CNN anchor Bianna Golodryga takes on antisemitism in new YA guide

Bianna Golodryga, a information anchor for CNN Worldwide, immigrated to the U.S. from the previous Soviet Union in 1980 along with her household to flee antisemitism.

Now a mother or father of two kids, the onetime political refugee finds herself having to clarify the hatred expressed towards Jewish individuals within the nation she loves — a lot of it expressed within the swampy waters of social media. She sees them residing with the strain between taking a stand in opposition to it and getting alongside.

“While you come to a rustic, you’re the minority, and all you need to do is slot in,” Golodryga says.

The veteran journalist who co-hosts “One World” on CNN Worldwide and her pal Yonit Levi, a number one anchor for N12 Information in Israel, wished to supply their preteen offspring a street map to cope with the problem. They delivered it of their co-authored younger grownup novel “Don’t Feed the Lion.”

The guide, aimed toward ages 9 and up, is centered round Theo Kaplan, a soccer-obsessed Chicago middle-school scholar whose world is rocked when his favourite footballer makes an antisemitic comment a couple of staff proprietor. The hate hits nearer to dwelling when a swastika and antisemitic hashtag is scrawled on Theo’s athletic room locker — main his youthful sister to imagine a secret on-line id to get justice.

Golodryga just lately spoke to The Occasions about “Don’t Feed the Lion.”

The central plot level on this guide is knowledgeable by life expertise. Your son took it onerous when NBA star Kyrie Irving touted a documentary movie with antisemitic tropes on social media. Irving was suspended by his staff earlier than he apologized for it.

My son is an enormous sports activities fan. He’s requested me point-blank, “Why do they hate us? Can I not go to basketball video games anymore?” I keep in mind the place we had been on the Brooklyn Bridge going to a Brooklyn Nets sport and he requested this and I didn’t have reply. I figured I’d simply attain out to their faculty and see what they’re doing about antisemitism since they’ve invested a lot into different types of hate training. I got here to search out out they didn’t have something. It was principally, “Nicely, once they ask a query, we focus on it in school generally.” And so that actually caught with me, that there weren’t assets for youths on antisemitism.

Did the Hamas assault on Israel that led to the battle in Gaza speed up the necessity for such a guide?

Yonit and I’ve identified one another for a few years, and we sadly predicted that when once more, we’d see an enormous spike in antisemitism. Her youngsters are across the identical age. She spent a lot of her youth right here and she or he’s very aware of the U.S. And I stated, “Let’s write the guide that we are able to’t discover, as a result of that is certain to be a difficulty within the weeks and months to come back.” It’s not the panacea, however no less than there will likely be some useful resource that’s story too, for Jewish youngsters, non-Jewish youngsters and the adults of their lives.

(Arcadia Kids’s Books)

After your essential character Theo sees the swastika and hashtag on his locker, the response from his faculty was fairly tepid. Are faculties not taking this challenge significantly sufficient?

That’s a part of the issue. We’ve allowed this to fester. Different types of hate have been addressed head-on. Whether or not it’s a swastika right here or there or a social media publish, or a press release or a remark, whether or not from the suitable or from the left — it’s kind of handled as remoted incidents and never with the extent of alarm that I’d say different types of hate or feedback directed at different minorities could be. And once more, that is private expertise from different members of the family courting again 5, 10 years in the past the place there have been swastikas in school, and the response was, “Let’s have a kumbaya session and discuss why this isn’t factor and why we shouldn’t permit this.” I’ve skilled this as a Jewish American.

How sophisticated has this dialogue grow to be in mild of the best way public sentiment has turned in opposition to the Israelis over the best way they dealt with the battle in Gaza?

I feel that’s one of many the explanation why nobody’s actually wished to the touch this challenge for this age group as a result of they conflate it with the Center East. That is clearly the longest, deadliest, most painful battle stemming from the horrific assaults of Oct. 7 that we’ve coated. However we see each time there’s an infraction, skirmishes or short-term battle there’s a spike in antisemitism around the globe. … There’s no different nation the place I’d reasonably be a Jew than in the USA. However there isn’t a time the place I don’t keep in mind rising up, whether or not in Texas or in New York now, the place there hasn’t been an armed guard or two or three, or a bomb risk issued, at a spot of worship, a synagogue, a Jewish establishment, and that’s been normalized. I imply, now I don’t really feel comfy going right into a Jewish establishment with out safety. And once more, this predates Oct. 7.

Bianna Golodryga, heart, with Malki Shem Tov, left, and hostage Omer Shem Tov throughout her interview with Omer.

(CNN)

Was it tough to promote this guide?

We began bringing it to the eye of publishers about two or three months after Oct. 7, so finish of December ’23 and early January ’24. And I’ll say, I used to be a bit stunned that we couldn’t get many individuals to chunk. We’ve by no means written a guide and we had been informed — and I take this at their phrase —that it is a very tough age group to put in writing for and market to typically, which is in and of itself an issue, as a result of as we famous, they’re very sensible, inquisitive, they usually want supplies. They shouldn’t be talked right down to. We didn’t need to write a didactic guide. Then we’d hear six months to a yr later that now might not be the suitable time to put in writing a guide on antisemitism. Possibly give it a yr or two and we’ll see. It appeared to us the is the precise time to put in writing a guide. We simply obtained to the purpose the place we stated let’s simply self-publish, if that’s what it’s gonna take.

How did you ultimately discover a writer?

Fortunately, Yonit and I weren’t shy about telling everybody we knew about this venture. One evening I used to be seated at a dinner for the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork subsequent to Michael Lynton, who’s a former Sony Leisure head and now chairman of Snap. And I informed him about this guide, and he stated, “I’ll publish it.” He and his sister run Arcadia, which publishes regional kids’s books. He stated this isn’t sometimes the kind of guide we publish. However I feel he actually believed within the thought, and so we’re very grateful.

There are some similarities between your 13-year-old son and Theo. When he learn the guide, was he involved it could be too revealing?

No. It’s humorous as a result of I feel he really loved the storylines and the plot. Sadly, I feel his essential concern now’s that is simply the fact we reside in. He’s simply fearful about safety and pushback and never wanting to attract an excessive amount of consideration to me or the household. I feel that’s kind of a typical response you get from youngsters. He’s really grow to be a lot nearer to his Judaism and his heritage. And he had his bar mitzvah in Israel final yr. He’s wished to go to synagogue extra and he’s actually taken a deep dive into his tradition, which we’re very pleased with.