JustASC

A group calling itself Concerned Citizens against Hebrew Charter School in East Brunswick NJ has posted a petition on-line opposing the recently approved Hatikvah charter school.

It has the same name as a group that organized a previous petition, but it’s hard to tell if it is the same people. There’s a different contact person listed (Lin Yan, as opposed to Stephanie Granot). The first petition clearly reflected the concerns of some Jewish parents, especially those who see the charter school as a threat to the local Schechter Jewish day school.

The latest petition takes a different tack, suggesting language-immersion schools are un-American, and that Hatikvah is “geared toward the interests of a special group who is using taxpayer’s money to achieve the group goal, which gives no benefit to the rest of non-Jewish residents in our community.”

Read the full petition after the jump.

We are the East Brunswick residents. Couple of days ago, we learned about the recent approval of opening a Hebrew Charter school in our community. We are very confused and we all think it is outrageous because no public hearing, from different ethnic groups, was given to the public before tax payer’s money is spent to build such a school.

If the Hebrew Charter School runs in East Brunswick, is it fair to consider opening a Chinese Charter School or Spanish Charter School in the future using taxpayer’s money as well? There is a variety of languages spoken in the United States.

As President Theodore Roosevelt said in 1907, “In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant, who comes here in good faith, becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

We don’t oppose anyone who wants to learn a foreign language. The point is that learning Hebrew and opening a Charter school by spending public taxpayer’s money is not fair and is wrong. The approval of opening such school is geared toward the interests of a special group who is using taxpayer’s money to achieve the group goal, which gives no benefit to the rest of non-Jewish residents in our community. We strongly oppose such an outrageous move.

We would like you to reconsider the approval of opening the Hebrew Charter School.

Sincerely,

A Group of East Brunswick Residents

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 9:26 am and is filed under JustASC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.