The superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District on Wednesday rejected accusations that the district's K-12 classrooms have become breeding grounds for anti-Semitism during a congressional hearing in which she and other school leaders were questioned about the perception of prejudice against Jewish students.
Berkeley Supt. Enikia Ford Morthel joined Karla Silvestre, president of the Montgomery County Board of Education in Maryland, and David Banks, chancellor of the New York City public schools (two other left-leaning jurisdictions) to answer specific questions from a Republican-led US subcommittee. House Education and Workforce Committee. The hearing was titled “Confronting Widespread Antisemitism in K-12 Schools.”
Ford Morthel said his district had received formal complaints of anti-Semitism stemming from nine incidents and emphasized that district leaders responded quickly to the allegations and launched investigations.
“Our babies sometimes say hurtful things. We are aware that all children make mistakes. We know our staff is not immune to mistakes either and we don't ignore them when they occur,” said Ford Morthel. “However, anti-Semitism is not pervasive in the Berkeley Unified School District.”
The hearing follows seven months of emotional national division generated by Hamas' brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border towns and Israel's war on Gaza that followed. Pro-Palestinian protesters have shaken college campuses from Columbia to UCLA, closing roads and bridges and launching campaigns calling on President Biden to stop financial and military aid to Israel.
But in K-12 public schools, where teachers are subject to stricter limits on free speech than university professors, disagreement over how (and whether) conflict should be addressed in classrooms has progressed into assertions. scathing words from some Jewish parents that their children no longer feel safe in class.
A federal civil rights complaint filed in February by the Anti-Defamation League and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law alleges that students in Berkeley schools have faced “severe and persistent harassment and discrimination.” The complaint accuses Berkeley leaders of failing to prevent “brutally hostile environments for Jewish and Israeli students.”
The U.S. Department of Education has opened a federal investigation into the complaint.
“You have been accused of doing nothing and turning a blind eye,” Rep. Aaron Bean, Republican of Florida and chairman of the subcommittee, told the three K-12 leaders in his opening remarks.
Bean quickly fired off questions about whether they believe Israel has a right to exist and that the October 7 attacks were an act of terrorism. He asked if they believe that the phrase “from the river to the sea,” a slogan widely chanted at pro-Palestinian protests and which many Jews consider a call for the expulsion and genocide of Israeli Jews, is anti-Semitic.
School leaders reiterated their support for Jewish students and reiterated that hate and anti-Semitism would not be tolerated.
The hearing was similar to one in December, in which the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT were accused of mounting a tepid response to anti-Semitism on their campuses. The presidents of Penn and Harvard subsequently resigned.
Berkeley is not the only Bay Area district facing accusations of allowing anti-Semitism to fester in classrooms.
The teachers union representing Oakland teachers endorsed a pro-Palestinian “teach out” in December and provided educators with lesson plans that some Jewish families perceive as anti-Israel and discriminatory. Dozens of Jewish families have submitted requests to be moved out of the district.
In San Francisco schools, families have expressed concern about anti-Israel content being shared in classrooms and student walkouts promoted by a pro-Palestinian organization working in the district.
During his testimony, Ford Morthel said Berkeley teachers and administrators work to ensure that “each and every child is seen, valued and educated” and recognizes that some members of their school community have been personally affected by violence. .
“As educators, we are too often asked to address heartbreaking events that occur far beyond the walls of our classrooms,” she said. “Our young students with ties to Israel or Gaza, some deeply traumatized by the horror they see and hear, sit side by side in our Berkeley classrooms. They are friends.”
Tyler Gregory, executive director of the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council, said he hoped the hearing would help shed light on “shortcomings” in the district's response to anti-Semitism.
“There is a clear red line when Jewish students and families don't feel safe going to school because they are being attacked for their identity and their beliefs,” Gregory said. “And we don't think the district is taking that situation seriously.”
Gregory said Jewish families in the Bay Area are increasingly concerned about lesson plans, student walkouts, the addition of pro-Palestinian speakers to classrooms and other incidents that they say show bias against Israel. .
“We are seeing one narrative being taught and not the other. “That is neither healthy nor conducive to a safe environment for Jewish students, just as a pro-Israel lens that erases Palestinians would not be safe for Arab and Palestinian students,” she said.
Ilana Pearlman, a Jewish mother of a Berkeley high school student, said her family had a mostly pleasant experience in the district before Oct. 7. But after the Hamas attack, “everything turned upside down,” Pearlman said.
“Everything became political. Flags and signs were raised in every classroom,” Pearlman said. “The only acceptable way to be Jewish in Berkeley schools right now is to be anti-Zionist.”
Students and parents who support a ceasefire in Gaza and Palestinian liberation point out that their coalition includes many Jewish families.
“These claims are intended to undermine our anti-war movement as a whole,” said Muhammad Delgado, a Berkeley High School senior and co-president of the Muslim Student Association. “And they're also being launched by a handful of parents who don't really seem to represent all of Berkeley.”
Molly Sampson, whose Palestinian children attend Berkeley schools, said she is alarmed that teachers are being censored for teaching the history of the conflict. She maintained that Jewish families expressing concerns represent “a micro element of opinion in our community.”
Sampson said the community supports Ford Morthel.
“I know she's going to be okay because she has the truth on her side,” Sampson said. “She certainly has the support of Berkeley.”
