Jewish leaders expressed “deep concern” in a letter on Wednesday to the president of the National Association of Independent Schools — a group that counts more than 100 Jewish day schools as members — after the association held a recent conference where several speakers accused Israel of genocide and spread anti-Israel rhetoric. 

At the NAIS People of Color Conference (PoCC), held last week in Denver, “a Jewish student stated that he and his peers ‘felt so targeted, so unsafe, that we tucked our Magen Davids in our shirts and walked out as those around us glared and whispered,’” according to the letter.

In addition, keynote speaker Dr. Suzanne Barakat, an assistant clinical professor at the School of Medicine and executive director of the University of California, San Francisco Health and Human Rights Initiative, defined Zionism as when “some European Jews decided that the solution to solving antisemitism in Europe and Russia was the establishment of a state in Palestine,” the letter states. 

According to the letter, signed by Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League; Paul Bernstein, CEO of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools; Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee; and Eric Fingerhut, CEO of Jewish Federations of North America,  the keynote address featured “a patent erasure of the millennia-old connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel and a flattening of Jewish identity, excluding MENA Jews who also yearned to return to their ancient homeland.” 

The letter goes on, “[Barakat] and others, such as Dr. Ruha Benjamin, used the term ‘genocide’ in relation to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, a grossly inaccurate and misleading use of a well-defined legal term. Independent schools should champion nuanced and fact-based teaching of history and current affairs; students should learn that international conflicts are complex and easy answers and accusations are rarely a panacea.” 

“The pervasiveness of this rhetoric and the absence of any alternate perspectives created an atmosphere that was hostile for many Jewish students and faculty members in attendance,” the letter continued. “The vast majority of the Jewish community is Zionist …  Anti-Zionism fuels antisemitism. Since October 7th 2023, many people claiming to be ‘solely’ anti-Zionists have verbally and physically attacked Jews, protested in front of Jewish religious and communal institutions, and attacked Jewish owned businesses.” 

Bernstein told Jewish Insider that the “level of hurt [Jewish attendees] feel is high. There’s a feeling of ‘am I welcome in this space?’”

Still, Bernstein said that “NAIS is an important place that a lot of Jewish day schools want to be part of, [and] Prizmah encourages that.” 

“What we would like to see is a successful antisemitism-free environment where Jewish day schools can be part of the wider independent school market and be part of the Prizmah network in order for us to work and learn together,” Bernstein said, emphasizing the need to “strengthen the system” rather than leave the association altogether and “be in a position where Jews feel the only safe place is internal.” 

But Mark Shpall, head of de Toledo High School, a private Jewish high school in West Hills, Calif., a longtime member of NAIS, said that the PoCC conference has caused him to rethink membership. “I raised the question with my board today,” Shpall told JI. “We don’t want to be reactive per se, but we also want to be realistic and look at whether the interests of our students and community are being heard by the association.” 

Shpall said he has “never experienced anything close to this” at the NAIS national conference, which is scheduled for February. “PoCC is a very different type of conference, supposed to be about inclusivity and bringing people together,” he said. “That is absolutely not what happened.” 

“In the last year or so, things [within NAIS] have really changed. The Jewish education community has been more on the outs,” Shpall, who did not attend PoCC, said, noting that diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in schools has resulted in “excluding, not including, Jewish groups. The Jews have become the other again.” 

A spokesperson for NAIS told JI on Wednesday night that the group is “working on a response to the letter.” 

Earlier this week, Debra Wilson, president of NAIS, responded to initial criticism from Jewish attendees in a statement. “As you know, the goal of the NAIS People of Color Conference (PoCC) is to be inclusive of all perspectives and all participants. We are writing to apologize because one of our keynote speakers at this year’s event, Dr. Suzanne Barakat, shared remarks that fell short of that goal in a session on Thursday with adult participants. In sharing her perspective on the Israel-Hamas war, Dr. Barakat referred to Israel’s actions as genocide and cited Jewish Voice for Peace as a source of information in addition to the ADL, the UN, and others. Dr. Barakat was contracted to share the story of her creation of a foundation to combat hate in the wake of her family’s murder in an Islamophobic hate crime, and her remarks about the war were unprompted and unexpected,” Wilson wrote. 

Shpall called the response “not only weak, but gaslighting. They ignored a lot of what happened.”