Shlomo Bolts, Hillel ‘06, writes in:
Avi Frier (in a Florida Jewish News article on our protests) writes that potential student protests last Fri. were cancelled because of the possibility teachers would be rehired. Is this true? Because if so, it seems to me we have
2 choices:
1) Make teachers’ rehiring our primary objective. This is a more conciliatory approach and probably more achievable. If this is the main objective, we might have more muted protests as long as negotiations are going strong. But this approach doesn’t address deeper problems. It leaves us open to another round of firings in a few years.
2) Make addressing the deeper problems our main objective. Why so much turnover in the past few years? Why is a new “vision” being implemented against widespread protest among students and parents? If we take this approach, we’re in for a dogfight. This will be very hard to do, and might involve structural changes in how hiring/firing decisions are made. But if we win, success will be deeper and longer-lasting.
I write this because in calling off the Friday protests, the student body implicitly endorsed choice 1 over choice 2. The distinction between the two choices is somewhat subtle, but could prove important, because I’ve observed alumni like choice 2 (which is really choice 1 AND 2) while current students are more content to stop at choice 1. This might affect how students and alumni interact during this whole mess, and in my opinion, it could potentially lead to a situation in which students and alumni undermine each other.
Perhaps I read too deep into this, perhaps I am thinking too far ahead. Perhaps not. What do people think of this? Does some disagreement exist, should we address it now, and if so, how?
9 responses so far ↓
1 Concerned Citizen // Mar 29, 2007 at 10:22 pm
Shlomo, the teachers were fired would like choice 2 to be the main objective.
2 Concerned Citizen // Mar 29, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Shlomo, there’s been much talk in the community that run-ins with YOU last year were used as a main reason to fire Debbie Galitzer.
Your active participation in vocalizing your disgust with this administration has gone a long way to show the world how they will skew any minor incident and take it out of context to promote their own evil agenda.
Thank you for being vocal. You have not only set the record straight by doing so but you are helping us accomplish our goals more than you realize.
You are a great credit to this school. I would like you to be aware of how much we appreciate your involvement.
Thank you again Shlomo Bolts, Hillel Valedictorian, Class of 2006, a true leader!!!!
3 angry student // Mar 30, 2007 at 2:09 am
THREE YEARS AGO, ONLY THREE YEARS since Mrs. Heber was honored as teacher of the year by Hillel…I’ll tell you now the only thing thats changed in the past three years is the administration….Mrs. Heber was “a teacher to be rocognized” by the past administration and studdenly shes not?
As for Mrs. Galitzer, she has more information in her head that “Dr” Holden would ever read in his “idiots guide to Judaism”..
AND RABBI LEFKOWITZ….its interesting that this happens the same time the students show their gratitude for the AMAZING color war he has created…he is an amazing asset to the school and any idiot could see that!
DEAR ADMINISTATION:
I DON’T SEE ANY OF YOU GETTING AWARDS FOR BEING THE BEST, I DONT SEE ANY OF YOU SPILLING INFORMATION LEFT AND RIGHT REGARDING JUDAISM AND JEWISH LAW, AND I DEFINATLY DONT SEE ANY OF YOU ACTIVELY GETTING THE STUDENTS INVOLVED IN THEIR SCHOOL. YOU ARE RUINING AN AMAZING FAMILY AND I THINK IT’S TIME YOU LEAVE…YOU HAVE OVERSTAYED YOUR WELCOME!!!!!!
4 Shlomo Bolts // Mar 30, 2007 at 2:26 am
Concerned Citizen,
Are you sure that the teachers want choice 2 to be the main objective? How do you know?
Also, let me further set the record straight:
Clearly, Mrs. Galitzer and I have never been on the best of terms. We had wildly different opinions regarding the take-home messages of Jewish history, and every time I could, I would point out that there were alternate ways to view Jewish history and current events related to Israel.
There is a real problem, in my opinion, with her promotion of a definitively right-of-center Israeli politics in the classroom. But this problem is, I feel, endemic to most of the Jewish community and Israel.
I don’t want a political discussion–on this website–so I’ll end it at that and hope everyone else does too. Honestly, I learned a lot from Mrs. Galitzer. When arguing about Israeli politics and current events, I find myself using knowledge that I gained in her class. I use the knowledge in ways that might make her cringe, but I still use it.
I think our larger disagreements about the main themes of Jewish history were the deep-running causes of our personal “run-in”. This “run-in” which occured during midterm time, was entirely personal and unrelated to any of the politics I just talked about. I will not comment on it further, except to say that I think we resolved our (personal) differences. Both of us regret it, and wish we had handled it better.
Now that that’s done with, let me say that anyone who uses our “run-in” as reason to fire Mrs. Galitzer is being highly disingenuous. First of all, if you’re worried about my political views, rehire Mrs. Galitzer and change the mission statement. Somewhere in there, it states that Hillel’s mission is to build a generation of kids that will “help America and help Israel”. What about everyone else? You know, America and Israel comprise less than 2% of the world population. What about the other 98%? Why is there no mention of tikkun olam, given that Jews today are in a better position to carry out our mission than ever before?
Second of all, as I’ve stated elsewhere on this message board, these firings were not performance-related. There’s no way that so many teachers could be fired all at once for “performance reasons”. As I learned in Dr. Wieser’s AP Statistics class, the chances of all these teachers being fired at once for “performance reasons” is very low. Clearly, something else is going on.
Which brings us back to our two choices. Is it good enough if the teachers are rehired, or do we try to get to the bottom of it? Is choice 1 enough, or do we need choice 2 also?
Concerned Citizen, I appreciate your compliments–and your raising of the Galitzer issue. I hope that in the past four years I’ve earned some type of ethos, but in a way, I regret that I just wrote a long post talking about myself.
My original post is more important than this post. While I would be happy to continue our current discussion of Mrs. Galitzer, because I do think it is very important, I would much prefer if it were moved to a seperate thread. This thread should be about how confrontational we want to be, and how alumni will interact with students.
5 demosthenes // Mar 30, 2007 at 2:27 am
you’re so right dude why aren’t you posting in the right places?
6 Concerned Citizen // Mar 30, 2007 at 2:34 am
Shlomo, What a mensch you are: That explanation helps a tremendous amount.
I usually do not speak on behalf of other people other than myself. I cannot reveal to you on a public website how I know that, but I know that. You’re a brilliant kid. Read between the lines.
7 Concerned Citizen // Mar 30, 2007 at 2:38 am
Let me just add one thing, we all knew it was a disingenous reason to fire (and I’m sure not the only bogus reason given), but you were the only one who could tell that administration straight to their face since you were the one involved. They should be embarrassed to be caught in such a web of lies that are finally being exposed. Thank you!
8 Concerned Citizen // Mar 30, 2007 at 2:47 am
One more thing, if you have read all my postings on this site, I should have earned some type of ethos in your eyes that you can feel comfortable in believing what I’m telling you.
9 demosthenes // Mar 30, 2007 at 11:14 am
hey angry citizen, do you think you can respost what you wrote to the right thread cuz it just seems like abig shame to me that no one will read it on this one .
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