Molly Resnick, Former Television 
Exec., Addresses Rochester Women

Molly Resnick, a former writ­er and producer for NBC, spoke to a spellbound crowd of 70 at the Chabad Enrichment Center on Feb.13, sharing her life, and urging others to join her in help­ing to save lives.

In her 13 years with NBC, Ms. Resnick interviewed many Hol­lywood stars and politicians, long before Oprah was big. In­deed, she seemed to have met everybody from Sean Connery, John Travolta, Michael Jackson, and Sophia Loren to Menachem Begin. But even this colorful past could not compare to how her life was to eventually unfold.

Ms. Resnick was born in Bul­garia and came to Israel at the age of two. Subsequent to graduating from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, she moved to the United States, having been en­thralled by the U.S. Constitu­tion and Bill of Rights.

She had once been a hardcore feminist, and so humanistic and universalistic in outlook that she hardly considered herself Jewish!  But she has changed a lot since those days.

In South America, she met observant Jews who welcomed her and shared their faith. The world of celebrities began to seem very shallow to her. And Ms. Resnick is today deeply attached to Jews and Judaism.

Now, having been long involved with the promotion of Jewish education and awareness projects, Ms. Resnick wants to stop abuse, murder and hatred by advocating the teaching of tolerance.

She feels it is obvious that shalom can never come to Israel or the world unless we first address the very grave problem of generations of poor Arab kids being mentally and emotionally abused by the language in their Arab state sponsored textbooks. She explained that this manipulation of their minds makes the world unsafe for Jews and indeed for all of humanity. For indeed, the Arab textbooks echo Hitler's evil propaganda, calling Jews liars and murderers and teaching it is holy for Arabs to die killing Jews.

In 1998, Ms. Resnick started a grassroots movement based on MADD. Her program is called MATCKH, mothers against teaching children killing and hatred. Its purpose is to raise the level of Jewish awareness.

A person can't possibly invest themselves in all the good caus­es in the world Ms. Resnick sees combating the teaching of children to kill and hate as a cause that stands alone, and one with which she, a Jewish mother, can involve herself.

Ms. Resnick further noted that there will never be a chance for peace unless the change in Arab education happens. Nobody in the world is safe if this violent mentality is promulgated. The violent tactics learned by these impressionable children could be used against anybody.

Ms. Resnick speaks before Jewish adults and kids, urging audiences to take action. Many have responded. For example, Jewish kids at Seneca Lake made peace quilts comprised of their letters entreating Pales­tinian kids not to hate.

Ms. Resnick hopes to affect grassroots awareness and public policy in the United States.

She concluded her presenta­tion by pointing out that Purim is coming, when we remember how G~d used Esther to save her people. The audience was urged to take a look at the website edume.org to see shocking excerpts from textbooks, and at Molly's website www.matckh. corn. to see what they can do.

 ...the media is just not giving this issue enough attention…

She feels that the media is just not giving this issue enough attention and that even Jews seem complacent.  A social worker in the audience noted that, in our country, if someone were teaching to commit suicide, or to die killing others on busses or at street cafes, it would be considered blatant child abuse.

To Ms. Resnick, it is painfully obvious one can't be serious about peace until the textbooks change. According to her, this topic belongs at the top of the Oslo agenda.

One might ask, what do Israeli textbooks teach? Ms. Resnick has a letter from "dovish" Minister of Education Yossi Sand testifying that Israeli text books all teach tolerance.  Fanaticism can affect all ethnicities but it must not be state­ sponsored.