S4 E33 | Nobody Can Take Away Your Education

In this week’s podcast, Jennifer Richmond and Ken Pope speak with Jany Finkielsztein about her immigrant experience and what drove her passion for working in education. Jany’s family immigrated from Poland to Colombia during the Holocaust, and one of her grandfather’s sayings was, (Outside of packing light and running fast) "nobody can take your education from you." Jany took that to heart and carried her passion for education with her, when safety concerns led her family to immigrate to the United States.

As an educator, Jany focused on finding ways to give back to the Hispanic and immigrant communities. However, as the focus of educator professional development began to prioritize activism over learning, she reevaluated her approach. Now working with the CAMERA Education Institute, Jany researches and exposes activists, organizations and curricular materials that present false accounts of Israel and Zionism in K-12 education. In addition, Jany helps to provide educational materials that tackle the anti-Israel bias that has captured much of the American education landscape.

No one can take your education away, but we ask Jany: Do we want to preserve the kinds of education that are increasingly contributing to division and polarization among students?

Bio:

Jany is originally from Bogota, Colombia. She has worked as a middle school teacher, curriculum coordinator and instructional coach across charter, public and independent schools in Massachusetts. She has experience planning and facilitating professional learning opportunities for K-12 teachers. In addition, Jany has been an adjunct faculty teaching pre-service courses for teacher preparation programs at Boston University and Simmons University. Jany is a board member of the Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies (MCSS), and the Jewish Affairs Caucus of the National Educators association (NEA). She is currently a senior education analyst at the CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy for Middle East Reporting and Analysis) Education Institute.

Resources:

One -Pager research based Timely topics: https://www.camera-edu.org/timely_topics/

History of the Jewish People in the Land of Israel - curriculum for schools: https://www.camera-edu.org/5379-2/

The CAMERA Education Institute's (CEI) expert literature program team has curated a list of fiction and non-fiction recommended books for K-12 students that provide accurate information about Israel, its history, current events, Zionism and Israelis: https://www.camera-edu.org/resources/recommended-books/books-for-elementary-school/

https://www.camera-edu.org/resources/recommended-books/books-for-middle-school/

https://www.camera-edu.org/resources/recommended-books/books-for-high-school/

We also exposethe anti-Israel K-12 books infiltrated into schools to promote the ideology: ProblematicBooks After Oct 7, the efforts to have these types of books in classrooms intensified.

To see the scope of the CAMERA Education Institute's (CEI) work: https://www.camera-edu.org/