This Week in The Tikvah Fund Wants to Dictate Which Catholic College Jewish Kids Should to Go To (7/17)
David Shasha
The Tikvah Fund Wants to Dictate Which Catholic College Jewish Kids Should to Go To
On Monday I received the following Course announcement from our Zalman Bernstein friends:
Here it is in longhand:
A Different Type of College Guidance for 11th and 12th Graders
What does it mean to be an educated human being and
citizen?
How do I choose a college that will help me achieve my goals?
Does my college reflect my values?
Which campuses will support my ambition to be a proud Jew and Zionist?
What does it mean to be a true leader on campus?
Choosing where to go to college can be a weighty
decision. A student's time in college has the power to shape their character
and worldview, and to provide a foundation as they embark on a profession and
aim to lead a life of meaning and purpose.
Tikvah has something to add to the conversation beyond the usual college
guidance. That is why this summer Tikvah Online Academy is offering a special
series of discussion-based seminars for 11th and 12th graders where they can
focus on some of the questions that truly matter.
In “A Tikvah Guide to Choosing a College: What are the Real
Questions?” instead of concentrating on rankings, campus size, or
strategies for early applications, our focus is on guiding students to think
about which colleges will support them in entering adulthood with pride,
purpose, and a deep connection to Zionism and their Jewish identity.
No matter what a student may be doing this summer, we have designed our program
in a flexible way by condensing our courses into three consecutive weekdays,
with sessions taking place in the evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 PM ET.
Classes are available starting next week and spots are filling fast—registration will close once each class reaches capacity.
Click here or on the classes below to learn more and apply
now.
The website description provides us with insight into the Tikvah Catholic Fascist HASBARAH echo-chamber:
Students spend so much of high school preparing to attend their dream college, yet they often don’t think deeply enough about what they actually want to do when they get there. For rising 11th- and 12th-grade students, we are offering a practical guide to choosing the right college. But the Tikvah approach is not satisfied with typical college guidance considerations like the latest US News & World Report rankings, the tactics of early decision, or the size of the campus Hillel. We want you to think about deeper questions: What does it mean to be an educated human being and citizen? What is my calling in life and how will college help me get there? What do I really believe in? Does my college reflect those values? Which campuses will support my ambition to be a proud Jew and Zionist? What does it mean to be a true leader on campus?
One of the instructors has some interesting Intersectionality:
Sarah Skwire is Director of Communications and Senior Fellow at Liberty Fund, Inc., a non-profit educational foundation and the co-author of the college writing textbook, Writing with a Thesis, which is in its 12th edition. Sarah has published a range of academic articles on subjects from Shakespeare to zombies and the broken window fallacy, and her work has appeared in journals as varied as Religions, Literature and Medicine, The George Herbert Journal, and The Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. She has written frequently for FEE, the Fraser Institute, Bleeding Heart Libertarians, and other print and digital outlets. Sarah’s work on literature and economics has also appeared in Newsweek, The Freeman, and in Cato Unbound, and she is an occasional lecturer for IHS, SFL, and other organizations. She has been featured on podcasts such as Economic Rockstars and Imaginary Worlds. Her poetry has appeared, among other places, in Standpoint, The New Criterion, and The Vocabula Review. She graduated with honors in English from Wesleyan University, and earned an MA and PhD in English from the University of Chicago.
The University of Chicago, New Criterion, and Newsweek are obvious, the Liberty Fund a more pleasant surprise:
https://www.libertyfund.org/about/
It is a veteran Right Wing Republican institution:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Fund
“Liberty” is always a relative term when dealing with The Tikvah Fund!
The other instructor is true Catholic Fascist, just the person to counsel Jewish High Schoolers:
https://www.amazon.com/Voices-Catholic-Theology-Bonta-Moreland/dp/0824549503
With an impeccable Whore of Trump Coney Barrett CV:
Anna Bonta Moreland is the Anne Quinn Welsh Endowed Director of the Honors Program at Villanova University. She received her B.A. in Philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston College. Anna Bonta Moreland’s areas of research include faith and reason, medieval theology with an emphasis on Thomas Aquinas, the theology of religious pluralism, and comparative theology, especially between Christianity and Islam. She has written Known by Nature: Thomas Aquinas on Natural Knowledge of God (Herder & Herder, 2010), and edited New Voices in Catholic Theology (Herder & Herder, 2012), and has recently completed Muhammad Reconsidered: A Christian Perspective on Islamic Prophecy (University of Notre Dame, 2020). She is currently co-authoring A College Guide to Adulting: How to Major in Life with her colleague Dr. Thomas Smith, and working toward a book length study of methods in comparative theology.
Of course, she is First Things:
https://www.firstthings.com/author/anna-bonta-moreland
Finally, there is The Tikvah Fund Director of University Programs:
Alan Rubenstein was educated in Liberal Arts at St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD, and also at Georgetown University. He was a senior consultant for the President’s Council on Bioethics and currently serves as Hanson Scholar of Ethics at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. At Carleton, he teaches ethical thought through close reading of great literature of the West—in particular, Plato, the Hebrew Bible, and Shakespeare. He is currently Director of University Programs for the Tikvah Fund. His published essays have focused on the philosopher Hans Jonas, the Hebrew Bible, and Judaism in middle America. He is married and a father of three children.
Of course, Plato, enemy of the Open Society:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Society_and_Its_Enemies#Summary
https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/political-mythologies/articles/the-first-authoritarian
It is all a lot to digest, but it is the way that The Tikvah Fund is all about their own sense of being WOKE in Trumpworld, and making sure that young Jews never stray from the New Fascist Prison.
It is all very well-funded and well-organized.
Leo Strauss would be proud!
David Shasha