I took Michael Steinhardt and his daughter Sara Berman at their word when they said the charter school teaching Hebrew, in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, is just about spreading Hebrew culture, not about pushing Zionism. Joachim Martillo sees a pro-Israel agenda, and notes the school's placement in a Russian Jewish neighborhood:
Steinhardt is using his wealth to create facilities, whose quality will
seduce Russian and Israeli Jewish immigrant parents with no interest in
Israeli Jewish culture to put their children into a program that will
inculcate a Hebrew Jewish Zionist identity despite parental wishes by
means of carefully crafted textbooks that are produced in the USA.
The sneakiness of Steinhardt’s plan is clear to anyone that has lived
among Russian Jews. They are openly contemptuous of Israeli Hebrew
culture and almost invariably want to maintain their Russian language
culture. Steinhardt is simply offering the parents a big bribe for the
opportunity to Hebraicize and Zionize their children to Israeli Jewish
racial prejudices and concepts.
