The public school systems in Fairfax County, Va.; Berkeley, Calif.; and Philadelphia became the latest targets of the federal government’s crackdown on antisemitism in the classroom when the House Committee on Education and the Workforce announced on Monday it would open investigations into the districts. 

Jewish leaders and parents in all three cities welcomed the probes with cautious optimism and said that they were long overdue, referencing high-profile incidents that have roiled each district, especially in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. While much of the federal government’s attention has been on the historic levels of antisemitism on college campuses, focus has recently shifted to addressing anti-Israel sentiments creeping into the classrooms at some public K-12 schools. 

All three districts under investigation have ties to the “Teaching Palestine” curriculum, which was created by textbook publisher Rethinking Schools. “There are fair-minded ways to look at complicated problems in the Middle East. Rethinking Schools materials aren’t that,” said Clifford Smith, government affairs director of the North American Values Institute, which published a report exposing anti-Israel bias within Rethinking Schools. “They are propaganda masquerading as educational resources,” Smith told Jewish Insider. He called on Congress to “take a hard look at the role groups like Rethinking Schools are playing in the recent explosion of antisemitism.”  

Letters to the three school districts from the House committee’s chairman, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), warned that failing to “end any harassment, eliminate any hostile environment and its effects, and prevent any harassment from recurring” against Jewish students and staff would violate Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and could jeopardize their federal funding. The committee requested “an anonymized chart of all complaints” of antisemitic incidents, along with any documents, communications, or contracts related to “Jews, Judaism, Israel, Palestine, Zionism, or antisemitism” to be sent to the government by Dec. 8. 

Fairfax County Public Schools, which is located outside of Washington and serves over 180,000 students, most recently faced scrutiny after two of its high schools’ Muslim Student Association chapters last month published social media videos that imitate hostage-taking and depict violence as part of a recruitment pitch to attract participants to their programming. Several of the participating students were suspended. Guila Franklin Siegel, the COO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, told JI at the time that the school system’s response to several recent antisemitic incidents was “slow and nontransparent,” and urged FCPS to “do more to properly address such behavior.”

The district has also faced anti-Israel walkouts on campuses. Several FCPS MSA chapters planned “Keffiyeh Week” protests timed to the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, in which students encouraged classmates to wear the scarf associated with the Palestinian movement. The House committee’s letter also references incidents in the district that occurred before the Oct. 7 attacks, alleging that one school “for years allegedly refused to remove a hallway display that included painted tiles, 40 percent of which featured swastikas and Nazi flags [and that] just prior to the October 7th attacks, one high school’s Muslim Student Association hosted a speaker who had made grotesque antisemitic statements. For example, he had tweeted, ‘I’m not racist I love everyone. Except the yahood [Jews],’ and ‘Never met a Jew who didn’t have a huge nose.'”

“Members of Congress are in a unique position to not just condemn antisemitism, but also to provide schools with the necessary resources and support to fight it,” Franklin Siegel told JI on Tuesday. 

“That’s the approach JCRC has taken in our yearslong effort to push Fairfax County officials to confront their long and troubling history of school-based antisemitism. We have partnered with FCPS on extensive teacher trainings, Holocaust speaker events and opportunities for Jewish students to share their personal stories with their school communities,” continued Franklin Siegel. “FCPS’ recent swift response to a series of disturbing videos made by students on school property demonstrates their ongoing commitment to getting this right. If FCPS continues building on these meaningful strides, all Jewish children will ultimately have the safe learning environment they need to thrive.” 

A spokesperson for FCPS told JI that it “has received a letter from Congressman Walberg requesting information about potential antisemitic incidents occurring within FCPS schools since 2022. FCPS intends to fully cooperate with Congressman Walberg’s inquiry. FCPS continues to partner with all families to provide a safe, supportive, and inclusive school environment for all students and staff members.”

The Berkeley Unified School District in California, which has 9,400 students, has already previously been placed under federal investigation for an alleged failure to address antisemitism. The House committee wrote on Monday that “since October 7th, BUSD teachers, staff, and administrators have allegedly urged students to join walkouts and demonstrations during school hours that isolate and alienate Jewish students. At one such walkout, students were allegedly chanting ‘Kill the Jews.’ Antisemitism has also infected the classroom, with a teacher at Berkeley High School displaying an image of a fist destroying the Star of David and allegedly describing it as ‘standing up for social justice.'” 

In February 2024, the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League jointly filed a Title VI complaint with the Office for Civil Rights that states Berkeley administrators have ignored parent reports, including a letter signed by 1,370 Berkeley community members to the Berkeley superintendent and Board of Education, while knowingly allowing its public schools to become hostile environments for Jewish and Israeli students.

A spokesperson for BUSD told JI that Monday’s letter from the House committee “concerns allegations raised almost 18 months ago, which our superintendent addressed when she appeared before Congress in May of 2024. The information sought in the current letter from the committee concerns those old allegations. The district will, of course, respond appropriately to the committee’s letter.”

“I feel gratified that this is getting proper attention,” Yossi Fendel, the parent of an 11th grader in the BUSD who is currently suing the school district over antisemitism in classroom materials, told JI. 

“It shouldn’t be surprising that Congress is taking steps to intervene,” Fendel continued. “When Superintendent [Enikia] Ford Morthel got up before Congress, she was the only one there who was unwilling to acknowledge the depth of the problem. Other superintendents acknowledged they have a problem.”  

In the House committee’s letter to the School District of Philadelphia, which has nearly 200,000 students, lawmakers said the district employs “numerous educators who allegedly promote antisemitic content in their classrooms.”  

“SDP employs a senior administrator — its director of social studies curriculum — who has been widely condemned by Jewish advocacy groups in light of his ‘pattern of denying the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, refusing to speak about peace or coexistence, and downplaying the lived experiences of Jewish people in the face of violence,’” the letter states. “In a recent example, after the murder of two Israeli embassy workers and the antisemitic firebombing attack in Colorado, the senior administrator wrote, ‘The groups who align themselves with American savageness should not be surprised when the savageness is turned on you[.]'”

In addition to “failing to exercise oversight of antisemitic materials in the classroom,” the letter continues, “SDP’s partnerships with external organizations raise concerns about whether antisemitic ideology is being taught in Philadelphia schools.” 

“For example, in August, the Council on American Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Philadelphia chapter announced that it would be partnering with Philadelphia schools. CAIR Philadelphia’s website promoted a workshop that invoked the antisemitic trope of Jewish ‘political power,’ promising to study ‘the controversial topic if [sic] Jewish political power in the U.S,’” the letter states. 

The ADL also filed a Title VI complaint against SDP in 2024, which was settled in December. SDP agreed to undertake a series of initiatives to ensure its compliance with Title VI when responding to allegations of harassment based on shared ancestry.  

“Since Oct. 7, 2023, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia has received numerous reports indicating that the School District of Philadelphia may have allowed conditions that create a hostile environment for Jewish students and educators,” Jason Holtzman, chief of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, told JI.

“These reports include, but are not limited to, antisemitic bullying of Jewish students; drawings of swastikas and other hateful graffiti; and public social media posts by staff that appear to justify the violence of Oct. 7 or promote antisemitic rhetoric,” Holtzman continued. “For nearly two years, the Jewish federation and its partners have engaged the district in good faith, offering education, resources and clear recommendations. Despite this outreach, meaningful action has largely not materialized.”

Holtzman expressed hope that the House investigation “will prompt the district to take immediate, concrete steps to ensure Jewish students and educators are protected, that all incidents are addressed with transparency, and that staff who espouse violence or extremist views are held fully accountable.”

SDP did not respond to a request for comment from JI. 

On Tuesday, the ADL called the House committee investigations “an important step in exposing and confronting the rising tide of antisemitic harassment, intimidation and exclusion that Jewish students face in our nation’s classrooms.”