As a former resident of Albany and as someone who speaks to high schools throughout our community about Judaism and the Holocaust, I have to tell you that my mother, who was an English teacher at Albany High School for many years before she retired, would be turning over in her grave to hear of this news ("School apologizes for 'Think like a Nazi' task," April 12).
Kudos to the students who were so repulsed by the topic of the essay that they refused to do it. Those students are the silver lining to this story, for they have modeled for us the courage to follow our convictions and our conscience, for as the great novelist Henry Fielding said, "Conscience — the only incorruptible thing about us."
Albany should seriously consider a program we have instituted in our community called Central Valley Holocaust Educators Network, an organization that works with teachers to assist them to help their students understand the roots and ramifications of prejudice. With these kinds of resources available to and utilized by the Albany public schools, I am hopeful the incident at Albany High School will be remembered as a blip on the screen with no future repeat episodes.
With the news of the teacher's suspension, I encourage the school district to not terminate this educator and allow him/her to return to the classroom, having learned an important lesson. And I sincerely hope the teacher's poor judgment will result in a more informed, more sensitive education professional.
Rabbi Reuven H. Taff
Sacramento, Calif.
past president, Sacramento Area Board of Rabbis