Good morning. Today is Friday. We’ll see what happened when A Jewish organization asked Governor Ron DeSantis to speak at a Jewish museum in Manhattan. We will also look at Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to provide new resources for public school students with dyslexia.
A conservative Jewish organization asked Governor Ron DeSantis to speak at a leading Jewish museum in Manhattan. My colleague Liam Stack writes that the Tikvah Foundation issued a last-minute invitation for DeSantis to participate in the event at the Jewish Heritage Museum.
DeSantis is about the vibrancy of Jewish life in Florida, a topic the foundation covered in the April issue of its magazine, a month after DeSantis signed the law. Classroom instruction and discussion is prohibited on sexual orientation and gender identity in primary schools. Opponents have called the law “No gay talk.”
But a day after the foundation told the museum that DeSantis would join the program, Trudy Chan, a museum official, asked the fund to “pause” her $11,500 deposit and asked to speak with its leaders, according to email. In subsequent phone calls, Eric Cohen, the chief executive of Tikvah, was told that an event with DeSantis could not be held at the museum because Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill was inappropriate. with its inclusive values, Cohen told The Time.
[What Happened When a Conservative Jewish Group Invited DeSantis to Speak]
“The museum implied that Tikvah wanted to host a partisan political event,” Cohen said. “Our event does not endorse any candidate and does not serve any political party. It’s all about the idea, like every previous conference we’ve held at the museum.”
The museum’s chief executive officer, Jack Kliger, declined several requests to be interviewed. The museum explained its actions in a series of public statements expressing its concerns with the political nature of the event and the level of security DeSantis may need. A spokesman stressed that the museum had nothing to do with the event other than discussing leasing its space to the Tikvah Foundation.
Politics has become increasingly challenging for Jewish institutions in recent years as Americans have become divided on issues like LGBTQ policy and the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. York is no exception. Neighborhoods with large Jewish populations following Reform vote definitively for President Biden in the 2020 election, while those with large numbers of ultra-Orthodox Jews overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump.
Peter Beinart, a writer and editor at major for Jewish Currents, a progressive magazine, who also contributes to The New York Times.
Tikvah Foundation made it for the first time complaint against the museum in an article for The Wall Street Journal, written by Cohen and Elliott Abrams, a national security official in several Republican presidential administrations. They accused the museum of engaging in cultural demise and speculated that its leaders may be afraid of the protests because “a lot of people don’t like Mr. DeSantis.”
After their article was published, the museum released a statement saying the work “contains many factual inaccuracies” and described the decision as “simply a contractual decision. and logistics”.
It invited DeSantis to “visit” the museum as a tourist. It also accused Tikvah of “trying to create a war where no one exists.”
The Tikvah Foundation will still present its conference at Pier 60 in June. Appearing alongside Governor DeSantis will be speakers including Mike Pompeo, secretary of state under Trump.
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“Dyslexia has held back too many of our children from going to school, but most importantly in life,” said Mayor Eric Adams, adding that it “haunts you forever until you can recognize it.” get the proper treatment you deserve.”
It is personal to him. Adams said his own undiagnosed dyslexia affected his academic career.
On Thursday, he and school officials announces plan to screen nearly all public school students for dyslexia, with 80 elementary schools and 80 middle schools set up to receive additional support to address the needs of children with disabilities. The city will also open two new dyslexia programs – one at PS 125 Ralph Bunche in Harlem and the other at PS 161 Juan Ponce de León in the South Bronx – with the goal of opening similar programs in three other counties next year. next.
“One of the reasons I know we have to do this, this is not an option, is because of those personal struggles and the number of my friends in school that dropped out, dropped out early, never returned just because they were Adams said. He said the city will take “the largest and most comprehensive approach to supporting students with dyslexia across the country.”
At the same time, school leaders are asking principals to switch to a phonics-based literacy curriculum, which literacy experts say is the most effective way to teach reading to most. children.
My colleague Lola Fadulu says that New York is facing a literacy crisis: Less than half of the city’s 3rd to 8th grade students and just 36% of Black and Latino students, mastered in state reading exams held in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available. Research shows that the coronavirus pandemic has only made those outcomes worse.
Adams and David Banks, principals of the schools – both blacks who attended the city’s public schools – have said that addressing the city’s reading crisis, in particular, is about eradicating racial disparities. ethnicity in literacy outcomes, are top priorities. The mayor often talks about reading related to the path from school to prison, note that 30% to 40% of prisoners have dyslexia.
Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children of New York, welcomed Adams’ plans, saying they could “have a transformative impact if executed well”. She added that the group looks forward to working with education officials to ensure that “all children learn to read, no matter where they go to school”.
What we are reading
METROPOLITAN . Diary
Neighborhood Sound
Dear Diary:
I moved into my new apartment in Brooklyn and I lived alone for the first time when the summer started. I worried about being lonely, but I told myself it was an important step, that I had finally become a real adult.
The first night I was there, I found myself living across the street from a basketball court, where people gathered to play music and talk. So great! I thought. I will get to know the community.
Every night during the summer, the gatherings continue. I open the window and let the sound into my studio, the hum of the neighborhood comforting me against the loneliness of being home alone.
As the weeks passed, the music gradually got louder. Sometimes I lean my head out the window and wave my hand, asking if the people playing it could turn it down, a little bit.
Usually this works, but sometimes it doesn’t. The music seems to be the loudest on weeknights. This is getting a little less pleasant, I thought to myself one October night.
Then, on a Tuesday night after midnight, the music across the street was so loud that my window rattled. I decided I had to call in a noise complaint. Feeling shy, I dialed 311. A man named Ron answered.
I whispered and apologized profusely for what I was about to say. I don’t want the party to be closed, but maybe people could turn it down a bit?
Ron asked for my address. When I gave it to him, he gasped.
“I know exactly what you’re talking about,” he said. “I live right next to you.”
I burst out laughing, stunned by the coincidence, and delighted to finally meet a neighbor.
“And don’t worry about calling,” he added. “I get complaints about these people every night.”
– Camille Jacobson
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and Read more Metropolitan Diary here.
