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From Bystander to Upstander: A Guide to Fighting Antisemitism · Adapting: The Future of Jewish Education

• 0:00
  David Bryfman: The shine a light on anti semitism. Civic Courage Award is now open for nominations. This is your opportunity to recognize someone who is actively combating the rising tide of anti semitism.
• 0:09
  David Bryfman: This prestigious award celebrates individuals across eight categories, including students and educators, offering a $2,000 prize and national recognition. If you have someone to nominate, visit shine the light on.com forward slash awards to nominate someone whose activism spreads light by November 25 This is adapting the future of Jewish education a podcast from the Jewish education project where we explore the big questions, challenges and successes that define Jewish education. I'm David Bryant.
• 0:49
  David Bryfman: Hi everybody, and thank you for joining us on today's episode of adapting the future of Jewish education. Now today's episode might seem a bit different to you as listeners, but I promise that by the end of the episode, you'll see exactly why we've decided to cover this important topic today. So I'm not normally one to endorse books, but I welcome anybody sending me books on topics related to Judaism and Jewish education to read. I'm also not necessarily a fan of lesson plans, per se. And here's the reason, sometimes I think that if you give a teacher a lesson plan, that you've done all of the work for them. And some of the best experiences that I've had as an educator are when you actually have to go and learn about something to create your own lesson plan. So giving someone a DIY lesson plan hasn't always been part of my DNA. That being said, I came across a book which sort of did exactly just that, and I felt it important enough to bring that to you, because I think it raised a whole lot of extra conversations with all of us, and I'm delighted to have with us on today's podcast, Lynn azaki, who is the former director of kids bridge Youth Center in New Jersey, and Helene Lichter Galen, who is the chairperson of kids bridge Youth Center. And together, they have co authored a book countering anti semitism and hate, a how to guide for youth, family and educators, which we will link to in the show notes of today's podcast.
• 2:06
  David Bryfman: Now, one more thing that I don't like doing before we actually get into the conversation. I don't like having conversations about Jewish identity that base Jewish identity in the negative forces, or the external forces, or what somebody else tells us that we should be or should be doing. So here you have it, I don't endorse books. I'm not a fan of lesson plans, and I don't like anti semitism. And here we're going to have today a conversation about a book with lesson plans, exactly about countering anti semitism, and with that as probably the worst introduction you can give to two guests, possibly, I want to welcome both Lynn and Harleen for joining us on today's episode. That's
• 2:44
  Unknown: a wonderful introduction, unique.
• 2:47
  Unknown: So let's start
• 2:47
  David Bryfman: off Lynn by answering the first question, which I think is central, what motivated you both to write a curriculum about fighting anti semitism today?
• 2:55
  Unknown: Well, David, you're a pleasure and a joy. Thanks for inviting us today. It's really important. We all know Jewish children are suffering, and so we talk about adults, but Harlene and I have been 21 years. I mean, we have extensive resumes, but together at kids bridge, 21 years in anti bias youth education, listening to 35,000 kids, students, teachers and parents. And how did this all begin? So of course, we're both Jewish. I was invited by our local Federation, our Princeton Mercer bucks Federation, right before COVID, to conduct a listening session for parents. I listened, and we all listened, and what we found out was, four years ago, anti semitism is really bad, and so I went to Harlene, working together with kids bridge, and I said, you know, we're both Jewish, our kids are suffering, and we both have a history of understanding anti semitism for millennia, but today, our kids are suffering. Let's write a guide book to help Jewish parents, Jewish educators and Jewish kids to better prepare for anti semitism and all bias.
• 4:03
  Unknown: And so it took us three years, and now we have a guidebook.
• 4:09
  David Bryfman: Can I ask you to expand on the word suffering? It seems in some ways, might like it might be a bit of a hyperbolic word, and in some ways it might be a really real word as well. So talk to me a bit about why you use the word suffering when you're talking about what our young people are facing.
• 4:23
  Unknown: So I feel I was the kind of kid that wouldn't talk to my parents. We have a lot of kids like that today, starting in elementary school, our kids are hearing stereotypes, tropes, bias against Jews, and we talk about adults and helping adults, and we're here today with you to talk about our kids are suffering silently from my listening session. Parents don't know what to do. They don't know how to coach their kids, and our kids are walking away, which is, if we can say identity and pride, it's hurting their identity and pride. So. We're here to tell you there are statistics from ADL, but from us listening we know around the country in this current political climate, stereotypes, biases, tropes are in style, and our kids are suffering and and I know this from listening to kids in our area. So
• 5:19
  David Bryfman: who's the intended audience for for this curriculum, for this book,
• 5:22
  Unknown: well, we would like to reach grandparents, parents and youth and the children themselves. You know, people think that you have to have a curriculum. You do not. You can begin with everyday occurrences as young as with three year olds, and it's not that hard to do so in this book, and it's a short book, it's only a little over 100 pages, we give you step by step of how to do it. And I want to really say this word loudly, safely, so that's our audience.
• 6:02
  David Bryfman: What does safely mean for you? I raise this because we've had a conversation recently where someone tried to define the difference between a safe environment or a safe learning space and a brave learning space as well. But I'm interested to hear from you specifically, when you say a safety environment, what do you mean by that? Harleen,
• 6:16
  Unknown: well, I mean that it's a situation where the hurt does not become intensified. It doesn't mean the hurt goes away, but you can handle the hurt and you don't make it worse.
• 6:29
  David Bryfman: Interesting. I want to pick up on something that you've said here related to is this a book about anti semitism education or anti bias education? What are the similarities and what are the differences? And I asked this in the context of I have a bad suspicion that if you did a listening tour of all types of kids in America today, many of them would describe some sort of bias or discrimination of or unsafe feeling that they're having. And I'm not dismissing any of that as being good at all, although some people might claim it's a natural part of just growing up in a diverse environment, I think it's a pretty obscene thing to actually admit. But is there something particular about anti semitism, or is it in the bucket of general biases that all people are feeling? And you just wanted to raise the particularness of anti semitism as it pertains to Jewish students as well. So
• 7:20
  Unknown: anti bias is for our kids. It's a broken system, and you're right for Muslim kids, for Asian kids, for any kids that are not in the majority, they are suffering similarly from different stereotypes and tropes. So our book, because Harleen and I at a certain age, we became the other, you know, being ashamed for our Jewish pride and identity. We don't want kids to feel this way, but you're on the pulse of what's going on today. Yes, everyone's kids are suffering, and Harleen and I are thinking about maybe a series of books for Asians, for LGBT, for Muslims, maybe one broad umbrella of anti bias. But yes, all of our kids are suffering, and that concerns us as well. But as Jews, we wrote this book for Jewish parents, educators, grandparents, we want to start there, because that's who we are. And we want to attend to the kids who don't know what to do and their parents who don't know what to do. Yeah,
• 8:15
  David Bryfman: and that really comes through during the curriculum. I want to ask a couple of specific questions, what do you think is the most commonly used or abused trope, anti semitic trope that our young people are encountering today. There's
• 8:27
  Unknown: a lot of Hail Hitler still going on. One of the ones that really got to me was looking at Jews as a pizza and putting them in the oven.
• 8:37
  Unknown: They've gone that far to take the well known trope of burning up in the ovens in our past history and made it modern by changing it into a pizza. But the hurt is still there.
• 8:54
  Unknown: Some other tropes David are Jews are cheap. Jews control the media. Jews control Hollywood.
• 8:58
  Unknown: And new ones, I think, are being created today. So this is, again, what our kids are hearing, and they may not share it with anybody. Okay.
• 9:09
  David Bryfman: This is really, really important. Do you think when our young people hear some of those tropes about money, cheap, controlling the media that they get or understand how negative they are, or what the history behind those tropes are.
• 9:25
  David Bryfman: And I ask this because if you're being picked on because of your race or this color of your skin or your external sexual orientation as you express it to other people, then it's pretty obvious as to what you're being picked on. Right for young Jews, if they hear things like money lending as something which is now being held against them, I feel like they might not even have the origin story of why that's actually a negative slide against Jews. Other than that a kid wants to cause me harm, both from the person perpetrating that vindictiveness and for the Jewish kid receiving it. So I think the trope piece here is a really important part of the curriculum, and some of what you really pay attention. Into is uncovering that particular history. So how important was it for you to uncover the historical background for some of these, some of these used tropes, it
• 10:08
  Unknown: was very important because you hit the nail on the head. Half of what's being spoken negatively to these kids is not in their realm of understanding at all. And so within the book, we try to pick out the ones that are used most often against them, and give a brief, and I say, brief history of how it evolved, so that perhaps they can begin to understand that this has gone on for centuries. It's not just happening today and David, if I could just intersect. So I'm on the board of my local JCC, and we have 300 kids in New Jersey going to camp, learning pride and identity, learning about Israel and to kind of lump, giving back in community service. Half of those kids and this, I think, is across the country, do not belong to a synagogue. So if our Jewish kids are only learning really great two months of Jewish pride and identity, they are not really able to respond to stereotypes and tropes. So let me tell you, from the research, the kids that do best responding to these tropes and stereotypes and hate and insults are the ones who have a strong ethnic and religious identity upon that foundation of pride and identity. It helps them with the bias and the stereotypes of the tropes they are hearing. I'm really
• 11:36
  David Bryfman: interested in this term countering or encountering the anti semitism.
• 11:37
  David Bryfman: No disrespect to any of us, none of us are going to eradicate the world of anti semitism, at least not through this 100 page curriculum. So what's the purpose? Like? What's the best case scenario? A teacher teaches their students this curriculum, the kids know more stuff about the origins and history of anti semitism. Are able to identify that the trope being thrown against them is against their religious or their ethnic background, and the kid does what? As a result of that extra knowledge that they have gained, they
• 12:08
  Unknown: may do nothing. You're right. They may do something.
• 12:11
  Unknown: Our hope is that not only will people who read this introduce the strategies to their youth, but enable the youth to practice them. You're right. They have to practice, practice, practice it in a non threatening situation, so that when the threatening situation occurs they can act.
• 12:30
  Unknown: And are we going to get 100% we'll be lucky if we get one or 2% of the kids that are exposed to use it, but you have to begin somewhere. You can't just brush it under the carpet. We are a nation, and I'm going to let Lynn go into this a little bit more. We are a nation of bystanders. What is happening within the Jewish community fits in with the general population.
• 12:56
  Unknown: And I'll let Lynn briefly explain what she and I understand bystanders in today's culture. To be
• 13:06
  David Bryfman: Linda, please explain the bystander upstander concept, but also some of the other strategies that you want to deploy to our to our young people as well through this book and the curriculum.
• 13:15
  Unknown: So we'll get to upstanders in a minute. So Harleen is right, and this is from the research. We are a nation of bystanders, and Jewish are a nation of bystanders that were embarrassed. We slink away.
• 13:24
  Unknown: You know, when I was teased or bullied, I would keep it in myself. I just wouldn't tell my parents. Here's our vision. If anti semitism is a system for millennia, and we know we're 5700 years old, it's a system that needs to be broken. Our hope is if we can coach and encourage parents, grandparents and kids to respond in a different way, maybe in 10 or 15 years, our broken system, the anti semitism, is reduced because finally, we have developed a cohort of kids who are willing to stand up and speak out. It's kind of quiet out there. There's a lot.
• 14:04
  Unknown: There's a new thing forming. I think you brought this up, Jew hatred. Just call it what it is, Jew hatred, instead of anti semitism. So it's our vision.
• 14:11
  Unknown: Let's start now. Why do we wait till our kids are on college campuses? David, they don't know what to do. They're not prepared. They're not practice.
• 14:21
  Unknown: Can we please as a people through synagogues, through the coaching harlena And I have and we're zooming and we're I just came back from Miami, I was at the JCC. Can we teach parents, grandparents and kids themselves to practice so that in 10 or 15 years there is less anti semitism, and we as a people, are not slinking away. We're proud to be Jews. We walk away proud. That is our hope, and that is our vision of writing this guidebook.
• 14:49
  David Bryfman: Okay, let me just be really specific for a second.
• 14:51
  David Bryfman: I don't mean to be pedantic about this. I'm a tween. I'm in the playground. A kid throws a penny at me and says, Jew. Jump.
• 14:59
  David Bryfman: Which was something that I learned from some kids that I spoke to as if to throw the money at the Jewish kid who was going to pick up the penny, the Jewish kid could walk away and do nothing. You're suggesting that's what's been happening for millennia, or at least ingrained in today's society, as a result of going through this particular type of training or this experience, rather than walking away from that particularly intimidating scenario, a fronting, embarrassing scenario where one could be ashamed, one could be despondent, one could just say, laugh it off, a potential different strategy is walking
• 15:33
  Unknown: away can still be done, but it's the way in which we Jews walk away. Do we walk away assertively, or do we walk away as being punished with our heads down? It's the small things, because if you walk away in spite of what's been said, with your back straight, an unhurried stride, a look on your face that is not one of doubt or one of embarrassment, you have made a statement that does not come across if you run away or if you go away in another fashion. So it's the little things that change, but they're observed by others. And the reason that we emphasize practice is none of this is natural. It has to be practiced.
• 16:29
  Unknown: So let me interject, David, to answer your question, the penny is thrown at the kid. We have from research, studied and used at kids bridge. A variety of strategies that work. There's not one strategy here. We give the child options. So in addition to the assertive pose, this child can tell a teacher that child, you can go home and tell your parents at night that child can get two or three friends to go up to that person the next day and say, That's insulting. That's not nice. You have to stop that. So there are so many options that the child is overwhelmed and may be frozen, but there are strategies to do right then, and there are strategies to do a little bit after, and there are strategies to do in a week. Why do we have to figure out it instantaneously? Because we freeze. So for that option, the book goes through different strategies to build on what Harleen said, practice those strategies. It's coming. You know, the penny being thrown, and Jews control this, or whatever. You know, tropes people have. Why weren't you prepared? Because nobody talked to you about it.
• 17:35
  David Bryfman: I noticed you didn't give the option of go Biff the kid in the nose, David.
• 17:40
  Unknown: That's not what we do.
• 17:40
  Unknown: So when a kid punches in the nose, he goes to the principal with the other kid, and that's not a good resolution. It's a that is a short term strategy, what Harleen and I have created a long term strategy for success. And here's the other very important point, this kid is broken. Maybe hearing from the home this is like a person that bullies, that wants attention. If it is not resolved, this kid's going to go to another kid. So if helping David is not enough, we have to help all the kids. I want to
• 18:14
  David Bryfman: mention something that come back to something you've mentioned before, and that is the Holocaust. You referenced it before in terms of one of the one of the images and one of the tropes that people are spreading and hearing a lot about today, the rise of Neo Nazism or the fascism or Holocaust rhetoric is definitely prevalent today. But this book is not about Holocaust education, and there is an interesting discussion going on in broader society about Holocaust education. Should it or shouldn't be mandatory? What are the lessons that we can learn from the Holocaust. When we say, never again, what do we mean by never again? I think all of our listeners are relatively familiar with the general discourse, but I'm wondering for you, why was it important to include the Holocaust as an explicit subject matter of material in your discussion about contemporary antiSemitism?
• 18:59
  Unknown: Because what is out there is lopsided. Our children are adults by and large, and you're going to find exceptions.
• 19:08
  Unknown: Only have one side of the seesaw. That's all they see.
• 19:12
  Unknown: They see the absolute horrible killing of other human beings.
• 19:20
  Unknown: They see the Jews being led as cattle into these supposed shower stalls where they are murdered, burned alive. In some instances, they don't see the other side. They don't see the resistance are getting an unclear picture, and they the total picture should be available to them, If I could add to that. David, I went to Sunday school, religious school my whole life. Got bat mitzvahed, loved it, and what I learned most were the horrifying pictures of bodies in trenches and bulldozers. I don't recall.
• 19:57
  Unknown: I. Until lately for this book, learning about the partisans, 30,000 partisans in Europe fighting back resistance, living in the woods, so brave. 30% of those fighters were women. Why wasn't I taught that so that we can teach the kids some new things that relate to Jewish pride and identity, and what is that, resistance and resilience?
• 20:27
  Unknown: 30,000 partisans pushed back, lived in the woods and wrote stories later, we need to share these stories of courage, resistance and resilience. We are been around, pushed around for a long time, 5000 years. We need to be proud, and this relates to Jewish pride and identity, and this relates to the Holocaust. Arlene, yeah, I would like to add that if you talk of courage and bravery, our youth today will talk about the IDF, the Israeli Defense Force, but what they have to see is that there were brave Jews and courageous Jews throughout our history. Highlighting that is just as important as knowing about the evil chapters of the Holocaust. So
• 21:16
  David Bryfman: here I want to make an important distinction for our listeners that this discussion is not about Holocaust education, per se. If one was to have a curriculum about the Holocaust, it would not just include stories about partisans and resistance fighters, and by the way, my late grandfather was a partisan, so I relate very well to the story that you're describing.
• 21:33
  David Bryfman: But here you're suggesting that a largely untold or often suppressed story of the Holocaust, when it comes to educating our youth, is about those people that stood up against fascism, against the Nazis, that were referred to in some languages, upstanders. And I think in some in some curriculum, we talk about both the Jewish upstanders and resistance fighters and also the righteous Gentiles who stood up against the Nazi forces as well.
• 21:56
  David Bryfman: And we're taking this particular part of the Holocaust narrative and elevating it in this particular concept, because you largely believe that the concept of standing up and being an upstander is one of the strongest antidotes that we have, and if that's probably the strongest theme throughout your curriculum. So talk to us a bit about this concept of what it means to be an upstander in today's world.
• 22:18
  Unknown: Yeah. So you may not know, and the people listening may not know that I was reading the age of genocide by Samantha Power, and the book's very thick the United States, turning us back to genocides around the world. So I'm reading bystander by stander, and then suddenly it's like a angelic moment. I read the word up stander. So we've been using that word for 20 years. A person who stands up and speaks out and so merging from positive things that we can do, upstanders can break the model, break the system. In other words, if you have 100 kids or 100 adults in a room, the majority of the people in the room are bystanders. The minority are the people who harm her bully. But I ask you, David, who's in charge of that culture?
• 23:09
  Unknown: It's a tough question. Well, the research says the people in charge of the culture are those who harm or bully, but the majority of the people are the bystanders, which is why, in this book, we're urging kids to transform and practice, to turn from bystanders into upstanders.
• 23:25
  Unknown: As a bystander culture, we allow those who are harmed or bully they're in charge of the playground, they're in charge of the cafeteria, Lord knows, they're in charge of the bus, what goes on on a school bus. So
• 23:40
  David Bryfman: I get it, and I'm also a student of adolescent psychology and group behavior, right? And here, we all know that if you were trying to ask the average kid, whatever that means term average a teenager, what's one of the most important things for them, is like, I just want to fit in. I just want to blend in. I just want to belong.
• 23:56
  David Bryfman: I don't want to stand out. I don't want to, like bring attention to myself and and stand out for something against the norm. So I hear you, on one hand, say we need to create a generation of upstanders, and then I'm saying, Are we just asking too much from some of our kids, or is there something about being Jewish today, which maybe mandates this additional responsibility, obligation? And by the way, I think I could extrapolate that to any minority group, but in this case, it's a discussion about Jewish
• 24:24
  Unknown: youth. I don't think we're asking too much. These kids are bright. You know, our middle schoolers are like high schoolers. Social media is, you know, throwing them into the world perhaps too early. They have online identities. And we can talk about cyber bullying, because the social media is also torturing our kids right with these stereotypes and tropes?
• 24:42
  Unknown: Yeah, but I think what you said, David about belonging, belonging is a key. It starts younger and younger now and so one individual may not have the courage to be an upstander by himself or herself or themselves. Health. But if we can get two or three of them, then they become a force. It's going to take a long time you don't change a pattern. I don't remember the statistics, but I think that something like, If a kid is refusing a little one to eat a certain food, the mother has to try 17 times until he'll even open his mouth. So this is not a quick fix, but at least it's a vision of what might be able to occur.
• 25:34
  David Bryfman: Let me take this just away from the curriculum for a second. Just ask a general question, okay, can you teach Jewish pride? Uh,
• 25:40
  Unknown: yes, yes, you can. And we have Harlene Go ahead, yeah, you start with little things.
• 25:44
  Unknown: You do it when they're little.
• 25:47
  Unknown: I'm very blessed. I have nine grandchildren and three great grandchildren, and let me tell you that you can start as young as infancy. All you have to do when you're putting them to bed, you just say the Shema as part of their good night. You build on that the pride starts when it comes to a holiday, you do something that pleases the kids and you and you say the name of the holiday. This is your Shabbos treat. You're not allowed to eat the sugar cereal on any other day, but you could have half a bowl on Shabbat. I think the other thing that's important to know about Jewish pride and identity is that it can be fun and it should be fun. It should be joyous. Like Carlene said, it might be 20 minutes a week. It might be tucking your kid into bed, but parents and I think grandparents can role model their stories, their pride and identity better. And that's that's part of the puzzle. Okay,
• 26:48
  David Bryfman: someone asked me this question recently, and it stumped me, and it was basically, if you can teach someone to be proud to be Jewish, it also means that they have the capacity to be ashamed to be Jewish. And what happens when someone is actually ashamed or embarrassed about being Jewish? How do you respond to a student or a child who has that feeling when they first come to you?
• 27:10
  Unknown: Well, okay, you have to respect where they are, and you can offer what we've been discussing so far, and I think you have to be optimistic. You put it out there, but there's no assurance that they're going to accept it. I think your demeanor when you're offering it has to be positive. If there's any negativity in it or anger, there's less of a chance that further on down the line, that individual may look back, but nothing is perfect.
• 27:48
  Unknown: Most of my life, I have been proud to be a Jew, but there are times when a Jewish person is dishonest or does the wrong thing, and I am embarrassed that person is part of my Jewish tribe, so mostly, I'm proud.
• 28:00
  Unknown: We're not a perfect people.
• 28:04
  Unknown: There are people who don't do the right thing and don't have ethics and values, but I think, you know, not 100% but mostly proud, most of the times, proud.
• 28:12
  Unknown: I
• 28:14
  David Bryfman: don't really want to ask this question, but I know my listeners are going to want to know the answer to it. What's changed about your philosophy about Jewish pride and encountering anti semitism since October 7, if anything? Okay, listeners can't see this, but both of my guests are now taking deep breaths.
• 28:35
  Unknown: All right, so I'll go first October 7. It's really, really hard. It's shocking that it happened. We're disappointed, we're angry, and we're both very empathetic the hostages. But if we walk in the shoes of our Jewish kids, writing this, starting this book, four years ago, having no idea October 7 would happen, it's even worse for our Jewish children. And we're not, you know, not that we're not concerned about the adults, but we want the adults to wake up and help the kids so to answer your question, and they're, they're, you know, pieces of of statistics. I would like really good statistics on this and more surveys, but our kids are suffering even more and worse of all ages, I think our Jewish population is having a hard time. First of all, Jews have always been free thinkers, and always you get two people together, and you have Jewish people together, and you have six different arguments for and against whatever is being discussed. I mean, that's that's just part of our culture, that's just the way we are. But we have to realize that history repeats itself. And so my reaction to October 7 was, Oh, my goodness.
• 29:50
  Unknown: It happened again. It happened again. I go back through everything I learned about our history, and I start to say, Yes, it happened then. It happened. Then it's been slightly changed, but now it's happened in my lifetime, my children's lifetime, my grandchildren's and my great grandchildren. This is horrific.
• 30:09
  Unknown: We have to do something. So that pushed me even more to try to get this little itty bitty book that may help a small percentage out so that people can use it and David. If I could add one more thing, on October 7, I got angry. I got angry that our Jewish kids on college campuses.
• 30:35
  Unknown: I mean, I'm mad at how the college has handled it, but mad at the Jewish people for so Ill preparing our college kids, for them to get on the campus and not know what to do and not know what to say. Ill prepared. Which is why the premise, as we go back in time to when our kids are 345, if we could start earlier, that's one of the most important messages on our website and on the book to start early with kids doing that pride in identity, making it fun, so that when our kids leave for college or a career, that they're better prepared to push back safely against anti semitism and all bias.
• 31:15
  David Bryfman: All right. There you have it. Folks, start young, start early and be prepared. I was a boy scout as well at one stage of my life. Final question for both of you, an educator in your life who has helped to inspire or transform you?
• 31:29
  Unknown: Well, okay, this goes back. My father was one of seven. His father, my grandfather, Lichter, was one of nine, and one of those nine was Rabbi Benjamin Lichter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the rabbi at B'nai Israel Synagogue in the east end of Pittsburgh, and Uncle Benny, we all called him uncle Benny would be at all the Jewish celebrations, you know, just not for the community, but for our family. He was the one who taught me first about extended ideas in Judaism, and he also exhibited by model, the joy of our religion. So I thank him for starting me on this journey. And Lynn, a person who inspired for one of the persons who inspires me is Dr harline gallon, who got to meet today. She's She just doesn't stop working, and she's mentored me and and really so helpful.
• 32:31
  Unknown: But quickly Stan Davis, an educator in Maine who did surveys of 10,000 children in Maine, elementary, middle and high school that started us, Arlene and I, on this journey of creating strategies, different kind of strategies kids can use to push back against all bias, and now to push back against anti semitism. So to me, he's the father of a bullying prevention system, but it applies to bias and of course, anti semitism,
• 33:03
  David Bryfman: Lynn, Harleen, thank you. Thanks for sharing with us today, and thanks for answering one of the questions that I get a lot from Jewish educators out there, and that is what curriculum is out there to help me navigate the tricky waters in which we're navigating today. This book countering anti semitism and hate is a how to guide for youth, which we've classified for the purposes of the book, is ages eight to 18, family and educators as well. I think it could extend to younger kids as well. Look, it's an opening for many, many conversations, and today's conversation with all of you is really just an opening for many educators to at least acknowledge the issues here, maybe even download or have a look at the curriculum itself, and to be in touch with both of you for any potential follow up.
• 33:41
  David Bryfman: So thank you both for joining us on adapting today. Thank
• 33:46
  Unknown: you.
• 33:46
  Unknown: Thank you for having us, David and thanks for what you do always
• 33:50
  David Bryfman: welcome today's episode of adapting was produced by Dina nussenbaum and Miranda Lapides. The show executives producers are myself, Karen Cummins and nessa lieben. Our show is engineered and edited by Nathan J Bourne of njv media, if you enjoyed adapting today and this season, please leave us a five star rating on Apple podcasts. Leave us a comment, and better still, share it with a friend. To learn more about the Jewish education project.
• 34:10
  David Bryfman: Visit us@jewishedproject.org There you can learn more about our mission history and staff and the work that we're doing to fight antiSemitism or to combat and counter antiSemitism, especially in our schools, and as always, we are a proud partner of UGA Federation of New York. Thank you as always for listening today. You.