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From: dcs@houxa.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Antisemitism in net.politics
Message-ID: <271@houxa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Oct-83 09:12:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: houxa.271
Posted: Wed Oct 12 09:12:51 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Oct-83 11:11:57 EDT
Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 29

The following quote from Velu Sinha (...!umcp-cs!velu) appeared in
net.politics:

>> ...I think if nothing else then all schools should
>> be closed on the birthday of MLK. MLK is a much more important figure
>> in the history of the US (if not the world...) than many of these
>> Jewish holidays on which schools are closed.

(Ignore the fact that "these Jewish holidays" are not "figure[s] in
the history of the US".)  It doesn't take much reading between the
lines to hear the anger behind this remark.  It sounds to me something
like "Damn those Jews!  How dare they allow their holidays to close
schools!  Don't they know their place, as outsiders whose religion
is tolerated?"  Needless to say, public educators in the U.S., unless
unless they themselves are committed Jews, don't give a damn about
Jewish holidays either; throughout my education -- public schools in
Boston and Newton, Mass., college at M.I.T., grad school at U. of
Michigan -- schools were never closed on holidays, and I had to miss
classes on those days (but I always felt it a waste of time for school
to be closed on "these Christian holidays" -- specifically,
Christmas.)  If Velu's school is closed on Jewish holidays, it must be
because the student body has a large Jewish component, and the
administration feels that it's silly to run classes when a large
fraction of students will be absent.
    By the way, I agree that Martin Luther King's birthday should be
observed, by meaningful celebrations in schools and public places,
much like Abraham Lincoln's birthday.
					-- David Simen
					   ...!houxm!houxa!dcs