“From the river to the sea” – shorthand for the obliteration of Israel. It’s a phrase meant to terrorize.
Here in the U.S., from the Hudson River to the Pacific, antisemitism is surging in public schools. The Trump administration, which is cracking down on the abuse of Jewish students on college campuses, also needs to turn its attention to the public schools. And people of all faiths need to object. Jews shouldn’t have to fight this battle alone.
In New York City, antisemitic graffiti, bullying, anti-Jewish slurs, and pro-Hamas propaganda are tolerated in public schools, according to the Brandeis Center, a human rights organization.
In Baltimore, Jewish students “have had to isolate themselves, drop classes, eat lunch alone, and hide their Jewish identities to avoid harassment,” including from one teacher who repeatedly threatened to go “all Nazi,” according to a civil rights complaint submitted to the U.S. Department of Education on July 22.
California State Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan said through tears that “students are being taught to hate my children…because they’re Jewish.”
Most troubling, rank-and-file public school teachers across the nation are on board with antisemitism. Last month, members of the nation’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association, voted to redefine the Holocaust, erasing any mention of the extermination of 6 million Jews. The woke definition, included in the NEA handbook, recognizes “the more than 12 million victims” from “different faiths, ethnicities, races, political beliefs, genders, and gender identification, abilities/disabilities, and other targeted characteristics.” This is a hateful falsehood.
NEA members also voted to educate the public about the Nakba: the “forced, violent displacement and dispossession of at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 during the establishment of the state of Israel,” as the union puts it.
The handbook has since been removed from the NEA website in response to criticism from Jewish groups. But this is what a majority of NEA members – teachers in public schools – voted for.
A generation of college students indoctrinated in antisemitism has brought the same hate to the public schools where they teach.
You can also thank the teachers’ unions.
In NYC, the powerful United Federation of Teachers endorsed Mamdani on July 8, citing his willingness to cede mayoral control of the schools “to give more say to educators and parents.” Cross out “parents.” It will be a union takeover. Period.
New York State United Teachers, the statewide parent union for the UFT, already has a tight grip on school boards across the state, fielding candidates for most boards and winning 91% of the time.
NYSUT is intent on making schools left-wing propaganda machines, the religious teachings of parents be damned.
On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parents have a right to opt their elementary school-aged children out of instruction that violates their religious teachings. The case involved LGBTQ+ themes that Muslim, Catholic, and Ukrainian Orthodox parents didn’t want taught to their children. But the significance of the ruling goes beyond LGBTQ+.
If Jewish parents in New York object to their children hearing a woke rewriting of the Holocaust or a view of Palestine that vilifies Jews, will they be able to opt their children out?
No. They’ll be in for a fight, according to NYSUT. On July 28, the union issued a response to the court, saying it applied “to a single school district” and that “educators and school leaders are best positioned to select materials.” Parents with religious scruples can take a hike.
Mamdani has expressed almost no interest in education policy, aside from attacking specialized high schools, even though more money is consumed by the Department of Education than any other city agency.
Indifferent to what education means to parents striving for their children’s futures, Mamdani has cynically suggested that Jamaal Bowman, the scandal-scarred former congressman, fire alarm enthusiast, and Israel-hater, be considered to lead Gotham’s public school system, the largest in America, as NYC schools chancellor.
Even members of his own party are unimpressed. New York State Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs commented in March that Bowman should promote “the economic interests of working-class Americans instead of continuing his antisemitic, pro-terrorist advocacy.”
Don’t count on Bowman or Mamdani to heed that advice. It’s time for New Yorkers, and Americans everywhere, to oppose the Jew-hating in our public schools. First, the Jews are targeted, then Catholics, and before long, America isn’t America anymore.
Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and founder of SAVENYC @SAVENYC.org. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey.
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