Ohio Investigating Nazi Home-Schooling Network
Ohio’s Department of Education is investigating a home-schooling network that claims public schools are run by “Zionist scum,” teaches kids to say “Sieg Heil” in class and instructs fellow parents not to give their kids “Jewish media content,” reported JTA.
These are the 2,500-plus members of the “Dissident Homeschool Network,” a channel on the social-network messaging app Telegram. The “dissidents” are a group of neo-Nazi parents who share home-schooling lesson plans extolling the virtues of Hitler and white nationalism while relying on a popular social-media account run by a Jewish woman to provide ammunition for their hatred. The founders of the group were recently unmasked by a hate-group monitor as a couple in rural Upper Sandusky, Ohio.
“There is absolutely no place for hate-filled, divisive and hurtful instruction in Ohio’s schools, including our state’s home-schooling community,” Stephanie Siddens, interim superintendent of public instruction at Ohio’s education department, told Vice News. “I emphatically and categorically denounce the racist, antisemitic and fascist ideology and materials being circulated.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, along with Rep. Bob Latta, whose district encompasses Upper Sandusky, and Rep. Jim Jordan, all gave statements condemning the group to Vice News. Yet Ohio officials say that there is little to no home-schooling oversight from the state board of education.
France’s Updated Plan to Counter Antisemitism Will Bring Students to Sites of Attacks
The French government updated its plan for fighting antisemitism and racism, which will require teachers to receive training on the topic and French students to visit the site of a racist or antisemitic incident, reported JTA.
Those visits could include Holocaust sites; additionally, roving exhibitions about antisemitism and racism will also be set up in schools, France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced on Jan. 29.
The plan was first adopted in 2015 but is required to be updated every three years.
In addition to the extra educational programs, French law will further be adapted to make charges of serious antisemitic or racist offenses enough to stop the accused from fleeing the country.
The plan was put together by the Interministerial Delegation for the Fight Against Racism and Antisemitism, or DILCRAH, as it is known by its French initials, with advisory input from the American Jewish Committee.
Jewish Population in Judea and Samaria Tops Half a Million
The Jewish population in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank) has surpassed 500,000 people, according to a report by former Knesset member Ya’akov Katz, wrote JNS.
Some 502,991 Jews live in Judea and Samaria as of Jan. 1, according to the document, which culled data from the Israeli Interior Ministry’s Population Registry. That doesn’t include the nearly 350,000 Jews living in eastern Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim despite the area being by law a part of Israel’s unified capital.
The Jewish population in Judea and Samaria is up 15.5% from January 2018, when 435,159 Jews lived in the territories captured after Arab states initiated the Six-Day War in June 1967.
The report projects the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria to exceed 600,000 by 2030, 700,000 by 2035 and 1 million by 2047.
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
