In 2007, Steve Bannon visited Westland School for a tour. Westland is a progressive elementary school on Mulholland Drive, founded by blacklisted screenwriters. At Westland, children are taught tolerance, inclusion, belonging and self-respect. Children who graduate from Westland are sought after by other schools for their abilities to lead, inspire and think outside the box.
Bannon was interested in having his daughters attend classes there. After touring the library, he went to the school’s principal and asked her why there were so many books on Hanukkah. (He had toured other schools and had decided there were “too many Jews” at them. He didn’t want his daughters to be around too many Jews.) A reasonable person might wonder “Gosh, there must have been an overwhelming number of books on Hanukkah at the school library.”
As it happens, my wife is the librarian at Westland, and took this photo of all the books the Westland school library has on Hanukkah. There are six. (Festival of Lights, The Story of Hanukkah, can be seen to the far right.) There are 12,000 books on the Westland shelves. As my wife says, “We have more books on farmer’s markets.”