Jewish Principal Takes Over at Arabic School

The farce surrounding the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn took a bizarre turn Monday as a Jewish educator named Danielle Salzberg has been appointed interim principal while ousted principal Debbie Almontaser remains defiant, complaining of religious bigotry as the reason for her ouster, rather than her support of the group which produced the odious "Intifada NYC" t-shirts.

NEW PRINCIPAL 'CHOSEN'

A Jewish educator who can't utter a phrase of Arabic has been tapped to head the city's controversial Arabic-themed school, officials announced yesterday.

In a shocking move, the Department of Education named Danielle Salzberg interim acting principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn. Salzberg will replace Debbie Almontaser, who resigned under pressure last Friday because of her remarks to The Post defending "Intifada NYC" T-shirts.

Before her appointment, Salzberg was a senior program officer with the nonprofit New Visions for Public Schools, which is partially funding the academy. In that role, Salzberg worked with Almontaser and the school's six teachers to develop its specialized curriculum of Arabic language and culture.

Previously, Salzberg helped launch the new Baruch HS, where she was an English teacher, and Millennium HS, where she was assistant principal until March. She first started teaching at city schools in December 1996.

Salzberg, 35, is not an Arabic speaker, said Department of Education spokeswoman Debra Wexler. A source with direct knowledge confirmed that Salzberg is Jewish but did not have details on how observant she is.

Meanwhile, Almontaser said her own religion, Islam, not her failure to condemn the "Intifada NYC" T-shirts, led to the ouster, according to her resignation letter obtained by The Post.

"Unfortunately, a small group of highly misguided individuals has launched a relentless attack on me because of my religion," Almontaser wrote to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein last Friday. "They have used my religion as the pretext to undermine the Academy and have taken my words out of context to distort my record and portray me as something that I am not."

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

She just doesn't get it, and obviously never will.

The Post's Andrea Peyser tees off on Almontaser as well as the idiotic notion that New York City needs a madrassa.

SCHOOL BAD IDEA EVEN BEFORE HEBREW-HAHA

DID you hear the one about the Muslim school led by a Jew?

Suffice it to say, it won't have long for this world.

This might be the worst joke ever to hit Brooklyn. Desperate to save its fast-sinking Khalil Gibran International Academy, the Department of Education yesterday named a new principal to replace Debbie "Intifada is Good" Almontaser - who resigned in disgrace before the school opened its doors.

Two things you need to know about the "interim acting" head of the school, whose stated goal is to educate Arab students and sympathizers from grades 6 though 12.

No. 1: The new principal speaks no Arabic.

No. 2: She is a member of the tribe. A Jewess.

Danielle Salzberg is walking into a minefield created by her predecessor, who defended the sale of T-shirts bearing the slogan "Intifada NYC" by stupidly defining the word "intifada" not as the spilling of Jewish blood - but as the benign "shaking off" of oppression.

What was not addressed - even as the Gibran Academy has been revealed as a potential hotbed of anti-Semitic and anti-American sentiment - is why the devil the place was cooked up in the first place. Some bright combination of political correctness and insane guilt has determined that New York needs a public school catering to Arabs.

As she stormed out the door and Salzberg tiptoed in, Almontaser made herself into the poor victim of a hate crime, lashing out at her critics.

Perhaps the Ed Department believes that putting a token Chosen Person at the helm of a rotten organization will save it.

A better question is: Why does the city need a Khalil Gibran Academy?

Indeed.

Well, when you have a mayor like Michael Bloomberg, who never met a constituency he wouldn't pander to, you can figure it out.

Also check out the Post editorial Debbie in Denial and the New York Sun checks in with Jewish Woman Taking Over at Arabic-Language School

New York City's education department is turning to a Jewish woman who belongs to an Upper West Side synagogue to lead an Arabic-language public school that critics have portrayed as a terrorist-friendly "madrassa" in the making.

Khalil Gibran International Academy, which is scheduled to open to a few dozen students for the first time next month, had its founding principal, Dhaba "Debbie" Almontaser, resign on Friday after a flap over her response to a T-shirt promoting an "intifada," or uprising, in New York. Ms. Almontaser's replacement will be Danielle Salzberg, who does not speak Arabic, but grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household and belongs to a Manhattan synagogue, her father, Michael Salzberg, told The New York Sun yesterday.

LGF reader Ornery Elephant noted this very curious poll at Survey Monkey:

What do you think about the I word?

Seems Almontaser and her sympathizers are trying to gin up support for the "Intifada NYC" shirts. Whoever put this up doesn't seem the least bit repentant. Check out these questions:

Can the term “Intifada NYC” ever have a positive non-violent connotation?

Is the controversy around these t-shirts reasonable?

Has media coverage about "Intifada NYC" been fair?

They just don't get it.

Previously: Almontaser Still on NYC DOE Payroll.

UPDATE: Hot Air links and Allahpundit notes the comedic possibilities.