Erasing Palestine from US School Curricula (VFHL Online Film Salon)
Date/Time
Date(s) - 09/10/2023
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Categories
Cost:
0.00 USD
Contact Person:
Steven Sellers Lapham
Email:
vfhlonlinefilmsalon@gmail.com
Website:
http://www.voicesfromtheholyland.org
Phone:
2404187628
Organization:
Voices from the Holy Land Online Film Salon
On Sunday September 10th, join an online discussion, “Erasing Palestine from U.S. School Curricula,” at 3:00 pm ET. Register at Tinyurl.com/VFHL-September2023 to see two documentaries free at your convenience. Watch the Trailer: Tinyurl.com/VFHL-BetweenLinesTrailer
ABSTRACT:
People who seek to maintain US support for Israel, both within the Jewish community and in the larger US population, have profoundly shaped the teaching about Israel and Palestine. VFHL examines this issue through two films. Between the Lines presents interviews with students and teachers at American Jewish day schools about “Israel education.” The Fight Against Israeli Propaganda in Virginia Textbooks reveals the behind-the- scenes efforts of an Israeli affinity group to erase Palestine from US public school teaching materials and reduce Palestinians to peasants and terrorists.
PANELISTS:
* Ali Kriegsman is a salesperson, publicist, marketer, and growth strategist, with experience scaling both bootstrapped and venture-backed businesses. She is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Bulletin, a business-to-business wholesale marketplace. Ali is a recipient of “Forbes 30 Under 30” and named one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business.” Her first book, How to Build a Goddamn Empire, is about her experience launching and growing Bulletin. She is the co-producer and co-director of Between the Lines, a documentary on Israel education in Jewish Day Schools.
* Susan Douglass is the K-14 Education Outreach Director at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) at Georgetown University, which holds workshops and a Summer Institute for teachers. Susan authored Teaching About Religion in National and State Social Studies Standards (2000). She closely followed the development of the new history standards in Virginia in 2022-23. Included among her other publications are the second volume of the World Eras series—The Rise and Spread of Islam 622-1500, and Ramadan, a book for young children that explains the Muslim holiday. She holds an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown and a Ph.D. in world history from George Mason University.
* Ezra Beinart is a high school senior who attends a Jewish day school in New York City. Because Jewish teenagers often hear about Palestinians but rarely from them, he launched an initiative to expose Jewish teenagers to Palestinian perspectives. Featuring Zoom conversations with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin, the writer Yousef Munayyer and others, the initiative has attracted Jewish students from across the country, elicited interest from a range of Jewish educators, and has been profiled in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
* Faedah M. Totah (moderator) is an associate professor in the School of World Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. She is an anthropologist with a research interest in urban issues and place-making. She has worked extensively on the cultural, social, and economic impact of gentrification on the Old City of Damascus, as described in her book Preserving the Old City of Damascus (2014). She is currently preparing a manuscript that examines the experiences of Palestinian urban refugees in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Damascus. Faedah has been involved with the Virginia textbook campaign and gave testimony before the Virginia Board of Education.
The September 2023 VFHL Online Film Salon is Co-Spons
CO-SPONSORS:
Indiana Center for Middle East Peace; Virginia Coalition for Human Rights
SPREAD THE WORD!
The June VFHL Online Film Salon was central to articles in MONDOWEISS, and WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS. The topic of that salon was the deliberate methodology undergirding Israel’s takeover of Palestine, as documented in The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation by Israeli filmmaker Avi Mograbi.