In a recent interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Randi Weingarten, the longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers, commented that “American Jews are now part of the ownership class.”
She was responding to a question about why the AFT has advocated for teachers to stay out of classrooms, despite the drive to get students back in school. “What I hear when I hear that question is that those who are in the ownership class now want to take that ladder of opportunity away from those who do not have it,” she said.
The statement, seen by some as tone deaf, caused a furor on social media. But for one reader, it raised a different concern: That Weingarten was eliding the real economic disparities that exist within the American Jewish community. This is his response.
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7 Apr 2021
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten, who leads the nation’s most powerful teachers’ union, has a message for fellow Jews: they should not criticize the unions, because they are part of America’s “ownership class.”
Weingarten’s comment, which invoked a stereotype of wealthy Jews commonly viewed as antisemitic, came during a recent interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Reporter Laura E. Adkins commented: “I think some people are very skeptical of the power that they perceive teachers unions to have. They look at, for example, the ongoing struggles in Los Angeles, where they see this big dollar figure of aid being given for school reopening and are baffled by the perceived resistance of teachers to going back to work.”