Israel Matzav

Moonbat Noam Chomsky to speak at Newton South High

I told you all that I was born in Boston; I actually grew up in the western suburb of Newton, about ten miles outside of Boston. If I had attended public school, I would have gone to Newton North High School, but my two first cousins both went to Newton South. So this hits kind of close to home.

Villagers with Torches is reporting that moonbat MIT professor Noam Chomsky (pictured at top left) is scheduled to speak tomorrow during lunch hour at Newton South.

Hat Tip: Maverick News Media

In a statement e-mailed to the press on Tuesday, Principal Brian L. Salzer said the student-run Social Awareness Club extended an invitation to Chomsky two weeks ago to offer a presentation on “A Unique Perspective of U.S. Foreign Policy: Finding Peace in Iraq.” The lecture is scheduled to take place during the lunch period on April 11. Students will attend voluntarily and will be encouraged to ask questions.

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Salzer said he decided to permit Chomsky to visit the school after what he described as a lengthy examination process and consultation with “administrative leadership, school committee leadership and community leaders.”

“Our students are among the most intelligent, cultured, sophisticated and mature students I have worked with,” Salzer added in a statement. “They will bring thoughtful questions, healthy skepticism, remarkable academic preparedness, and the values their parents have instilled in them to listen to a philosopher, academician, linguist, and informed scholar. They will glean knowledge … and walk away wiser.”

Newton resident Victor Zak, whose 15-year-old daughter, Aliza, attends the school, said he feels Chomsky’s visit is not “a good idea at all.” While acknowledging that he doesn’t know exactly what the renowned linguist will say, Zak added that he is familiar with Chomsky’s “anti-Western, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel” record.

“What concerns me is that he has been brought to speak and contaminate the minds of our children,” Zak said. “The position of our school is that the school isn’t bringing him. [Rather, Chomsky was invited by a student organization.] I wonder what the school’s position would be if somebody tried to bring a speaker with a strong racist or anti-gay message.”

Alan Ronkin, deputy director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, said Chomsky’s visit to the school “is a problem,” especially since he is an expert in linguistics and “has no credentials” to speak about the Middle East. Ronkin added that at the moment the JCRC was not organizing any initiative to balance the event.

“I haven’t read [Chomsky’s] views about Iraq, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he thought that the solution [to it] was the dissolution of the Jewish state or the end of occupation,” Ronkin said. “A person like Chomsky believes that Israel is the root of all evil in the Middle East.”

David Fisher, a junior at the high school and co-president of the Social Awareness Club, said in a statement that Chomsky’s presentation is worthwhile, as listening to others’ viewpoints on divisive issues helps students to develop their own perspectives.

“When I hear something I clearly disagree with it helps me to take a step back from my own perspective and understand more thoroughly why I believe what I do,” Fisher added.

As an educator, Salzer said it’s important for students to learn from “a variety of different people in a variety of ways.”

Added Salzer: “We have to learn to have trust in our children.”

In 9th grade? You expect them to think critically enough to answer an MIT professor speaking on topics about which most of them know nothing?

Solomonia reports that there will be a protest against Chomsky tomorrow at Newton South:

Alert for Wednesday, April 11 re: Chomsky talk at Newton South High

Demonstrators needed to show a significant presence in opposition to Noam Chomsky speaking to students at Newton South High School. He is speaking during lunchtime. Details of the exact time and location will be sent as soon as information is received...

It is critical to us, to the students and to the school authorities that we stand up in opposition to the outrageous choice of a well known anti-Israel, anti-American basher that allows him to come into our neighborhood schools to present twisted information to our young people.

For further information e-mail CJUI-Mass@hotmail.com

Solomonia also links to an op-ed from the Newton Tab:

...In the world according to Chomsky the United States is inherently evil, “Washington is the torture and political murder capital of the world.” He declared shortly after the 9/11 bombings, “The U.S. is a leading terrorist state, as are its clients.” He described the subsequent U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan as “sort of a silent genocide” in which millions of Afghanis would die if the U.S. defeated the Taliban.

What goes on in Chomsky’s mind would baffle the psychiatrist, let alone the columnist. The volume of information indicting him is so acute it leaves one to gasp in astonishment that any intelligent responsible school administrator would invite him to address an auditorium of high school students. There is no viable excuse other than the underlying probability that a cabal of extremist Newton educators is so virulently anti-American, so viciously anti-Israel, they would gleefully invite one of the most notorious propagandists of the last 40 years to complement their dirty work...

Newton - and the Boston area in general - is so infested with moonbats that the only thing that surprises me about this is that (so far as I have heard) no one is standing outside the Tab's offices protesting the publishing of the op-ed.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:02 PM