So Jews are only important because Christians appropriate their sacred texts

[lunabee34]

I am teaching a Humanities class. This is a very cool class that starts in antiquity with the ancient Mesopotamians and ends in the early Renaissance. We examine art, music, literature, history and religion/philosophy from these time periods and a variety of cultures. The goal of the class is to expose students to ancient cultures and also to help them chart the progression of Western culture from its ancient roots to the present. When I was an undergrad in the Honor's College, I took a version of this course that lasted for four semesters that was one of the best experiences I ever had in college. I'm supposed to teach this class in a semester which seriously limits what I can do. The class demographic also includes learning support students (students that must enroll in remedial classes because they cannot pass the reading or writing entrance exams) which means that I cannot require the students to read or write nearly as much as I would like and as befits the mission of the course. Ideally, this class would be team taught as the class I took as an undergrad was because while I am qualified to discuss literature, I am not a historian. Next semester this course will be linked with Western Civ 1 in a learning community, which while not quite team teaching, will be a vastly superior experience for the students, I think.

However, this is where I run into a problem. Because I am not a historian (I'm not a historical dummy; I have pretty good general historical knowledge), I rely very heavily on the textbook. I do a fair amount of supplemental research but at the end of the day, I have to trust that the historical information in the textbook is accurate because I'm teaching six classes and trying to write my dissertation at the same time.

At my college, everyone has to use the same textbook. The book we are using, CULTURE AND VALUES: A SURVEY OF THE HUMANITIES VOLUME ONE SIXTH EDITION ed. Lawrence Cunningham and John J. Reich, was adopted before they hired me and apparently the professors that teach this course have been trying to get the text changed ever since. [There was a lot of red tape involving a former college president that I won't go into unless asked in comments.]

Now I see why.

I just taught "Chapter 6: Jerusalem and Early Christianity." Look long and hard at that title and notice which religious tradition is notably absent. That ought to tell you right there what's to come.

Let me excerpt for you the first two paragraphs of this chapter:

One of the interesting ironies of history is the fact that, more than three thousand years ago in the Middle East, a small tribe-turned-nation became one of the central sources for the development of Western civilization. The fact is incontestable: The marriage of the biblical tradition and Graeco-Roman culture has produced, for better or worse, the West as we know it today. The irony is all the more telling because these ancient biblical people did not give the world great art, significant mustic, philosophy, or science. Their language did not have a word for science. Their religion discouraged the plastic arts. We have the texts of their hymns, canticles, and psyalms, but we can only speculate how they were sung and how they were accompanied instrumentally. What these people did give us was a book; more precisely, a collection of many different books we now call the Bible.

This is what I am supposed to teach my students? What they are supposed to read and believe? That Judaism contributes nothing to global culture until another religious tradition co-opts it? That Judaism is only valuable as a source [commodity] for Western consumption? That the Jewish tradition only deserves 6 pages in this entire textbook?

I am, frankly, speechless with disgust. Thankfully we finally pushed hard enough and will be using a new text for the fall. I have not yet examined it but it has to be better than this.

So here's where I want y'all to help me out. If you are a teacher, don't use this text. It's problematic in other ways as well--like the fact that Africa and Japan apparently don't exist and neither do the Americas.

Secondly, do you know of any good resources online about Judaism that I can use to supplement my teaching if the text we've adopted is as fail worthy in this regard? I can find tons of information, of course, but I have a hard time determining if the information I've found is accurate.

I'm not lj cutting this because I want you all to see it.

Comments

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

I am trying very hard not to retch.

According to this asshat, nobody knows how to sing the hymns I sing. That the Torah, which is one of the greatest works of art throughout the centuries and was pretty much the reason for the art of caligraphy in the west and illumination, did not in any way contribute.

Basically, this guy says that I don't exist. So, as a bisexual Jew I am aparently covered in fucking white out.

I am. Not having a really good day/week/month about Christianity appropriating my entire religion and culture and going 'lalalala, but it's so old and forgotten and useless'.

Thank you, though, for being disgusted. Which sounds as weird today as when I said it a few days ago (because it's totally all right to pray for a friend's Jewish soul; it's expected after all, to save us!), but I mean it. I am fucking grateful that people look at shit like this and go what the freaking fuck and try to change it.

I don't have any particular suggestions for where to look for teaching tools yet, but give me time to calm down and ask a few people. And calm down.

Er. Sorry for being confusing and angry in your journal :/

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Dude, whenever I see a history textbook that includes the phrase "the fact is incontestable" I know the writers are a few cushions short of a symposium.

If I were you I'd link this to the stilljewish comm, the members will have whatever you need.

[havocthecat]

Oh, fuck me, that's as bad as the book that I put down that had an attitude about those quaint little Jews and their silly little religious traditions that we just can't prove are based on real history. MY GOD. APPALLING. (The book went into the Goodwill bin. I nearly threw it against the wall. I don't throw books. But I was tempted.)

For Judaism info online, you can check out: Torah 101 and Judaism 101, though those are both primarily on the Conservative to Orthodox spectrum, as well as from a very Ashkenazic perspective, though they mention other traditions as well, especially Reform Judaism. I'm sure other people have better online resources than I do, though.

ETA: I think I just gave you info that's probably not what you're looking for. Er. Sorry.

[tabaqui]

Blech. WTF is it with people trying to 'delete' other people? So damn bizarre and disgusting.

I have no helps or hints for you, but i *do* applaud your need to find and teach *actual facts* to your students. A lot of teachers simply wouldn't fight, or care.
*hugs*

[trobadora]

... what the fucking fuck?!

Sorry, I don't seem to have any other words right now. :(

[j-s-cavalcante.livejournal.com]

Good for you.

That textbook is horrifying and offensive. It reads like antisemitic propaganda. And it's very scary that any educational institution would choose this book for teachers to teach from.

A book I love is Jewish Literacy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. It's a fascinating read and is very well organized. I think it could help. And it would quickly disabuse any reader of the notion that this "ancient biblical people did not give the world great art, significant music, philosophy or science."

That line pisses me off more than any other up there.

[ariadne83]

Holy fuck. Sorry, I just... have no words for how fucking appalling and dismissive that is.

[droolfangrrl.livejournal.com]

Sidebar: when you have time. you might read this book

Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture
by Marvin Harris

yanked from wikipedia "Several other publications by Harris examine the cultural and material roots of dietary traditions in many cultures, including Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture; Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture (original title The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig) and his edited volume, Food and Evolution: Toward a Theory of Human Food Habits. Harris’ Why Nothing Works: The Anthropology of Daily Life (Originally titled America Now: the Anthropology of a Changing Culture) applies concepts from cultural materialism to the explanation of such social developments in late twentieth century United States as inflation, the entry of large numbers of women into the paid labor force, marital instability, and shoddy products. His Our Kind: Who We Are, Where We Came From, Where We Are Going surveys the broad sweep of human physical and cultural evolution, offering provocative explanations of such subjects as human gender and sexuality and the origins of inequality. His publications are diverse and many, a separate article covers them. Harris’ 1979 work, Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Culture, updated and re-released in 2001, offers the most comprehensive statement of cultural materialism."

[lyr]

That is one fucked up book full of fail. I can point you to The Sacred Texts Archive Judaism page (I so love that site!), but most of all I recommend asking lomedet; if anyone would know, she would. If I had any questions at all about resources for Judaism, I'd ask her.