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This thesis argues that Israel education (re)produces Zionist hegemony in Jewish-Canadian communities, exemplified in Toronto Jewish day schools. Israel education is practiced in a variety of settings and aims to instill an affective relationship – a feeling of love – for Zionism and Israel in young Jews. Zionist hegemony, as the term is used in this thesis, refers to the way devotion to Zionism functions as a metric for inclusion in many Jewish Canadian communities. An analysis of publicly available documents from seven Jewish day schools in the Greater Toronto Area demonstrates that through Israel education, Zionism is framed as a shared community value, and students are discouraged from thinking critically about the ideology. Augmenting this research is an autoethnography based on my personal experiences as an anti- Zionist Jew who grew up in a Jewish Zionist community, and as a graduate of a Toronto Jewish day school. I reflect on the emotional and social impact of Israel education and Zionist hegemony from within a Jewish Canadian community.
I looked at the websites of the seven schools, and every one of them stated that they were Zionist or supportive of Israel. Baker makes it sound like this is hidden from parents, and it certainly is not. Instilling love of Israel is as much a part of these schools as instilling love of studying Torah. It would be just as inappropriate to teach anti-Zionism as it would be to teach the Documentary Hypothesis. If parents want that, they should find another school.
In fact, Baker admits in the thesis that she refused to have a bat mitzvah since she didn't believe in God. So why doesn't she complain that her Jewish day school, presumably, didn't teach atheism along with Judaism? Isn't it the same thing?
That is not to say that the schools do not allow critical thinking on either Zionism or Judaism. In fact, many of them say this explicitly in their online materials. Robbins Hebrew Academy says that it engages Israel in a “critical and meaningful way,” that students see Israel through “many lenses,” and that they study its political, social, religious and historical contexts.
Baker claims that the Leo Baeck Day Schools position towards Israel means it is“at best unnecessary and at worst forbidden” to think critically about it. Yet its materials say "We are a Zionist institution with a core responsibility to preserve Israel and encourage a democratic state. Our ability to engage meaningfully, yet not unquestioningly, on Israeli governmental policies is an example of the importance of teaching multiple perspectives and what students need to understand the complexity of modern Israel. Our students learn that they can both hug and wrestle as part of a positive relationship with Israel."
It appears that unless these explicitly Zionist schools teach students that Israel may not have the right to exist as a Jewish state, then they are violating some imaginary code of ethics that exists only in her head.
Speaking of, she writes about the hateful reactions she received from her Instagram post less than a week after October 7, 2023. But she then quotes her own stupid and callous comment:
for people who say israel is the only thing standing between jews and genocide, consider where antisemitism stems from. white supremacy. antisemitism is a form of white supremacy. like myself, many jews are now considered white and have access to the power and privilege that comes with that. whiteness is malleable and shifts and changes to benefit itself. That being said, Israel is now weaponizing white supremacy (the very system it essentially says it stands against) to systemically oppress Palestinians in their own land. white supremacy is the common thread. for white jews to grasp at the power our conditional whiteness lends us through supporting the state of israel is to turn our backs on collective liberation from the claws of white supremacy that ultimately harms us all. it is a betrayal of jewish values and it stops us from seeing the bigger system at play. we cannot fight for the end of antisemitism without fighting from the end of white supremacy. and we cannot fight to end white supremacy while we are actively perpetuating it and holding on to the tenuous power it is lending us.
So she essentially blamed October 7 on Israel, and then whined that people insulted her afterwards. Boo hoo.
Baker's grasp of reality is tenuous at best, but that doesn't stop her thesis adviser to approve her writing which is essentially demanding that Jewish schools cannot choose how to teach about Israel.
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Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026) "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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