Last year, during the pandemic, I eavesdropped the most brilliant piece of classroom third-rail navigation I\u2019ve ever seen in my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was in my then-third grader\u2019s Zoom music class (we\u2019ll leave for another day any discussion of the crime against humanity that is \u201cgrade-school Zoom music class\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is always a fraught time of year for grade-school music teachers: They wanna sing Xmas songs, most of the kids wanna sing Xmas songs, but the constant Othering definitely grinds away at the Jewish kids (esp. when they try and \u201cinclude\u201d you be singing the \u201cDreidel Song\u201d; that song is crap, and we know it. The Xmas songs are way better).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So in my daughter\u2019s class, the teacher shows this slide: it\u2019s an unremarkable middle-aged White dude, \u201cMitchell Parish<\/a>.\u201d Who the heck is Mitchell Parish? Well, he was born in Lithuania, and brought here by his parents, who were Jews (my daughter immediately perks up; Jews! Like us!<\/em>) and he was a popular songwriter in New York in the \u201820s, \u201830s, and \u201840s\u2014and he wrote the lyrics to \u201cSleigh Ride<\/a>\u201d! <\/p>\n\n\n\n