Jewish parents and educators in Chicago were relieved after Board of Education President Rev. Mitchell Johnson resigned last week following widespread public criticism of his antisemitic Facebook posts. But antisemitism concerns within the district still linger — and Jewish educators’ and community members’ confidence in the district to address them is waning.  

Last Friday, the day after Johnson resigned from the Board of Education, the body held a public meeting. Dan Goldwin, chief public affairs officer at the Jewish United Fund of Chicago, took to the microphone to express concerns on behalf of Jewish families in Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

Johnson’s resignation “has not ridden this board entirely of hostility towards Jews,” Goldwin said. 

Two of the six other school board members have also come under scrutiny for the way they have talked about Israel and Zionists after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks last year.

Olga Bautista, an environmental organizer named to the Board of Education last month by Mayor Brandon Johnson, signed onto an open letter published less than a week after Oct. 7 that called Zionism a “genocidal ideology deployed to enable ethnic cleansing” akin to policies used by the Nazis. She also shared a post on Facebook that called Israel a “terrorist state” and cast doubt on the events of Oct. 7.

Debby Pope, a longtime educator and activist in the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) whom Mayor Johnson also appointed to the body last month, shared a post on X in September that said “Zionists are not welcome in Chicago.” Pope, who is Jewish, spoke at a protest organized by the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace in March. (Bautista deleted her social media accounts last week, and Pope made hers private.) Jewish Insider could not reach Pope and Bautista, or the Chicago Board of Education, for comment. 

“Assuming Pope and Bautista are not planning on doing the honorable thing and resign like Rev. Johnson, I call on this board to explain to the majority of Jews who are connected to Israel how they will be made to feel safe, welcome, seen and heard,” Goldwin told the board members. Pope said in response that it is “important to put our ideologies aside and focus on children and focus on their well-being.” Bautista did not address the issues raised by Goldwin. 

“We’re not here to write off CPS,” Goldwin told JI on Monday. “Nothing’s happened to give us a great deal of confidence yet, but we haven’t shut the door because conversations are continuing.” 

Concerns among Jewish community advocates and Jewish educators do not end with the Board of Education. Two Jewish high school teachers in Chicago described feeling dismayed by the anti-Israel stance taken by the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents 20,000 teachers. In November 2023, the CTU endorsed a cease-fire and an end to the war in Gaza just weeks after the Oct. 7 attacks, a move that alienated some Jewish teachers. In May, the CTU headquarters hosted a discussion with union members about “why Palestine is a labor issue,” according to a flier posted to the union’s website. 

“I think it divides us. It’s a very divisive topic. It isn’t helping our Jewish students,” said one Jewish high school teacher, who requested anonymity in an interview with JI. “I’d like to see the Board of Ed and the CTU support our Jewish kids, who already feel marginalized.” 

Like so many other professional organizations riven by discord over Israel’s war in Gaza, much of the fallout within the CTU can be traced to social media. Within a members-only Facebook group, posts about the “genocide” in Gaza have garnered dozens of comments, sparking debate and turning teachers against each other, according to screenshots obtained by Jewish Insider. 

In one post from November 2023, teachers discussed resources they might use to teach younger students about the Palestinian cause. “Our students need to learn about the atrocities the Palestinians have faced and continue to face for the past 40+ years,” one teacher commented. Last month, after CPS CEO Pedro Martinez emailed CPS staffers to mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks and to offer Rosh Hashanah greetings, one CTU member took to Facebook to criticize the statement, “as if being Jewish had anything to do with the Oct. 7 attacks.” 

Two of the four officers leading the CTU have taken to social media to express strongly anti-Israel positions. 

Maria T. Moreno, the union’s financial secretary, shared a post to her Facebook from a person who wrote, “I do not condemn the actions of Hamas on Oct. 7th 2023 … The crimes attributed to Hamas on 10/7/23 have proven to be false accusations by Zionist propagandists and a projection of Zionist crimes against Palestinians,” according to a screenshot shared with JI. Her cover photo on Facebook is a Palestinian flag. Moreno wore a keffiyeh to several union events. 

CTU’s vice president, Jackson Potter, the union’s second-highest-ranking officer, is a vocal critic of Israel, frequently using his account on X to blast the U.S. for supporting Israel. Potter responded to a speech that President Joe Biden delivered on Oct. 7 expressing grief in the wake of the terror attack and pledging to stand by Israel, by calling the speech “a bat signal to Israel to bomb Palestinian civilians with abandon and impunity.” Potter spoke at a Jewish Voice for Peace rally last fall.

Last month, when the U.S. sent a missile-defense system to Israel following the Oct. 1 Iranian ballistic missile attack, Potter weighed in: “Imagine if we sent these things to Lebanon and Gaza to protect the countless civilians from Israel’s American made bombs,” he wrote on X. Last week, he stood by school board member Pope after she faced criticism for her tweet that Zionists aren’t welcome in Chicago. 

“This might not be the majority. It just might be people being loud, but when your leaders are making comments on their social media, when you go to a board meeting or House of Delegates meeting and one of the four people sitting up on the dais is posting inflammatory comments and just started wearing her keffiyeh after October 7th, you get that pause,” another Jewish high school teacher said.

Jewish community members acknowledge that the situation Jewish students and teachers face in Chicago is not as extreme as the reality in some other areas, such as Los Angeles and the Bay Area, where antisemitism has skyrocketed and anti-Israel bias is more frequently on display in the classroom. But they worry leaders in the district don’t have their backs. Stacy Davis Gates, the union president, did not publicly comment on Rev. Johnson and his antisemitic social media posts. Potter called his resignation a “teachable moment” and thanked Rev. Johnson for stepping down. (A CTU spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.) 

“The union is responsible for teachers. They’re supposed to advocate for teachers, and when the union wades into a divisive political issue they are creating boundaries,” said the Jewish teacher. “Unfortunately if you believe Israel has a right to exist you are attacked and labeled a pro-genocide colonizer. I’m just not sure how that helps our students.”