Coming under fire from lawmakers, administrators from prominent school districts across the country defended their record on the handling of anti-Semitism while condemning hatred toward Jews and Israel.
New York City Public Schools Chancellor David Banks, Maryland’s Montgomery County Board of Education Member Karla Silvestre, and California’s Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel appeared before the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, which is a part of the House Education and Workforce Committee. Also testifying was American Civil Liberties Union Senior Staff Attorney Emerson Sykes.
When asked by the subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.), if Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state, if “from the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is anti-Semitic, and whether what Hamas did on Oct. 7, 2023, was terrorism, Mr. Banks, Ms. Silvestre, and Ms. Ford Morthel answered in the affirmative.
Ms. Ford Morthel later said that while “from the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is anti-Semitic, there are perspectives about the phrase. However, it is known to be anti-Semitic as it calls for the annihilation of the Jewish state of Israel.
In response to Mr. Bean asking whether “terrorism is ever justified,” those three witnesses answered in the negative.
Mr. Sykes was not asked to answer these questions.
At the start of the hearing, Mr. Bean said that anti-Semitism has become a “dominant force” in U.S. schools, with students as young as second-graders “spewing Nazi propaganda.”
“You’ve been accused of doing nothing and turning a blind eye,” he told the school administrators.
The educators defended their record in dealing with anti-Semitism despite some Republican lawmakers saying otherwise.
Mr. Banks noted that the principal of Hillcrest High School in Queens was fired and reassigned, not to another school but rather to a position in the New York City Department of Education, after a Jewish teacher became a victim of an anti-Semitic incident.
Mr. Banks said that since the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, there have been 281 incidents of hatred, with approximately 42 percent of them being anti-Semitic and 30 percent being Islamophobic.
“Let me be clear—we do not shy away from imposing consequences for hateful behavior, including anti-Semitism,” said Ms. Silvestre, who leads the largest school district in Maryland.
She said Montgomery County has taken “disciplinary action” against some teachers, but none have been fired.
Mr. Bean suggested that wasn’t good enough, saying, “So you allow them to continue to teach hate.”
Ms. Ford Morthel denied that anti-Semitism at her California school district has been “pervasive.”
“We take action to teach, correct, and redirect our students,” she said. “We do not publish our actions because student information is private and legally protected under federal and state law. As a result, some believe we do nothing. This is not true.”
In February, the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a Jewish legal advocacy organization, filed a complaint with the department’s Office of Civil Rights, citing incidents of bullying and harassment of Jewish students in the Berkeley district, including one instance in which the phrase “Kill Jews” was found written in a high school bathroom.
Both New York City and Montgomery Public Schools are being investigated by the Education Department over allegations of anti-Semitism. Both investigations center on whether the districts responded to harassment of students in a manner consistent with Title VI, which prohibits discrimination based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.
In a lawsuit filed against Montgomery County Public Schools by the Council on American–Islamic Relations, three teachers said the district placed them on leave and investigated them allegedly because they had expressed pro-Palestinian sentiments, some of which were on their personal social media pages.
All three districts, in predominantly liberal areas, have diverse student populations and a sizable Jewish American community.
