From: Wesley Gardenswartz <wgardenswartz@templeemanuel.

com>
Date: November 1, 2013 at 9:55:47 AM EDT
To: NEWTON-EMANUEL@USCJ.NET
Subject: Joint Clergy Statement Demanding Retraction of Personal Attack Ads
Reply-To: newton-emanuel list <NEWTON-EMANUEL@USCJ.NET>

Dear Friends:

We, the clergy of Temple Emanuel, have been watching with increasing dismay the spate of ads
run recently in various local papers—the Herald, the Tab, the Advocate, the Metro, and the
Globe—all falsely attacking the name and reputation of David Fleishman, Newton School
Superintendent, and School Committee Vice Chair Matt Hills. The ads claim that the curriculum
of the Newton Public Schools “Demonize Israel & America While Glorifying Islam.” Because
Jewish values are at stake in this controversy, we must speak out.

The Jewish value at stake is not ahavat tzion, love of Israel.

Rather, the Jewish values at stake are halbanat panim birabim, public character assassination
that is in Jewish sources tantamount to murder. The Torah commands us not to stand idly by
while the blood of your neighbor is being shed.

As a result of these ads—some of which actually published the Hills family’s home telephone
number—the Hills family has been constantly harassed with phone calls coming at all hours of
day and night, including the middle of the night, all in response to the incitement of the ad to
“Please call or email to express your concern.” Newton police has had to provide security to
the Hills home as a result of these ads. That is not love of Israel. That is not Judaism. That is
not menschlichkeit. That is the opposite.

Temple Emanuel stands with Israel. This year we have already had two congregational missions
to Israel. In December we are launching a third mission to Israel of 80 people of all ages. Last
Shabbat we had an Israeli scholar teach us Israeli poetry. In a few weeks we are going to have
another Israeli scholar in residence. We gave the most sacred hour of the calendar, the hour
before Neilah, to Congressman Joe Kennedy, to speak about his AIPAC-sponsored trip to
Israel. Every year we send record numbers of teens to Israel, and members to the AIPAC
conference in Washington, D.C. Our Israel Action Committee brings Israel awareness and
advocacy to our community year round.

Standing totally with Israel, we are here to tell you that there is no basis to the claim of bias in
the ads. The ad is not only baseless. It is scurrilous. We are attaching Matt Hills’ email to the
four of us in response to the ads.

The name of the organization that sponsors the ad is “Americans for Peace and Tolerance.” That
name robs the English language of meaning. We call upon this group now to truly stand for
peace and tolerance. They cannot unring the phone calls that woke up the Hills family in the
middle of the night. But they can begin by withdrawing the ads and publicly apologizing to
those whom they have wronged. To do otherwise is public bullying—and is antithetical to our
tradition’s deepest values of respectful dialogue that are essential to true peace and tolerance.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz Rabbi Michelle Robinson

Hazzan Elias Rosemberg Hazzan Sheini Dan Nesson

------------

October 31, 2013

Dear Rabbi Gardenswartz, Rabbi Robinson, Cantor Rosemberg and Hazzan Sheini Nesson,

I want to take this opportunity, as your long-time congregant and as Vice Chair of the Newton
School Committee, to write to you about the ads running in several newspapers about the
Newton Public Schools (NPS). The group that bought the ads repeats its familiar pattern: take a
sentence, distort or fabricate words, write about it in an inflammatory way, and then conclude
that Israel and America are demonized and that Islam is glorified.

We once again see allegations from this group as we near the end of 2013. These allegations are
a mixture of old and new claims, and the recent past is a good indicator of the lack of
truthfulness of such allegations. For example:

 Their ad repeats their previous claim that students are taught that Neil Armstrong
converted to Islam (implying we are teaching propaganda). No such material has ever
been taught to our students. The claim is fabricated.

 They continually take passages out of context so that it appears our students are taught
that women are treated favorably and ideally in today’s Middle East. The material they
refer to actually makes the opposite point, describing the poor position of women in so
many Islamic countries today and how it has further degraded over time.

 We were accused of spending too much time in a course teaching Islam and not enough
time teaching Judaism and Christianity. Leave aside the issue of whether it’s useful for
adults to count the number of hours we spend on each topic in a high school class. The
reality is that we have a four-year spiraling high school history curriculum that is in
accordance with the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework, which recommends teaching
different topics in different courses during each of the four years of high school.

 They continue to imply that NPS is using the Arab World Studies Notebook, which sat
for years on a shelf in the History Department resource library (for teachers in both high
schools) and was eliminated almost two years ago.
  They describe topics that they believe we should be teaching—regardless of whether
these issues are even relevant to the course being taught (and regardless of whether they
have any qualifications to develop high school curriculum).

I can go on and on with these allegations—the above list is just a representative sample-- but the
pattern of distortion and fabrication is consistent and recurring. The recent ad also includes some
new charges which are similar to some of the previous allegations. It is not appropriate for me to
run to track down every new allegation that flies over the transom throughout the year from a
group with such a poor track record. Running after each such charge is akin to chasing the wind.

Past allegations (some of which are summarized above) fall into one of several categories: words
are left out or fabricated in a way that distorts or changes the meaning; inflammatory statements
are made about materials that are not used by the NPS, and; critical context is omitted in a way
that distorts the meaning of the material. This is not a track record that is credible, and it is not
one that lends credence to additional accusations from the group.

We have an outstanding school system with a curriculum that is consistent with Massachusetts
curriculum guidelines and is taught by an extraordinary and dedicated group of teachers. We
will continue to address real concerns anywhere in the Newton Public Schools, and we will
continue to prepare our more than 12,000 students for an increasingly complex world. But we
will never allow a political agenda, from any group, to spoil the integrity of our academic
offerings.

One last thought. There are major Jewish organizations that you would expect to be highly
critical of us if these allegations had even the slightest validity. Yet none of these groups have
said anything to support the charges, and when asked they have refuted the allegations. And that
is because the allegations are simply untrue, regardless of how many times they are repeated by
the same group.

As always, I am happy to speak with you about this at any time—just let me know.

Matt Hills

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<Matt Hills' Letter to Clergy.doc>
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