The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sent a letter to Principal Bill Gregory, stating that a passage in Sherwood’s AP World history textbook, "The Earth and Its Peoples", 2nd edition, is defamatory towards Jewish people. The passage, concerning Jesus’ life and crucifixion, states in part:
Offended by what he perceived as Jewish religious and political leaders’ excessive concern with money and power and by the perfunctory nature of mainstream Jewish religious practice in his time, Jesus prescribed a return to the personal faith and spirituality of an earlier age. He eventually attracted the attention of the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem, who regarded popular reformers as potential troublemakers.
"This section replaces historical facts with stereotypes," says Emily Friedman, a representative from the ADL. "There is no factual basis for this type of statement." The ADL confirms that they "became aware" of the situation from an outside complaint about the passage.
When the social studies department was notified of the ADL’s concerns, teachers discussed possible causes of action. "World teachers have debated the historical accuracy of the quote, and we were thinking we could use the passage as a teachable moment," explains social studies resource teacher Joe Sangillo. "We would point out the passage and say, ‘Hey, this is debatable, what are the different sides? Let’s interpret this.’ That’s one option. Another would be to get white stickers and cover the passage in each book. Another option was to replace the textbooks all together. We chose the third because they needed to be replaced anyways; they were old textbooks. The letter from the ADL pushed us along, but we were already headed toward buying new textbooks." Gregory ultimately approved the decision to purchase a new textbook called "World Civilizations: The Global Experience", which AP World students have switched to using for the second semester.
Regardless of whether or not a new textbook were to be purchased, this issue still presents material for class discussion on the history of Jews. "We try to teach a balanced view of history," says AP World teacher Michelle Games. "We cover the persecution of Jews throughout history."
An aspect of the AP World curriculum involves teaching historiography, which is the study of how history is researched and analyzed. Although there are various different ways of looking at history, and though facts are concrete, opinions on such facts can be drastically different. "[Historiography] is one of the parts of the AP curriculum that the College Board requires us to have in the first place, so [the passage gives us] a good opportunity to talk about it," says AP World teacher Todd Rubenstein.
Games agrees that history entails explaining different interpretations of the story. "History is from the perspective of the writer; it’s not a defined law. Different people introduce subjects differently. As a teacher you always have to do critical examinations [of the subject]," she says.
In this instance, both Games and Rubinstein feel that the passage is talking about Jesus’ perspective towards the Jewish leaders of the community, not the Jewish people as a whole. "[The source] is pretty clear that it says the religious leaders. The leaders of any community can be obsessed with money and power. If it had said that the Jewish people were having too many money and power issues, then that would be a very different story. And being Jewish myself, I was not offended at all by this. And, in fact, that’s pretty much the historically accepted explanation," says Rubinstein.
The ADL’s Friedman disagrees. "I think the important thing to note is that what is in a textbook needs to be factually correct, so our students are learning history, not a classic form of anti-Semitism that has caused so much damage in history."