A planned study trip to Italy for some 100 Jewish early childhood educators from the U.S. and Israel was canceled after participants were required to sign a statement condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza, prompting organizers to conclude that the trip’s political litmus test made such a trip untenable. 

The educators — members of the U.S.-based Paradigm Project — were scheduled to travel to Reggio Emilia, Italy, from Oct. 11–16. Their goal was to study the Reggio Emilia Approach to early childhood education, a method long embraced by Jewish preschools, and bring those insights back to their classrooms. 

But ahead of the trip, participants were asked to sign a statement declaring, “I distance myself from the occupation of Gaza and the violation of children’s and human beings’ rights in the occupied territories as well as in every places [sic] in the world,” according to a screenshot obtained by Jewish Insider. 

The dispute began publicly in Reggio Emilia earlier this month when parents affiliated with Reggio Children, an organization that oversees the educational approach and had been working with Paradigm, objected to the delegation’s arrival over claims that participants supported the IDF.  

According to the intended attendees, a protest had been organized specifically against the group’s participation based on their religious affiliation and connection to Israel. Reggio Children was also reportedly already working on a document for visiting delegations that would emphasize keeping “militarization out of schools.” 

“Our identities were made public, and our personal and institutional social media profiles were reviewed and characterized as demonstrating our support for Israel and the IDF,” Pesha Kletenik, head of Manhattan Day School and one of the educators who had planned to attend, wrote to her community. 

In a school-wide email on Wednesday, the principal of a Jewish day school in the mid-Altantic, which had planned to send three teachers on the trip, called the cancellation “a loss for our community in the near term — our teachers, and in turn, their students will not be enriched by this experience.” They attributed the cancellation to “the ripple effects of global antisemitism.” 

“We are sitting with what this means for our longstanding alignment to the Reggio philosophy,” they wrote. 

The Reggio Emilia Approach, developed in the northern Italian city after World War II, is an early childhood education philosophy centered on children helping to shape their own education. It emphasizes hands-on exploration, collaboration, creativity and close observation by teachers, with classrooms designed to encourage children to discover their interests rather than follow a determined curriculum. 

Many Jewish early childhood educators have embraced the approach in part because they see its emphasis on children’s individual potential, relationships and community as compatible with Jewish values. The Jewish Early Childhood Education Initiative, which helped bring Reggio-inspired education to Jewish preschools in the U.S., describes its model as a combination of Reggio principles and Jewish ideas, saying the pairing works because of Reggio’s educational reputation and its “philosophic consistency with Jewish values.”

Responding to the pressure, the Paradigm ultimately canceled the trip and informed Reggio Children.

Paradigm said in a statement to educators on Wednesday, the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, that the trip would not go on as planned. “The Paradigm Project is a professional learning network for early childhood educators from across the United States. They planned this trip for one reason: to learn from the Reggio Emilia Approach and bring what they learned back to the young children in their classrooms.” 

It said that such learning “requires a calm, open setting” and that, “in the current climate, we do not believe our educators could have the experience the program is meant to offer.”

Paradigm said it remains hopeful that the relationship has not been “irreparably harmed” and that it intends to engage in further dialogue about redesigning the experience and potentially learning together in the future.