And in California, at least 30 Jewish families have applied to transfer from the Oakland Unified School District due to issues related to the Israel-Gaza war.
Accusations of anti-Semitism that have circulated on college campuses since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in Israel come from kindergarten to Some school districts up to high school are also involved. It's unclear how many of those cases have surfaced, but school districts across the country are wondering how far they allow students and staff to speak out about conflicts, and what to do if their comments make others feel uncomfortable or unsafe. I'm worried about this.The U.S. Department of Education has opened 19 investigations into possible federal civil rights violations against K-12 school systems. advocate anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or other conflict-related bigotry;
Simon Farber, who is accompanied by his six-year-old son, said: “Our concern is not so much about Israel or Gaza, but that one-sided views are being forced into classrooms, and that teachers are not giving facts. “It's crossing the line beyond teaching others.” His son dropped out of the Oakland school at the end of the year. He and his wife complain that teachers emphasized harm to Palestinians but not Israelis. They plan to move their family to Los Angeles, where they believe it will be a more welcoming environment for Jews.
A spokesperson for the Oakland School District declined to comment on families leaving the district, but the district's superintendent spoke out against teachers using unauthorized pro-Palestinian materials in classrooms.
Accusations of bias also come from the opposite direction, with some claiming that schools do not allow the free expression of pro-Palestinian views.
In Montgomery County, Maryland, for example, middle school teachers were placed on administrative leave. in november After including the phrase “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea” in his school email signature. One of several teachers who faced serious consequences for expressing pro-Palestinian views. Some interpret “From the River to the Sea” as a call to eliminate the Jewish state. The teacher said he was trying to show support for “peace and freedom” for the Palestinian people.
But as the war continues, some Jewish families say they still see too much anti-Semitic language and images.
“This issue has been completely ignored,” said Gerald Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, a pro bono law firm that represents Jews in cases where anti-Semitism is alleged. He also helped organize the event. “There are parallels on college campuses, too. But here we're talking about younger children who are more susceptible. [who are] more susceptible. ”
The rally in New York was in response to incidents such as protests in November in which hundreds of students criticized a Jewish teacher who posted a photo of himself holding a “Stand with Israel” placard against school officials. The aim was to call for greater efforts in prevention and response.
“We Jews are not okay,” said Michelle Adut, director of planning and strategy for #EndJewHatred, which co-organized the rally, as many in the crowd held Israeli flags, recounting recent classroom events. .
Last week, New York State Schools Superintendent David Banks announced a plan to combat anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and “all forms of hatred.” This includes new education and training for staff and clear instructions on how to report incidents. “Let me be clear: we have zero tolerance for bigotry or hatred in any form,” Banks said.
But rally organizers said that was not enough, and specifically demanded that schools define anti-Semitism to include anti-Zionism. Some argue that these things are closely related, but others say that opposition to Israel as a Jewish state is not the same as hatred of Jews.
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights under Law, which works to combat anti-Semitism, tracks cases across the United States. L. Rachel Rahman, the group's vice president and general counsel, said the group's focus is on California, where some schools are sending anti-Israel messages through state-mandated ethnic studies courses. He says he thinks he is communicating this. For example, the group argues that classes present the history of the conflict in a biased manner, exaggerate Israel's responsibility for harm to Palestinians, and do not hold Palestinians accountable for their actions. There is. The California Legislative Jewish Caucus expressed similar concerns about some ethnic studies curricula in a January letter to colleagues.
Rahman said she is currently preparing a lawsuit to address what she believes to be anti-Semitic activity within the school. She said the activity amounted to a “hostile environment” and was prohibited by federal civil rights law.
The California Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
Although American public schools have generally operated under the assumption that they should be nonpartisan, in recent years educators, school boards, and administrators alike have begun to take an interest in controversial political issues. said John Rogers, a professor of education at UCLA. A person who studies education and democracy.
He said many teachers feel a moral imperative to denounce fraud when they discover it.
“I think a lot of educators are following the news in Israel and Gaza and are concerned about what's going on and want to do something about it,” he said. “Some educators feel they have to act politically on this issue. That's not at all surprising.”
In October, the Oakland School District, which has about 34,000 students east of San Francisco, posted a statement on social media condemning the “genocide and apartheid state of Israel” by the Oakland Education Association, which represents teachers in the district. A controversy arose.
The union appears to have deleted the post, which one Jewish parent said was one-sided online. write to x, “blatant anti-Semitism.” In a new Facebook post, the union said it “unequivocally condemns anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,” but said it “unequivocally condemns anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,” but said it did not agree with the resolution, which some Jewish parents found nearly as offensive. The text was also shared.
The resolution condemned Israel's “75-year illegal military occupation of Palestine” and reiterated that Israel is an “apartheid state” whose leaders “have espoused genocidal rhetoric.”
One faction of the union encouraged its members to teach this perspective in the classroom and provided materials for a pro-Palestinian “teach-in” in December, which was not approved by the school district. For example, an alphabet book for elementary school students called “P is for Palestine'' includes the following message: “I is for intifada, and intifada means standing up for what is right in Arabic, for children and adults.'' Ta. ! ”
An elementary school teacher who helped organize the teach-in said the plan began with activists asking themselves, “What is our power as workers?” The answer, she said, is to “use our collective strengths to communicate these issues to our students.” Teachers were justified in teaching unapproved materials because the materials they were given did not sufficiently include the Palestinian perspective, she argued.
She estimated that between 70 and 100 teachers (out of about 2,300) participated, but did so in secret because they feared disciplinary action if discovered. She said no one was disciplined. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of discipline from her district.
Not all teachers unions have the same policy. An October statement from Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, which also includes the Auckland City union, more evenly condemned events in Israel and Gaza, calling for “anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim bigotry and violence. “dangerous increase in ”
Oakland Education Association officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Oakland Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell expressed concern about the union's actions in an open letter to the community. “Our schools are sanctuaries of learning and we are extremely disappointed that harmful and divisive material is being circulated and promoted as fact,” she said. He said the district is “unwavering in our stance against anti-Semitism, anti-Israel, Islamophobia, and anti-Palestinian bigotry and discrimination,” adding, We are aware of the incident,” he added. This basic expectation. ”
Nevertheless, this debate has some Jewish parents in Oakland very concerned. Shira Avos said her son's seventh-grade English class had posters on the walls calling Israel's actions genocide and “denigrating” its actions in the war in general. . One poster called for freedom for Palestinians “from the river to the sea,” she said.
After Avos filed a complaint, her son was removed from class. “He didn't feel safe there,” she says. After that, she said, she was “sitting idly in her office” during class. Her teacher has since been dismissed, but Avos doesn't know if she will be allowed to return, she said.
Avos plans to apply to transfer to another school district next school year, but has not yet decided whether or not to transfer. “If we allow a curriculum that attempts to brainwash our children and denigrate our son's heritage, we are leaving,” she said.
She is part of a large group of Jewish parents who meet in a WhatsApp text group, where members give each other affirmations and swap stories about what happens in the classroom. She described it as an “indescribable sense of relief” when she found the group weeks after the October 7 massacre.
It's all very worrying for father Simon Farber, who is preparing to leave Auckland for Los Angeles. He grew up near Oakland and was excited to settle there. He was confident that his liberal values of inclusivity, diversity and belonging would be embraced there. However, he felt that Jews did not receive the same support as other minorities.
“There's a sense of isolation and it feels like the support that we expected or hoped for has fallen out from under us,” Farber said.
Similar complaints have been received at nearby Berkeley Unified School District, but there are no signs of mass withdrawals from the school.
Ilana Perlman, a Berkeley mother of a first- and ninth-grader, said anti-Israel posters with pictures of the girl's bloody face were posted on telephone poles around her daughter's elementary school, but administrators said the He said it didn't seem to take into account her concerns about the matter. seriously. At her high school, she said, her walkouts and rallies in support of Palestinians were promoted by her son's art teacher.
She said her art teacher repeatedly showed her what she considered “anti-Semitic images” during class, including a drawing of a fist punching through the Jewish Star of David and the word “Palestine” in large letters. It is said that
“My son felt uncomfortable,” Perlman said. She said five Jewish students, including her son, left the class, but the teacher was allowed to continue teaching. “All our complaints disappear into a giant black hole,” she said.
She complained that school culture tolerates little nuance in difficult situations such as this war, where violence is inflicted on both sides and the event was preceded by a long history of pain on all sides. said. “At Berkeley, you can only be the oppressor or the oppressed,” she says.
The art teacher declined to comment.
A spokeswoman for the Berkeley School District also declined to comment on the art teacher, but the district encourages students to report incidents immediately to administrators “so that we can deal with them quickly and thoroughly.” He said there was. Superintendent Enikia Ford Motel said in her statement that in the months since the war began, it has increased its engagement with the community and that the district has taken a clear stance “against all forms of hate.” He said that
