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Friday October 6, 2006

Marin parents aim to remove ‘proselytizing’ book from schools

by joe eskenazi
staff writer

An angry young Jewish man hopes to avenge the Romans’ killing of his parents by joining a band of ne’er-do-well terrorists, who loot and pillage their way through biblical Israel. The boy seems headed for a nasty, brutish and short existence — until he meets a fellow named Jesus and becomes his disciple.

While a group of Jewish San Rafael parents admit this makes for a ripping yarn, they wish their children wouldn’t have to read a book they claim glorifies Christianity and slams Judaism in school.

“I read this book and it’s very compelling, very moving and in many ways a good book,” said parent Leonard Levy of “The Bronze Bow,” which won author Elizabeth George Speare the Newbery Medal in 1962.

“But the more I read it, the more my eyes began to bug out because the basic premise is that every time Jesus appears it’s as if you’re watching the religious movies they used to show on TV on Sunday when I was a kid. He’s bathed in light, he has powerful eyes and everyone is astounded by him. It’s as if a chorus of angels is showing up. Jesus is incredible and depictions of anything that has to do with Judaism are unredeemingly negative.”

Armed with letters of support from, among others, Rabbi Stacey Friedman of San Rafael’s Congregation Rodef Sholom, Rabbi Chai Levy of Tiburon’s Kol Shofar, the Rev. Doug Huneke of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tiburon and Jackie Berman, the Jewish Community Relations Council’s education specialist, the parents made their case before a school district curriculum advisory board. In recent years the book has been dropped from California recommended lists, and the parents are hoping it will be dropped in the San Rafael district as well.

Laura Alvarenga, the district’s superintendent, told j. that no decision was made at the Sept. 28 meeting, and none will be made until the board’s next meeting in late October, if then.

Berman said the state last included “The Bronze Bow” on its recommended list in the 1990s, but many have worried about its overtly Christian message for far longer.

“If you take the author’s acceptance speech for the Newbery Award, [she said] her purpose of writing this book was to help her Sunday school class understand and appreciate the real Jesus,” she said.

“Even though it’s considered a fine work of literature, it’s still not appropriate for a public school classroom … Jews are portrayed as slaves to the law who don’t understand love.”

The JCRC in Indianapolis made similar complaints to the local school board about the book, noted Berman, and “The Bronze Bow” was subsequently removed from area public schools.

Levy was also troubled by the book’s portrayal of Jews. Throughout Speare’s work, he claimed, Jews are painted as elitist and anti-poor. He cited a quote from the book’s young protagonist referring to the Torah’s commandments: “I see now that The Law is for the wealthy and not the poor.”

Levy also objected to descriptions of the Jewish priesthood walking through the marketplace, “their phylacteries bobbing on their proud foreheads, taking care their tasseled robes not come in contact with the poor people around them lest they become unclean,” and, especially, the repeated claim that “the rabbis” were conspiring to kill Jesus.

“The charge that the Jews killed Jesus is probably single-handedly responsible for anti-Semitism,” Levy said. “For me, that is absolutely unacceptable in a public school.”

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