Berkeley schools chief grilled by Congress on claims of rampant antisemitism in K-12 classrooms

The superintendent of Berkeley Unified School District on Wednesday 
rejected accusations that the district’s K-12 classrooms have become 
breeding grounds for antisemitism during a congressional hearing where she 
and other school leaders were grilled about perceived bias 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 New York City public schools — two other left-leaning 
jurisdictions — to field targeted questions from a Republican-led 
subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce. 
The hearing was titled “Confronting Pervasive Antisemitism in K-12 
Schools.”

Ford Morthel said her district had received formal complaints of 
antisemitism stemming from nine incidents and stressed that district 
leaders have responded quickly to the accusations and launched 
investigations.

“Our babies sometimes say hurtful things. We are mindful that all kids 
make mistakes. We know that our staff are not immune to missteps either, 
and we don’t ignore them when they occur,” Ford Morthel said. “However, 
antisemitism is not pervasive in Berkeley Unified School District.”

The hearing comes after months of emotional national division spawned by 
Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border towns and Israel’s war on 
Gaza that has followed. Pro-Palestinian protesters have roiled college 
campuses from Columbia to UCLA, shut down highways and bridges and 
launched campaigns calling on President Biden to halt financial and 
military aid for Israel.

But in K-12 public schools, where teachers are subject to stricter limits 
on free speech than college professors, disagreement over how — and 
whether — the conflict should be addressed in classrooms have progressed 
into searing claims 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 allege 
students in Berkeley schools have faced “severe and persistent harassment 
and discrimination.” The complaint accuses Berkeley leaders of failing to 
prevent “viciously hostile environments for Jewish and Israeli students.”

The U.S. Department of Education has opened a federal investigation into 
the complaint.

“You’ve been accused of doing nothing and turning a blind eye,” Rep. Aaron 
Bean, a Florida Republican and chair of the subcommittee, told the three 
K-12 leaders in his opening statement.

Bean quickly fired off questions asking whether they believe Israel has a 
right to exist and that the Oct. 7 attacks were an act of terrorism. He 
asked if they believe the phrase “from the river to the sea,” a slogan 
widely chanted during pro-Palestinian protests that many Jewish people 
consider a call for the expulsion and genocide of Israeli Jews, is 
antisemitic.

The school leaders repeated their support for Jewish students and 
reiterated that hate and antisemitism would not be tolerated.

The hearing was similar to one in December, where the presidents of 
Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT were accused of mounting a 
tepid response to antisemitism on their campuses. The presidents of Penn 
and Harvard later stepped down.

Berkeley is not the only Bay Area district to face accusations of allowing 
antisemitism to fester in classrooms.

The teachers union representing Oakland teachers endorsed a pro-
Palestinian “teach in” in December and provided educators with lesson 
plans that some Jewish families perceive as anti-Israel and 
discriminatory. Dozens of Jewish families have filed requests to transfer 
out of the district.

In San Francisco schools, families have raised concerns about anti-Israel 
content being shared in classrooms and student walkouts promoted by a pro-
Palestinian organization working in the district.

During her testimony, Ford Morthel said Berkeley teachers and 
administrators work to ensure “each and every child is seen, valued and 
educated,” and recognize that some members of their school community have 
been personally affected by the violence.

“As educators, too often we are called upon to address heart-wrenching 
events that occur far beyond the walls of our classrooms,” she said. “Our 
young students with ties to either 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, chief executive of the Jewish Community Relations Council 
Bay Area, said he hoped the hearing helped shed light on the 
“shortcomings” of the district’s response to antisemitism.

“There’s a clear red line when Jewish students and families don’t feel 
safe going to school because they are being targeted for their identity 
and their beliefs,” Gregory said. “And we do not feel that the district is 
taking that situation seriously.”

Gregory said Jewish families in the Bay Area have grown increasingly 
concerned with lesson plans, student walkouts, pro-Palestinian speakers 
being brought into the classroom and other incidents they argue show a 
bias against Israel.

“We’re seeing one narrative taught and not the other. That’s neither 
healthy nor conducive to a safe environment for Jewish students, just like 
a pro-Israel lens that erases Palestinians wouldn’t be safe for Arab and 
Palestinian students,” he said.

Ilana Pearlman, a Jewish mom 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 just turned on its head,” Pearlman 
said.

“Everything became political. Every classroom, flags went up, signs went 
up,” Pearlman said. “The only acceptable way to be Jewish in Berkeley 
schools right now is to be an anti-Zionist.”

Students and parents who support a cease-fire in Gaza and Palestinian 
liberation note that their coalition includes many Jewish families.

“These claims are meant to undermine our anti-war movement as a whole,” 
said Muhammad Delgado, a Berkeley High School senior and co-president of 
the Muslim Student Assn. “And they’re also being launched by a handful of 
parents that don’t really seem to represent the whole of Berkeley.”

Molly Sampson, whose Palestinian children attend Berkeley schools, said 
she’s alarmed that teachers are being censored for teaching the history of 
the conflict. She argued that the Jewish families raising concerns 
represent “such a micro-element of opinion in our community.”

Sampson said the community stands behind Ford Morthel.

“I know that she is going to be fine, because she has the truth on her 
side,” Sampson said. “She certainly has the support of Berkeley behind 
her.”

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-08/berkeley-schools-
superintendent-testifies-before-congress-on-antisemitism