An outraged Park Slope teacher says he learned the hard way that it’s OK to wear Black Lives Matter t-shirts to work at his “woke” Brooklyn school — but not pro-cop or pro-Israel garb, the NY Post reports.
Jeffrey Levy, an English as a Second Language teacher at MS 51 in the liberal Brooklyn enclave, told The Post that school Principal Neal Singh ordered him to stop wearing his “Proud Zionist” t-shirt in the building — even though other staffers have worn shirts touting BLM and women’s rights.
Levy filed a discrimination complaint over not being allowed to wear his self-made shirt, which features the Star of David. He said he was told by Singh that students and staffers complained about it — and also the pro-police “Back the Blue” t-shirt he’s previously worn.
“Singh told me that my T-shirt with an Israeli flag on it and the words ‘Proud Zionist’ were politically explosive’,” Levy says in his complaint, filed Sept. 30, with the city Department of Education’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity.
“He told me that Zionism involves the retaking of Palestinian land and is ‘offensive,’ ” Levy adds in the complaint, a copy of which The Post reviewed.
The teacher said the principal’s stance smacks of a double standard.
“Singh has permitted other staff to wear attire with ‘Black Lives Matter,’ ‘Feminism is the radical idea that women are people,’ ‘Feminist’ and ‘O’Connor & Ginsburg & Sotomayor & Kagan,’ ” Levy said, referring to female US Supreme Court justices, in his discrimination complaint. “Singh’s definition of politically explosive attire appears limited to Jews only,” the teacher claimed. “None of my attire, actions or beliefs endanger the emotional or physical safety of students or staff, which Singh accused me of. … I have conducted myself professionally and have always respected the beliefs of all while doing my job neutrally and without bias. … His attempt to threaten and intimidate me is anti-Semitic.” Read more at the NY Post.
{Matzav.com}
Be honest.
““Singh told me that my T-shirt with an Israeli flag on it and the words ‘Proud Zionist’ were politically explosive’,””
Singh is, of course, 100% right.
Also, BLM and Feminism are relevant issues in this country, regardless of one’s opinion about each, Unlike those two, however, proclaiming that one is a “Proud Zionist” is taking an ideological stance on an overseas conflict, a stance which is, therefore, totally unnecessary.
Of course, renouncing the Zionist idol would solve this very quickly.