A social psychologist with a clinical background, Dr. Paresky serves as Senior Advisor to the Open Therapy Institute, Advisor to the Mindful Education Lab at New York University, Senior Fellow at the Network Contagion Research Institute, and Associate at Harvard University. In addition to The Jewish Journal, her work appears in Psychology Today, The Guardian, Politico, Sapir, The New York Times, and elsewhere. She has taught at Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago, and the United States Air Force Academy, and writes the Habits of a Free Mind newsletter on Substack. Follow her on Twitter at @PamelaParesky
The curriculum authors, who define Zionism as “a nationalist, colonial ideology,” claim that there is a “current apartheid in Israel” and that Israel’s “settler colonialism” has “pedagogical importance” and therefore must be included in California’s ethnic studies curriculum.
Modern versions of old antisemitic conspiracy theories are being circulated online while violent anti-Jewish demonstrations escalate in Europe and North America.
Defining Jews as either having or lacking “racial privilege” erases realities that are inconvenient to the critical ethnic studies narrative.
Jews are the only group in California’s proposed curriculum for whom the term “privilege” is used.
When the NYT treats Jews with less sensitivity than it treats other minority groups, it signals that Jews are less deserving of concern and care.
Jewish students, whether liberal, moderate, or conservative, must demand and defend viewpoint diversity, not work toward shutting down speech. Censorship is an illiberal tendency, not a liberal one.
