October 10, 2005
An advisory body to California’s board of education has criticized a sixth-grade history program that Hindu and Jewish groups blasted as biased, erroneous and culturally derogatory. During a two-day hearing before the US state’s Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission, critics lambasted the Oxford University Press textbook and related materials for subjecting early Jewish history to a more rigid standard of proof than Christian or Muslim history; for including stories that have traditionally fomented anti-Semitism; and for misstating key concepts of Judaism, presenting it as a religion of reward and punishment rather than one of social justice and morality. The rejection was a major upset for the prestigious British publishing company, which for the first time was trying to enter the lucrative California market for teaching materials for kindergarten through eighth grade. California is America's largest textbook purchaser and often sets the tone for what is adopted by other states.
