Teacher's Union leader blasted for her anti-Semitic comments

I recall once seeing teacher's union president Randi Weingarten on television in which she was listening to a speech, possibly by Ed Koch, the Democratic New York City mayor at the time. [This was obviously prior to her position as UFT. and later the AFT president.] As she sat there, here eyes glazed over like Krispy Kreme donuts and eventually closed. She slept.

I didn't know much about her at the time, but I knew that I wouldn't want her in my foxhole, and not even as a coworker. As a young women back then, she seemed to have the energy of a solar panel at the North Pole in winter.

Weingarten, a Jew, is being condemned by civil rights groups and others for accusing Jewish Americans of depriving others of the chance in their bid to reopen schools amid the coronavirus that virtually causes almost zero harm to children and poses little to no danger to teachers in the classroom.

Sleepy Randi, who heads the American Federation of Teachers, is currently in the middle of several fights over school reopening and it seems if she could have her way, the schools would remain closed, at least until the proverbial cows come home. She has pushed back on Center for Disease Control guidance about physical distancing guidelines in school.

Weingarten's comments about American Jews unleashed a firestorm of condemnations from groups that accused Weingarten of trafficking in anti-Semitic tropes.

Rabbi Aryeh Spero, president of the Conference of Jewish Affairs, accused her of "denouncing her own people and inciting others against Jews in order to be the darling of the Left."

"She took legitimate criticism of her union’s refusal to go back to work as a way to demonize the Jewish community. Historically this was labeled ‘scapegoating,'" Spero said. "She understands that today power is achieved by those who scapegoat Jews."

Or by calling everyone you don't like a "racist."

Weingarten made the comments in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency where she responded to a question about the perception that teachers' unions are trying to keep schools closed. She pivoted to criticizing American Jews as part of the "ownership class" who "want to take that ladder of opportunity away from those who do not have it."

Huh? That's a non sequitur. 

Weingarten defended herself against accusations of anti-Semitism by pointing to her marriage to another woman who happens to be a rabbi. [It's the old "some of my best friends are Jews" defense.]

"My entire life is dedicated to promoting Jewish values like tikkun olam (repairing a broken world)," she wrote on Twitter. 

But her defense was not sufficient for groups that fight anti-Semitism.

Asaf Romirowsky, executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, blasted Weingarten for using "identity politics" to target a religious minority.

"Weingarten's comments represent a growing anti-Semitism within the progressive Left – which spends its days seeking out fictional ideas weaved in identity politics such as ‘ownership class,'" Romirowsky explained. "Anti-Semitism is a form of racism. Until racism in all of its varieties is no longer tolerated, it will flourish."

"We are nauseated the head of the Teachers' Union has the audacity to spread century-old antisemitic tropes of Jewish dominance and power," Liora Rez, executive director of Stop Antisemitism, said. "While Ms. Weingarten herself is collecting a hefty six-figure salary, the majority of Jewish Americans do not. Her dangerous rhetoric does nothing but provide white supremacists and other anti-Semites more verbal weaponry to use against Jews at a time when anti-Semitism is spreading like wildfire in America."

$451,973 is the number of dollars Randi Weingarten makes annually. That should keep us all up at night and Weingarten awake all day.


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