hosted
a training on Feb. 8 that not
only involved situational
awareness tips and run, hide,
fight strategies standard in
security trainings but also ways
to create “signs of welcome”
JEWISH EXPONENT
Rodeph Shalom, in partnership with Jewish Community Relations
Council and Interfaith Philadelphia, hosted a security training on Feb. 8
that emphasized “signs of welcome” in the community.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
and instill feelings of safety to
those who may feel distrust in
security systems that involve
law enforcement.

The training was open to
all faith groups, and faith
leaders in attendance brain-
stormed ways to create feelings
of security beyond the presence
of police.

“There are signs of security
that for some people, make
them feel safer, and for other
people, those very same signs
of security make them feel less
safe, especially people who
are brown or Black or trans,”
Maderer said. “So when we
have that law enforcement or
that security present, we’re all
the more responsible to make
sure there are also signs of
welcome.” Maderer told attendees
that while trusting one’s gut is
important, gut feelings of fear
could also reflect ingrained
prejudice and should be
questioned at times.

“What’s important to
remember is that we’re actually
learning that fear could just as
well be a sign of racial bias,”
Maderer said. “The very same
fear could actually lead us to
act in an unwelcoming way.”
The 2020 killings of George
Floyd in Minneapolis police
custody and Breonna Taylor,
who was shot by Louisville
police, underlie the urgency
of creating welcoming spaces
and building trust among faith
communities and racial and
ethnic groups, Holtzman said.

“The work definitely kicked
into a higher gear after the
murder of George Floyd and
the murder of Breonna Taylor,
some of the other horrible
things we saw during 2020,”
Holtzman said. “But it wasn’t
new for us.”
Before the summer of 2020,
JCRC was engaged in a series
called “Confronting Racism as
Jews” to gain tools on how to
address racism.

And just as JCRC and other
advocacy organizations have
initiated community-building
efforts in the past, JCRC is
looking toward the future
for opportunities to lead in
community building.

On Feb. 22 from 9
a.m.-4:30 p.m., the Jewish
Federation of
Greater Philadelphia, in partnership
with the Jewish Federations
of Greater Pittsburgh, Greater
Harrisburg and
Lehigh Valley;
Anti-Defamation League; Secure Community
Network; and Pennsylvania
Jewish Coalition, will host the
Pennsylvania Statewide Forum
on Hate and Extremism over
Zoom. The event is open to the
public. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H EADLINES
Maus Continued from Page 1
“Maus” by Art Spiegelman
from the middle school curric-
ulum due to concerns about
profanity and female nudity in
the book.

“Maus” is an autobiograph-
ical accounting of Spiegelman
interviewing his father, a Polish
Jew and Holocaust survivor,
about his life. In the graphic
novel, Jews are depicted as
mice and Nazis as cats.

Spiegelman called the book
banning “Orwellian” and said
in a CNN interview, “I moved
past total baffl ement to try to
be tolerant of people who may
possibly not be Nazis, maybe.”
Lerner expressed a similar
sentiment about the banning,
drawing connections between
the book banning and the book
burning event: “It invokes
thoughts of how it was in the
1930s with fascism: ‘You can’t
read this. You can’t say this.

You can’t do this. And you have
to do what we do.’ And it’s all
in step and right in line with
what then was Nazi Germany
to me.”
Lerner and Spiegelman are
not alone in their attitudes
toward the book banning.

Other Jewish educators agree
that the banning of “Maus”
was the wrong call.

“Banning is a really extreme
measure,” said Barbara Mann,
Chana Kekst Professor of
Jewish Literature at the Jewish
Th eological Seminary.

Mann argued that the
reasons for banning the
book — the use of the word
“goddamn” and the depic-
tion of Speigelman’s mother
naked in a bathtub following
her suicide — were loft y, but
Mann doesn’t argue that the
content of the graphic novel
isn’t disturbing.

“Th ere’s a lot of really brutal
stuff in here. Th e Holocaust
was kind of a brutal event,”
she said.

However, the difficult
material, such as Spiegelman’s
mother’s suicide, is situated in
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM regardless of the age of the
person reading the graphic
novel, there must be appro-
priate context given about the
diffi cult topics covered.

“You have to know your
class. You have to know your
students. ... You have to have a
reason to teach something diffi -
cult,” she said. “Th e purpose
of teaching a diffi cult subject
matter is not for shock value.”
For educators interested in
Jason Lerner
Professor Barbara Mann
Colleen Tambuscio
Courtesy of Jason Lerner
Courtesy of Barbara Mann
Courtesy of Colleen Tambuscio teaching “Maus,” Mann and
Tambuscio suggest priming
students with background
knowledge about World War
You have to know your class. You have to know your students. ...

II and the Holocaust, as well
You have to have a reason to teach something difficult.”
as about how to read a graphic
novel. COLLEEN TAMBUSCIO
“With framing and with
information, students can be
the context of larger themes
Lerner’s students will oft en but it’s a challenging book, and set up to read this book in a
such as memory and trauma.

come to class with diff ering so maybe it’s more appropriate really impactful way,” Mann
“It’s just treated really sensi- views on topics, including for a high school curric- said. ●
tively honoring the fact that the COVID vaccine and ulum than a middle school
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; there was this horrible thing gender-neutral bathrooms, curriculum.”
that happened to this family which he tries to incorporate
Tambuscio asserts that 215-832-0741
that ripped it apart, and now into his lesson plans.

they’re dealing with it, and
“We try and have open
they’re talking about it,” Mann discussions where it’s peaceful
said. “I don’t know, that sounds and conductive, which is really
like a really good thing to important in the classroom,
teach, don’t you think?”
but sometimes a lot of teachers
Mann is co-leading a March avoid it,” Lerner said.

3 workshop called “‘Maus’:
He said that some teachers
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educator Colleen Tambuscio.

immune to distracted students.

Tambuscio, a high school
“Some kids will make
Evening Gowns
teacher at New Milford High comments and jokes, but that
Suits/Separates School in New Milford, New doubles down on the opportu-
Jersey, believed “Maus” has an nity to talk about not making
Cocktail Dresses
important role in the class- comments and how to express
room when teaching about the your feelings if you don’t agree
Holocaust. with somebody,” Lerner said.

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While Lerner can have
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story. It’s also in this graphic meaningful
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to students,” she said. “Th is is students don’t “usually” fully
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something visual that they can understand the weight of the
relate to, and it also is done in Holocaust.

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“Maus,” due to the mature
(215)953-8820 To Lerner, who does not themes around death, grief and
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English curriculum,
its too sensitive for some readers,
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banning is symbolic of a loss of Mann argued.

Consult with the designer to
opportunities to have diffi cult
“Know your audience,
explore your style options.

conversations in the classroom. right?” she said. “I’m no expert,
Made in USA
JEWISH EXPONENT
FEBRUARY 17, 2022
13