Letter to local elected officials
by Will James, Amherst Republican Committee Member
2/1/2023
Dear NYS Senator Sean Ryan & NYS Assemblywoman Karen McMahon
Dear NYS Legislators,
We have two items of concern for you:
1. The SUNY is now requiring all undergrad students to take a new mandatory course in social justice, racial equality, Diversity Equity Inclusion in order to graduate.
As reported by broadcaster Chris Plante (WMAL, Washington), the course description is almost word for word from a Marxist website.
As a New Yorker taxpayer I am opposed to the use of our tax monies to support Marxism and implore you to do all you can to reverse this divisive requirement.
2. A NYS standardized education test for students in New York state includes “anti-Zionist” questions that delegitimize the State of Israel. The 'Global History and Geography Regents II' exam asks which group benefited most from the plan, with the desired response being “Zionists and Jewish immigrants” instead of "Israelies".
As a New Yorker taxpayer I am opposed to all attempts to delegitimize our friend Israel, and to foment untruthful beliefs in the minds of New York students.
Jewish leaders, including former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov and the Americans Against Antisemitism group, noted that the questions framed the creation of Israel as a European endeavor, ignoring thousands of years of Jewish history in the region. “It’s unconscionable and shameful that at a time of heightened violent antisemitism our state’s educational materials would include what amounts to anti-Zionist propaganda—a truly pathetic attempt at surreptitiously harming Israel,” Hikind said in a media statement.