‘Where has civility gone?’

Not everything is about anti-Semitism. But apparently it is.

For many, anti-Jewish sentiments simmer below the surface and, given the right stage, rear their ugly heads and transform everything into a conflict about Jews.

That seems to be what happened last week, when an argument about franchise rights between the Marva Collins Preparatory School and the famed educator for whom the school is named sparked an anti-Semitic attack.

In a letter dated Dec. 7, State Rep. Annette Polly Williams expressed frustration with what apparently seemed to her like efforts to denigrate Collins and out slipped some juicy examples of old fashioned anti-Semitism.

She wrote, “We are especially appalled that members of the Jewish community who operate the Milwaukee’s [sic] Marva Collins School are attacking Ms. Collins’ integrity….
[T]he leadership of the Marva Collins school is making a grave mistake by attempting to defame Marva Collins, when the school is openly violating Marva Collins’ agreement. This is not about money. It’s (once again) about individuals thinking they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, to the African American community.

“African Americans do not go into the Jewish community and schools, attempting to force them to alter their traditions and/or beliefs, but how is it some individuals feel comfortable and within ‘their rights’ fine tuning or changing Marva Collins’ technique?”

Here’s the thing: The school’s founder, Ronald Sadoff, is Jewish. In 1997, according to the school’s Web site, Ronald and his wife, Micky, saw a report about Collins on the CBS news show “60 Minutes” and became determined to use her techniques to rescue a local school and help the community.

The Sadoffs (who were unavailable for comment) and others involved in the school are indeed guilty — of the terrible crime of attempting tikkun olam (repairing the world). Yet from all reports, it seems that their main crime here is being Jewish. And that’s disturbing.
This issue “had nothing to do with the organized Jewish community, which is why we were so perplexed,” Paula Simon, executive director of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, said in an interview this week.

“What was so surprising was that it was out of the blue and [its] broad brush strokes, lumping someone who is Jewish in with the whole Jewish community,” she said. Williams’ letter used “classical anti-Semitic verbiage … talking about power, money and influence.”

In a follow-up letter addressed to the “Wisconsin Media,” Williams wrote: “I sincerely apologize to the Jewish community for any pain that my comments … may have caused…. As you know, the topic of education is very important to me and I acted totally on emotions and take full responsibility for my comments.”

She also wrote that though her original letter said that it was written on behalf of Black Woman’s Network, Williams acted on her own. BWN members distanced themselves from the letter, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story last Friday.

But I return to the issue: How did Jews become the problem here?

Harriet McKinney, director of the American Jewish Committee-Milwaukee Chapter, explained, “Jews are visible. We have a responsibility to tikkun olam. We act on that responsibility. And then we get to be targets for people’s disappointment and unhappiness and re-stimulation about other things.”

“[Williams] has had to fight her own battles for recognition, as most women in public life do. She must have looked at the situation and decided that Marva Collins was being pilloried,” and confused that with her own hurts, McKinney said.

So, McKinney explained, “If you want to prove a point, you go to the easiest things,” which in this case was the Jews and internal anti-Semitic ideas.

“It’s a sad chapter,” said State Rep. Sheldon Wasserman, who works with Williams in the State Assembly. (Williams did not return my telephone calls; I can only assume she’d like the whole affair to disappear.)

“[The Sadoffs] did this out of the goodness of their hearts,” Wasserman said. “And for them to take a hit is really unnecessary and uncalled for…. They’re not making a profit; if anything, they’re donating.”

Simon agreed, asking, “Why isn’t [Williams] applauding them?”

Wasserman doesn’t believe Williams’ thoughts represent a majority opinion, noting that his relations with the Latino and African American communities have been “excellent.”

But, “anti-Semitism is out there and I don’t think it’s going to go away, even with all the intermarriage,” he said. “We have to be aware of it and respond to it. We can’t ignore it. We have to point it out again and again.”

And, McKinney emphasized, “we have a duty to “interrupt other –isms, like racism and sexism and homophobia and anti-Semitism as they occur.”

“Our job is to clean up, to provide the opportunity for those things to be cleaned up totally in our society, in our homes, in our families, in our hearts,” she continued. “We need to clean up our internalized anti-Semitism that says, ‘Only these Jews are Jewish enough and those Jews are too Jewish,’ and keeps us connected to only Jews like ourselves.”

This is part of a bigger picture, I thought to myself as I looked a photo in the local weekly Shepherd Express that showed radio talk show gadfly Mark Belling wearing a sombrero. Belling recently got into hot water by referring to Latino immigrants as “wetbacks” and then offering a limp apology.

Simon and McKinney agree. “There’s been a rash of public figures who don’t seem to be bound by any rules, who just say what they want,” Simon said. “Where has civility gone?”

“I think you have to think before you speak,” said Wasserman. “We are all somewhat guilty of [speaking rashly] but if you’re in public office, you have to think before you talk.”

But the whole affair makes me sad. I wonder: Is it only our “political correctness” filters that stop our tongues from revealing the great biases we harbor in our hearts?

Perhaps, in the midst of the divisiveness that seems to define our modern culture, it’s time to clean up our hearts, as McKinney said, and to recognize the humanity in others. Maybe it’s time to make friends with people of other races and political leanings. Maybe the pro-choice activist needs to sip a cup of green tea with an abortion foe.

Only then can we hope to let our tongues flap freely with full confidence that we have no prejudice to hide.