Statements

PRESS STATEMENT FROM BERKELEY JEWISH PARENTS FOR COLLECTIVE LIBERATION IN RESPONSE TO THE NOV. 2025 ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE IS INVESTIGATING ANTISEMITISM IN THE BERKELEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT. 

As Berkeley Jewish families, we reject the de-bunked false accusations of antisemitism made by Israel advocacy organizations, now being elevated by MAGA Congressmembers. Jewish children are safe and thriving in Berkeley’s diverse schools. Congress is cynically using Jewish students to attack BUSD’s longstanding commitment to social justice.

This investigation is not about protecting Jewish students; it’s about deploying Project 2025 and its companion Project Esther, an agenda to surveil, silence and punish speech about Palestine as a blueprint for attacking democratic institutions.    

We reject the false and disparaging stereotype that Jewish students are unsafe when learning about Palestine.  Censoring Palestine in our schools reinforces an already hostile climate of anti-Palestinian racism in Berkeley. We support our educators teaching our students about global history, U.S. militarism, and race, in connection to current events.

The accusations that this Congressional Committee is now recycling are tired, fully investigated and determined to be baseless.  

We urge our BUSD Superintendent and School Board members not to comply with the voluntary request for documentation by the committee which we know will put our educators at risk of further repression.   We call upon our local, state and federal representatives to make it clear they don’t support this witch-hunt against the Berkeley Unified School District.   

Berkeley is united – Jewish, Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Black, Asian, Latinx, mixed and white– against all forms of racism.  We reject this attempt to pit Jewish safety against the safety of all our communities.  

Berkeley Jewish Parents for Collective Liberation is a grassroots group of parents in the Berkeley Unified School District who care deeply about antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism.  We organize together to support Palestinian human rights and freedom and advocate for the teaching of ethnic studies which includes teaching about Palestine.   We uplift the interconnectedness of shared safety between Jews, Palestinians and all communities represented in the Berkeley Unified School District. 

STATEMENT OF OPPOSITION TO AB 715 AS FILED WITH THE CALIFORNIA SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE  JUNE 16, 2025

Dear Chair Perez,

On behalf of BUSD Jewish Parents for Collective Liberation and the students and families we represent, we write in strong opposition to AB 715 (Addis, Zbur) Educational equity: discrimination.

As a group of Berkeley Jewish parents who are committed to safety through solidarity, we reject the rationale for this bill because it is based on a false premise: the grossly exaggerated reports of antisemitism in California K-12 schools from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The ADL is an unreliable source because it counts speech that is critical of Israel as antisemitism. The bill’s authors and special interest supporters have used the ADL’s faulty statistics to justify an attempt at censorship and targeting of our public school educators. 

We understand that antisemitic acts and speech–which are acts and speech denigrating against Jews for being Jews–do occur within our schools along with other forms of hate speech and discrimination that are at least, if not more pervasive and damaging, such as anti-Black racism and microaggressions; sexual harassment and assault; inadequate access to bathrooms for gender-diverse students–denying them a basic and daily material need. Nevertheless, AB 715 proposes to create a statewide “antisemitism coordinator,” with no equivalent for any other protected group. States are not allowed to treat one form of discrimination against a protected group as more important than any other, under federal discrimination law. Hiring an antisemitism coordinator does just that. Because hate-crimes against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims have been underreported since 9/11, the minimizing of these crimes only further erases the real vulnerability of these communities. 

Prioritizing Jewish students in this way, actually increases the risk of negative affect towards them and makes them less safe, not more.

AB 715 seeks to expand the definition of antisemitism. By redefining “nationality” to include perceived ancestry or religion tied to a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity, this  could result in the targeting of teachers for using accurate, well-documented instructional materials that examine Israel’s role in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Anyone- including anonymous outsiders-could file complaints against teachers or schools, even without solid evidence. 

Since the bill gives no clear rules about what materials are "discriminatory," any book or lesson that makes someone uncomfortable could be the subject of a complaint. Schools may start pulling valuable texts just to avoid trouble, watering down education to play it safe.

Proposing an expansion of the complainant process for antisemitism is alarming to us, given what our school district has had to endure already.

In the academic year 2023-2024, our district was subjected to a lawsuit filed by the Deborah Project and a complaint filed by the Brandeis Center. Both centered on speech and curriculum about Israel and the unfolding genocide of the Palestinian people. Accusations of antisemitism were hurled at individuals for things as simple as calling for a ceasefire and equality for all people. 

The complaints contributed to an overall chilling effect on our children’s freedom to learn about major current events-–namely, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and historical and political contexts of these events. School is the right place for students to be guided through understanding difficult and challenging aspects of the world around them; our teaching professionals have the skills and training to guide students. 

In addition, our school district was thrown into the national spotlight when our superintendent was targeted in a national campaign orchestrated by MAGA extremists in coordination with Israel lobbies. She and a number of other school superintendents were called to testify before a McCarthy style Congressional committee on antisemitism. This kind of national attention from extremist groups did not make the students, teachers and staff in our district more safe. Adding to the impact, the significant travel costs and legal fees incurred by our superintendent’s participation in the congressional hearing, could have been spent on critical services and needs for our students. 

This bill’s language is not only legally troubling but pedagogically dangerous. It threatens to diminish intellectual inquiry and critical discussion in classrooms, chilling speech and discouraging educators from teaching about crucial global issues, U.S. foreign policy, and human rights. The bill would create a climate of fear in which educators self-censor or avoid topics out of concern for professional retaliation, doxxing, harassment, and public targeting. We are already seeing teachers and students in our own district and across California being aggressively suppressed and disciplined for discussing Palestine. AB 715 will only deepen this repression.

Elected school board members who express political views, such as supporting ceasefire resolutions or divesting from corporations complicit in war crimes, could find themselves vulnerable to legal retaliation. The bill’s vague language encourages bad-faith complaints and opens the door to politically motivated harassment, with profound implications for both governance and free expression.

AB 715 is fiscally irresponsible–especially at a time when the state faces a serious budget deficit. Our state’s Uniform Complaint Procedure already covers all forms of bias in the classroom. The bill would invite even more costly lawsuits over vague or politicized complaints. To offer some context about what complaint investigations already cost school districts: Last year, BUSD spent $180,000 on attorneys fees for complaints. This is in addition to paying the salary of $150,000 for a full time investigator.

Compounding these substantive concerns is the deeply undemocratic process by which this bill was advanced. AB 715 emerged through a last-minute “gut-and-amend” maneuver on May 12. The bill’s authors flouted the rules, submitted after the deadline and effectively evaded opposition. It is unacceptable for such sweeping and controversial legislation to be pushed forward under the radar and through surreptitious backroom deals. In an age when public trust in democratic process is being eroded daily at the federal level, our elected officials should be protecting due process instead of further endangering democracy. 

AB 715 is a dangerous and unnecessary bill. It will not make classrooms safer. Instead, it erases academic freedom, enshrines censorship, strips power from local communities, and uses the language of equity to advance a fundamentally political agenda designed to stifle honest, critical dialogue. 

As concerned Jewish parents, we strongly urge you to vote NO and reject AB 715’s attempt to legislate fear, repression, and silence in our classrooms.

Sincerely,

BUSD JEWISH PARENTS FOR COLLECTIVE LIBERATION

MEDIA STATEMENT FROM BERKELEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT JEWISH PARENTS REGARDING SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT DR. ENIKIA FORD MORTHEL’S UPCOMING CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY April 15, 2024 

PRESS CONTACT::  berkeleyjewishparents@gmail.com, (510) 517-9201         

April 15, 2024 

Jewish children are safe and thriving in Berkeley’s diverse schools. As Jewish Berkeley parents, we reject the notion that there is rampant  antisemitism in our schools; it is simply not true. A handful of parents have painted a false picture of our city in the national media, fueling  the national right-wing attack on education.

Our Jewish students are part of a loving multicultural community with access to a rich and rigorous public school curriculum where they learn about American history, race, gender, and the history of our diverse community members. 

Learning about other minority communities, and building relationships of mutual support, is what keeps us safe as Jews. 

These congressional hearings are not about Jewish students’ well-being. This is part of the MAGA Republican war on education that is restricting public school students’ right to learn. We reject these right-wing attacks on our families. We stand firmly together, as Jews, with other minority communities and all of our educators against all forms of hate.

      MEDIA STATEMENT FROM BUSD JEWISH PARENTS FOR COLLECTIVE LIBERATION

As Jewish parents and community members, we are deeply concerned about the defamatory complaint against Berkeley Unified School District by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Brandeis Center, a national Israel advocacy organization with pro-Trump ties. 

The complaint is replete with false information. It irresponsibly fabricates or exaggerates a majority of incidents described, and needs to be laid bare for what it is: another harassment tactic intended to censor teaching our children about Palestine. By mischaracterizing messages that support Palestinian human rights as somehow dangerous to Jewish students, the complaint is full of anti-Palestinian, and anti-Arab messages. It endangers our children, their right to free assembly and their right to learn.

For example, the complaint falsely describes a middle school walkout calling to stop the killing of Palestinian children as if it were a walkout that was organized to target Jews. In another instance, the complaint claims that it was antisemitic when second grade students generated notes stating “stop bombing babies.” Similarly, most of the incidents outlined in the complaint are either fabricated or are falsely framed as acts of antisemitic hate. 

We, a grassroots collective of Jewish parents, care deeply about antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism. We acknowledge the existence of both antisemitic and islamophobic incidents in our district, and that this underscores the need for education, not censorship. 

We reject the false conflation between antisemitism and criticism of the state of Israel and its military assault on Palestinians. Jewish safety and Palestinian freedom are intertwined. The danger of antisemitism comes from white nationalism, not from those who support Palestinian human rights and freedom. 

The complaint makes Berkeley a stage for the far-right to whip up inflammatory fake news and create an atmosphere of fear. It follows months of well-documented harassment and intimidation from anti-Palestinian community members against our school district. These tactics echo a nationwide pattern of anti-Palestinian harassment to threaten our academic freedom to learn about Palestine. These false allegations against our staff and students put our community in immediate danger. 

We call on our district to vigorously defend against this legal bullying tactic and protect our educators' ability to answer our students' cries for help in understanding the genocide in Gaza. As Jewish parents, we assert that these fear tactics and accusations are inflammatory and threaten the safety of our Jewish children. None of us are free until we are all free.