Florida school district pulls 700 books, impacting Jewish works

In a move that has drawn national attention in the US, Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Florida, have removed approximately 699 books from classroom libraries during the current school year. The mass removal comes in response to concerns that these books could potentially violate a new state law related to inappropriate content in schools.

Read: Florida Attorney General: schools are for ‘government’s message’

The extensive list of removed books encompasses a wide range of genres and authors. Among the works that have been taken off the shelves are classics, contemporary novels, memoirs, and historical accounts. Notably, some of the books at the centre of this controversy have Jewish themes and authors.

The removals have sparked discussions regarding censorship and the freedom to access diverse literary content in educational settings. The move is part of a broader conservative movement, particularly prominent in Florida, aimed at eliminating materials that some individuals and groups find offensive. While most challenges and removals revolve around issues of race, gender, and sexuality, Jewish-themed books have also found themselves caught in this wave of scrutiny.

Which books have been removed in Florida?

Among the Jewish-themed books removed from Orange County classrooms are:

• Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky. The book is penned by a Ukrainian-French Jewish writer, who wrote her novel in secret under German occupation before perishing in Auschwitz.
• Herzog by Saul Bellow. This is a semi-autobiographical novel by the Jewish writer, known for his conservative cultural views. His son, Adam Bellow, is a publisher of right-wing Jewish books.
• Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self by Rebecca Walker. The feminist theorist is the daughter of author Alice Walker, who wrote The Color Purple. Walker spoke to us in season three of the podcast about her book “Women Talk Money.”
• Bee Season by Myra Goldberg. The novel explores the life of a high-achieving family of Jewish scholars and cantors.
• The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson. This nonfiction history book recounts Winston Churchill’s decision to confront Hitler’s forces during World War II.

One striking aspect of this mass removal is the absence of individual reasoning provided for each book’s removal. According to several Jewish news outlets, Orange County Public Schools spokesman David Ocasio said all of the books have been marked as “not approved for any grade level.” However, he also stated that a secondary review will be conducted to determine if any of these books may be restricted to certain grade levels or completely removed from the collection.

Read: Holocaust memoirs among 450 books removed from Iowa schools

Several books on Orange County’s removal list had previously faced challenges in other school districts. For example, Jodi Picoult’s “The Storyteller” was successfully removed from a different Florida school district earlier this year, following pressure from the right-wing activist group Moms For Liberty. Similarly, “Sophie’s Choice” by William Styron was recently removed from a third Florida school district due to concerns about its sexual content.

Other books on the list, including “The Reader” and Philip Roth’s “Portnoy’s Complaint,” contain explicit sexual content. Additionally, non-Jewish World War II novels such as “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “Catch-22” were also removed.

Read: Controversy erupts as Texas teacher fired for using Anne Frank graphic book

In addition to the Jewish-themed books, the list of removed materials includes frequently challenged books like Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” as well as literary classics such as Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.”

It is worth noting that other school districts across the US have taken similar actions this year, even going so far as to remove an illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary to comply with the state’s new law on inappropriate content in schools. The broader implications of these removals and the ongoing debate over censorship in educational environments continue to be a topic of intense discussion across the country.

As Florida school boards proceed with their review process, the fate of these books and the broader question of what should be accessible in classroom libraries remain at the forefront of the national conversation.