{"id":404060,"date":"2021-04-09T15:28:17","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T19:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=404060"},"modified":"2021-04-09T15:28:19","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T19:28:19","slug":"teachers-union-head-under-fire-for-anti-semitic-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/teachers-union-head-under-fire-for-anti-semitic-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"Teachers\u2019 Union Head Under Fire for Anti-Semitic Comments"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fteachers-union-head-under-fire-for-anti-semitic-comments%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=404060&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div readability=\"31.536290322581\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Rabbi: Weingarten &#8216;took legitimate criticism of her union\u2019s refusal to go back to work as a way to demonize the Jewish community&#8217;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\">\n\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"736\" height=\"486\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-1136.jpeg\" class=\"w-full lazyload blur-up wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-1135.jpeg 736w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Weingarten-300x198.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Weingarten-768x507.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Weingarten-1024x676.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Weingarten-1400x924.jpeg 1400w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" \/><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs\">\n\t\t\t\tGetty Images\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/graham-piro\/\" title=\"Posts by Graham Piro\" rel=\"author\" class=\"text-red-700\">Graham Piro<\/a> \u2022 April 9, 2021 3:15 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div readability=\"88.079021636877\">\n<p>Civil rights groups are condemning teachers&#8217; union president Randi Weingarten for accusing Jewish Americans of depriving others of opportunity in their bid to reopen schools.<\/p>\n<p>Weingarten has already found herself in the middle of multiple battles over reopening schools since the union she heads, the&nbsp;American Federation of Teachers, pushed back on CDC guidance about physical distancing guidelines in school. Her comments about American Jews unleashed a firestorm of condemnations from groups that accused Weingarten of trafficking in anti-Semitic tropes.<\/p>\n<p>Rabbi Aryeh Spero, president of the Conference of Jewish Affairs, accused Weingarten of &#8220;denouncing her own people and inciting others against Jews in order to be the darling of the Left.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She took legitimate criticism of her union\u2019s refusal to go back to work as a way to demonize the Jewish community. Historically this was labeled \u2018scapegoating,'&#8221; Spero said. &#8220;She understands that today power is achieved by those who scapegoat Jews.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Weingarten made the comments in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/diaspora\/randi-weingarten-has-strong-words-for-jews-who-say-unions-are-an-obstacle-663912\">interview<\/a> with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency<em>&nbsp;<\/em>where she responded to a question about the perception that teachers&#8217; unions are trying to keep schools closed. She pivoted to criticizing American Jews as part of the &#8220;ownership class&#8221; who &#8220;want to take that ladder of opportunity away from those who do not have it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Weingarten defended herself against accusations of anti-Semitism by pointing to her marriage to a rabbi.&nbsp;&#8220;My entire life is dedicated to promoting Jewish values like tikkun olam (repairing a broken world),&#8221; she&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rweingarten\/status\/1379913773247422468\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/twitter.com\/rweingarten\/status\/1379913773247422468&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1618069212608000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGDSTXrhpFXZg77fbnhaWSO8QpGHw\">wrote<\/a>&nbsp;on Twitter. She also retweeted another rabbi who defended her as &#8220;talking about her disappointment when Jews don&#8217;t support unions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But her defense was not sufficient for groups that fight anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are nauseated the head of the&nbsp;Teachers&#8217; Union&nbsp;has the audacity to spread century-old antisemitic tropes of Jewish dominance and power,&#8221; Liora Rez, executive director of Stop Antisemitism, said. &#8220;While Ms. Weingarten herself is collecting a hefty six-figure salary,&nbsp;the majority of Jewish Americans do not. Her dangerous&nbsp;rhetoric does nothing but provide white supremacists and other antisemites more&nbsp;verbal weaponry to use against Jews at a time when antisemitism is spreading like wildfire in America.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Asaf Romirowsky, executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, criticized Weingarten for using &#8220;identity politics&#8221; to target a religious minority.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Weingarten&#8217;s comments represent a growing antisemitism within the progressive Left \u2013 which spends its days seeking out fictional ideas weaved in identity politics such as \u2018ownership class,'&#8221; Romirowsky said. &#8220;Anti-semitism is a form of racism. Until racism in all of its varieties is no longer tolerated, it will flourish.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The American Federation of Teachers did not respond to a request for comment. The union told the CDC in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aft.org\/sites\/default\/files\/rw_cardona_walensky_covid_032321.pdf\">letter<\/a> sent March 23 that the union was &#8220;not convinced&#8221; about the agency&#8217;s updated guidance concerning reduced physical distancing in schools. The union put out a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aft.org\/press-release\/americas-educators-are-vaccinated-and-back-person-poll\">press release<\/a> this week touting high vaccination rates among its members and an increased desire to return to some form of in-person learning.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rabbi: Weingarten &#8216;took legitimate criticism of her union\u2019s refusal to go back to work as a way to demonize the Jewish community&#8217;  Getty Images &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2311926,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-1136.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Teachers\u2019 Union Head Under Fire for Anti-Semitic Comments","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-1136.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Teachers\u2019 Union Head Under Fire for Anti-Semitic Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}