Boycotting the Zionist: Disputing the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (2019)
Abstract
A study of the dispute over the 2019 California Draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (2019) with attention to the exclusion of Jewish history and culture from the five outlined Ethnic Studies identity groups included (Black, Asian, Latinx, Indigenous, Arab). Chapter one recounts the history of Ethnic Studies as founded following student protests across U.S. college campuses in the late 1960s; Chapter two provides a historical example of tensions between People of Color communities and Jewish communities over power in schools and curriculum; Chapter three deepens discussions of racial theory and the Black-White binary specific to the U.S. while also analyzing whether studies of Jews and assimilation fit into the same racial theories; and Chapter four weighs the opposing points of Anti- and Pro-Zionist arguments while attempting to define Zionism, Colonialism, Indigeneity, and Antisemitism and determine whether Jewish Studies has a place in Ethnic Studies curriculum. This thesis deconstructs assumptions we hold regarding how curricula is written, challenging readers to think more deeply, ask more intently, and resist more vigorously the historical knowledge that has been made purposefully “mainstream.”
