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Philadelphians For Ukraine
BY MARCIA BRONSTEIN
THE CROWD SWELLED at the
rally’s designated meeting point
— the towering Philadelphia
Museum of Art steps. Although
just a day after a blizzard in our
region, the warmth of friend-
ship filled the air, along with
numerous yellow and blue flags
that represented the Ukrainian
skies and wheat fields.

Standing together with the
Ukrainian community were
many elected officials and
dignitaries and communities
representing Belarus, Georgia,
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and
Uzbekistan — each carrying
signs of support and flags of
their home countries. The
unified message was clear:
We stand with a democratic
and independent Ukraine and
against Russian aggression.

U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick,
co-chair of the Congressional
Ukrainian Caucus, declared,
“Unequivocally, we will stand
with Ukrainian allies and hold
Russia accountable. All NATO
allies and every freedom-loving
country needs to do the same.”
I came and spoke as a
concerned Jew. My family is
from Ukraine. They settled
there after returning from
Siberia where they endured the
war fleeing one step ahead of
the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazi
paramilitary death squads
who murdered more than
2 million people. Leaving
their hometown of Shedrin
in Belarus, they existed in
survival mode in Siberia. Upon
arriving in Ukraine, they had
one hope: to resume life.

I had planned to visit
relatives in Rostov and several
Ukrainian cities in 1988 along
with my uncle David and
cousin Marty. The visa applica-
tion and passport photo, which
I still have, were never used
because our relatives were too
frightened to have American
visitors. Not wanting to jeopar-
dize their safety, we canceled
our trip plans.

The Ukrainian people want
the same thing my family
wanted: safety, protection and
normalcy. That is in jeopardy
today as Russia has deployed
more than 120,000 troops
along the border of Ukraine
to the north, the east and the
south. They are there to instill
fear, intimidate and threaten
the country.

American Jewish Committee
Philadelphia/Southern NJ
works hard to support Ukraine
through our longstanding
partnership with the Ukrainian
Federation of America. Ukraine
officially declared itself an
independent state on Aug.

24, 1991, and AJC has never
wavered in its support. Just a few
weeks ago, a high-level national
AJC delegation was in Ukraine
to demonstrate solidarity and
support with the government
and Jewish community.

Ph i ladelph ia
Cit y
Councilmember David Oh, U.S.

Rep Dwight Evans, U.S. Rep.

Brendan Boyle and U.S. Rep.

Madeleine Dean reinforced the
message that Russia does not
have the right to determine
the future of another sovereign
nation, and Ukraine has the
right to protect its own fate,
borders and citizens. Russian
aggression and any attempt at
invasion must be stopped.

The stakes could not
be higher at this moment.

President Putin said in 2005
that the collapse of the Soviet
Union was the greatest geopo-
litical catastrophe of the 20th
century. Today, his goal is to
reconstitute as much of the
so-called Russian sphere of
influence as possible.

We are stronger when we
work together with coalition
partners and friends. Allies can
amplify our voices and stand
up for our shared humanity.

The future of Ukrainian
independence and democracy
are at stake. The democratic
values we advocate for around
the world and hold dear are at
stake. As Jews, we know well
what happens when democracy
is challenged and the rule of
law eliminated.

Iryna Mazur, honorary
consul of Ukraine in
Philadelphia and a lead
organizer of the demonstra-
tion, proclaimed that “this
rally sends a message from all
of us gathered here today, that
we stand for peace and justice.

We stand for international
order and, with a united voice,
we demand an end to Putin’s
aggression and an end to war.”
American global leadership,
in unison with our key western
European allies, is key to ending
this crisis, to compelling Putin
to stand down. All of us who
love democracy and freedom
need to be laser-focused on
#SolidaritywithUkraine. l
Olympic Games in China,
it is incumbent upon all of
us to remember and to think
that the best way to defend
antisemitism is with a good
offense. Jews around the world
are fighting the worst rise in
antisemitism in decades. Social
media is littered with alleged
stars who not only don’t under-
stand the situation in Israel
but also make up their own
facts, and Twitter, Instagram
and Facebook allow their lies
to fester. We need a count-
er-offensive from athletes and
celebrities like Allen, Banner
and others who are willing to
be champions of the Jewish
people. As chair of the Philadelphia
Jewish Sports Hall of Fame,
we honor and take pride in the
achievements of the athletes
who’ve done well on the field
and have a connection to
Philadelphia. However, I recog-
nize it is equally important
that we also do our best to
fight both public and insidious
forms of antisemitism.

Sports are the opiate of the
masses. It consumes our daily
lives as we watch, read, wager
and discuss the happenings
of the games taking place. By
having the games in Germany
in 1936, the IOC gave Hitler a
platform to help him energize
his base. Hitler pressured
the head of the US Olympic
Committee Avery Brundage
to replace two Jewish athletes
from the track team, which
Brundage did.

More politicians, celebrities
and athletes should acknowl-
edge Israel as the only real
Marcia Bronstein is regional
director of American Jewish
Committee Philadelphia/Southern
New Jersey.

Sports a Place to Fight Antisemitism
BY STEVE ROSENBERG
THE OLD JOKE from
the movie “Airplane” has a
passenger asking the flight
attendant if she has anything
light to read, and she hands her
a tiny pamphlet called “Jewish
Sports Legends.”
It’s a joke that has lasted
a lifetime. It is funny, but it
isn’t accurate. Jews have been
10 FEBRUARY 3, 2022
accomplished athletes for
decades and have used their
skills to excel on a plethora
of playing fields. Mark Spitz,
Dolph Schayes, Sue Bird, Julian
Edelman, Kerri Strug and Alex
Bregman are just a few of the
outstanding Jewish athletes of
the last several decades.

However, one arena we can
use assistance from athletes is
in fighting antisemitism and
helping with the pro-Israel
narrative. There have been many
great performances propelling
Jewish athletes to the top of their
profession and putting their
religion front and center.

One can think about Sandy
Koufax and his declining to
pitch on Yom Kippur during
the World Series, gymnast Aly
Raisman performing to “Hava
Nagila” after the Olympic
Committee failed to recognize
the Munich 11, and, of course,
Holocaust survivor Alfred
Nakache swimming in the
Berlin games in 1936 and then
competing in London, making
it to the semifinals in 1948 after
being a prisoner in Auschwitz.

We also can think of
non-Jewish athletes who have
been standard-bearers for
the fight against antisemi-
tism. Pittsburgh Steeler Zach
Banner has been unrelenting
in his pro-Jewish stance, as has
NBA Hall of Famer Ray Allen
after his visit to Auschwitz-
Birkenau. Enes Kanter, a
Turkish-born Muslim stood
loudly and proudly with the
Jewish community after
Orthodox Jews were attacked
in Monsey, New York.

As we approach the
JEWISH EXPONENT
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



O pinion
democracy in the Middle
East, a place where women,
the LGBTQI+ community
and Arabs live freely, vote in
elections and can participate
freely in society. Who wins
and who loses in athletics pales
in importance to battling the
prejudices inherent in society
right now.

Jewish and non-Jewish
athletes participating in the
Winter Olympics in the next
few weeks need to stand up
and fight against antisemitism.

We must continue to stand
together, fight the good fight
and use the platform of the
Olympics — particularly in a
place like China — to show the
world that all hate, including
that of the Jews and Israel, will
no longer be tolerated. The
memory of the Munich 11 and
the fight against antisemitism
depends on it. l
Steve Rosenberg is the chair of
The Philadelphia Jewish Sports
Hall of Fame. To learn more, visit
phillyjewishsports.org, or help us
rebuild by visiting gofundme.com/f/
help-rebuild-our-museum. The Meaning of the ‘Maus’ Removal
BY ZEV ELEFF
ON JAN. 11, the McMinn
County Board of Education in
Tennessee voted to remove Art
Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-
winning graphic novel from
its eighth-grade language arts
curriculum. Spiegelman’s
“Maus” depicts the author’s
interviews with his father, a
Holocaust survivor. The illus-
trations present Jews as mice
and Germans as cats.

The Tennessee school board’s
rationale was that “Maus”
contains within it “unnecessary
use of profanity and nudity and
KVETCH ’N’ KVELL
Fort Myers Named After a Jewish Man
AFTER READING ABOUT “Jewish Fort Myers” (Jan. 27), I
was surprised that Abraham Charles Myers, the Jewish Army
officer for whom the fort was named, wasn’t mentioned.

Paul L. Newman | Merion Station
Henry Ford Was Antisemitic
In your Jan. 27 edition, I turned to page 10 and read “Edison-
Ford Winter Estates.”
Does anyone at the Jewish Exponent understand how much
of an antisemite Henry Ford was? Ford bought the Dearborn
Independent and published 91 articles claiming a vast Jewish
conspiracy was infecting America. These articles were then put
into four volumes entitled “The International Jew.”
It amazes me that the Orensteins felt compelled to write about
anything to do with Henry Ford. l
Marv Waxman | Hatboro
STATEMENT FROM THE PUBLISHER
We are a diverse community. The views expressed in the signed opinion columns and let-
ters to the editor published in the Jewish Exponent are those of the authors. They do
not necessarily reflect the views of the officers and boards of the Jewish Publishing
Group, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia or the Jewish Exponent. Send
letters to letters@jewishexponent.com or fax to 215-569-3389. Letters should be a
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published. JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
its depiction of violence and
suicide.” The final two points
center on a small but provoc-
ative panel in the comic. In it,
Spiegelman drew his mother,
dead and naked in a bathtub.

The board determined
that the graphic novel was
“simply too adult-oriented”
for its eighth-grade classes and
apparently for any other grade
level. The board reiterated its
commitment to Holocaust
education and hoped that its
teachers could find a “more
age appropriate” alterna-
tive to Spiegelman’s critically
acclaimed graphic novel.

The trouble is that finding
a replacement for “Maus” is
difficult. Teachers who assign
the graphic novel in their
classroom ensure that through
Spiegelman’s memoir their
students receive a full “dosage”
of Holocaust education.

Through its pages, “Maus”
relays the historical facts of
the Holocaust and the depth
of Jewish suffering during that
nadir of European civilization.

Tennessee is among the 22
states that mandate Holocaust
education in public schools.

Like most of the others,
Tennessee offers curriculum
standards. A 2021 report
furnished by Arizona State
University showed that states by
and large leave it to the schools
to determine the duration and
intensity of the teaching.

Tennessee’s guidelines
read like most others in the
American public school arena:
“Explain the state-sponsored
mass murder of the Jews in
Nazi-controlled lands, and
describe the varied experiences
of Holocaust survivors and
victims.” This can be accom-
plished in a short set of lesson
plans, or it can occupy a much
larger swath of classroom
time. Inserting “Maus” into
the curriculum assures that
Holocaust education reaches a
satisfactory dosage.

Then again, there’s no
doubt that Spiegelman’s work
JEWISH EXPONENT
is provocative. I suspect that
an unmentioned factor in
the McMinn County board’s
evaluation of “Maus” was
Spiegelman’s postmodern art
design, a style he explained
at a Gratz College Holocaust
education event in March 2021
was first introduced to him
through Mad magazine in the
1950s. The cartoonists for Mad
drew with a subversive touch,
anticipating the counterculture
of the 1960s.

Spiegelman’s cartoons are
dark and edgy. His lettering —
his placement of words in the
comics — is also intentionally
tense. Consider, for example,
the page with which the
Tennessee school board took
the most issue: the cartoonist’s
mother’s suicide. To convey his
conflicting emotions and grief,
Spiegelman’s jarring drawings
are framed on the page around
large black letters that read:
“Menopausal Depression,”
“Hitler Did It!” and “Mommy.”
I suspect that the full presen-
tation of the art, taken together,
rather than the individual parts
— harsh language, unsettling
cartoon style, a solitary nude panel
and mention of suicide — was
what had set off the oppositional
board members in mid-January.

Several McMinn County
educators defended “Maus”
in all its postmodernism. One
assistant principal posited at
a school board meeting that
all teaching materials on the
Holocaust are gruesome:
“There is nothing pretty about
the Holocaust and, for me, this
was a great way to depict a
horrific time in history.”
The two sides repre-
sent an important debate
about Holocaust education.

According to the first view,
Holocaust education ought
to be focused on “cultural
literacy.” Students must obtain
knowledge about the Holocaust
and keep the memory of Nazi
terror in circulation. Educators
should deliver this curriculum
with appropriate teaching
tools. The counterpoint argument
is that Holocaust education is
in fact about being provocative.

The confrontational aspect
is one of the key ingredients
in the value proposition of
Holocaust education.

In September 2020, Echoes
and Reflection — a partnership
program between ADL, USC
Shoah Foundation and Yad
Vashem — released findings
of a survey that asked 1,500
U.S. college students about the
impact of Holocaust education.

Those who received Holocaust
education also, claimed this
report, possess more plural-
istic attitudes and openness
to different opinions and
different people. This change
takes place, I suggest, because
“there is nothing pretty about
the Holocaust.”
No doubt, both sides of the
Holocaust education debate
are eager to see improved
Holocaust literacy and for
students to become more
open-minded because of that
education. Still, there is a
stark difference in pedagogical
emphasis. Policymakers and commu-
nity stakeholders look to
Holocaust education to cause a
controlled amount of confronta-
tion. They view it as an important
intervention to combat antisem-
itism and address other brands
of human hatred.

Education leaders can debate
whether Holocaust education
is the appropriate antidote to
combat contemporary hate
and make suggestions on how
educators might broaden the
curriculum. Until then, it
seems to me that eliminating
“Maus” from the syllabus
removes a very valuable tool
to provoke thought and ensure
that our students receive a
satisfactory dosage of learning
on this all-important subject. l
Zev Eleff is president of Gratz
College and a scholar of American
Jewish history.

FEBRUARY 3, 2022
11