The leading Jewish advocacy group representing the Washington, D.C., area is raising the alarm on a uniquely high rate of antisemitic incidents in Maryland’s Montgomery County public school system. 

Guila Franklin Siegel, chief operating officer at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, said Tuesday that the JCRC is receiving “significantly higher” reports of antisemitism out of MCPS, located just outside of Washington, than others in the region. 

Montgomery County’s public school system is the largest school district in the state and hosts a sizable Jewish student population.

The statement comes amid a new report from the Anti-Defamation League showing that Maryland ranked ninth in total antisemitic incidents nationwide in 2025, two-thirds of which occurred in Montgomery County. Among the top ten states with total incidents, Maryland ranked first in the percentage of incidents occurring at K-12 schools, at 34%. 

“While the details vary, these incidents reveal a harsh truth: too many Jewish students and educators at too many MCPS schools continue to face too many threats,” said Franklin Siegel, whose statement came the day after JCRC leadership met with MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor and his senior management team. 

Incidents in recent months include anti-Jewish and anti-Israel graffiti on school walls, most recently at Greenwood Elementary School last weekend; inflammatory anti-Israel messaging at Olney Elementary School’s recent cultural night; “Heil Hitler” gestures and speech occurring at middle school events; and, according to JCRC, “physical threats and harassment directed toward Jewish students at multiple schools.”

Franklin Siegel said MCPS and JCRC leadership discussed “progress on the steps MCPS needs to take to protect Jewish students, educators, and staff.” 

“Our messages were simple: MCPS must establish a zero-tolerance policy on antisemitism and other forms of hatred and bias; train and empower administrators and teachers to correctly identify and respond to antisemitism; and rigorously enforce disciplinary codes, making it clear that anyone who engages in antisemitic or other hateful behavior will face meaningful consequences,” Franklin Siegel said.

MCPS said it “will be in compliance with recently adopted state law requiring anti-bias training for school educators and staff” starting in August, according to Franklin Siegel. 

The school district also committed “to improv[ing] school participation rates in JCRC’s gold-standard Student to Student and Holocaust speakers’ programs” and to “drafting specific guidelines for culture and international nights. The district must ensure these events are safe and educational for all students and families, not political battlefields,” she added.

But Franklin Siegel called on the school district to go further in protecting Jewish students. 

“MCPS should follow the lead of other schools in our area by incorporating specific antisemitism training as well,” she said. “More lessons about Jewish history beyond antisemitism and the Holocaust should be included in its curricula. And given that bias incidents are so often connected to the proliferation of hate speech online, MCPS also needs to discipline students who harass and bully Jewish students on social media accounts, even when those accounts are not formally affiliated with schools. The district has that authority, and principals must enforce it.” 

MCPS, which serves over 156,000 students, did not respond to a request for comment from Jewish Insider.

A Maryland Jewish group is “not taking no for an answer” after the Anne Arundel County executive repeatedly declined to include funding for security grants requested by Jewish institutions in his proposed budget. 

Amid rising antisemitism in the state, the newly formed Jewish Federation of Annapolis & the Chesapeake wrote to Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman last month requesting similar security grants as neighboring counties have received for hate crime protection.  

Pittman, whose second and final term ends in December, denied the request. In a county-wide email on April 24, he wrote, “I want to share some of my thinking on the tough decisions, on saying, ‘No, not this year.’”

“I’ll start with a proposal to create a county-funded and administered grant program to pay for security at organizations vulnerable to hate crimes,” Pittman wrote. “It came primarily from the four synagogues in Anne Arundel County, but has attracted support from others. I took the proposal seriously. Antisemitism is a national epidemic, as is hate against African Americans, Muslims, immigrants, and the LGBTQ+ community. All of these groups have enhanced security measures in the last year and a half.” 

Still, he said his office would not be including a provision to fund a county-administered program that helps pay for security for vulnerable minority communities in the county in its final budget proposal for the next fiscal year.

“We’re not taking no for an answer from the county council,” Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, co-founder of the Jewish Federation of Annapolis & the Chesapeake, told Jewish Insider. “The county executive has now told us no three times. He told us in person, in an email that he sent to the entire county and now [on Friday] in a budget that he released publicly to the whole county.” 

Laszlo Mizrahi said the federation, which was formed last year, has started conducting meetings with the five candidates running to replace the term-limited Pittman, and although the group cannot endorse a candidate, it plans to publish a voter’s guide to be distributed around local Jewish institutions.   

While Anne Arundel County, which is home to Annapolis, the state’s capital, provides no Jewish security funding, the county — which has a fairly small Jewish population compared to other Maryland counties  — receives federal and state security grants, which Laszlo Mizrahi called “extremely oversubscribed.” 

“What makes us different from most small communities is that state capitals attract protesters who are angry and there have been a lot of people who are angry at Israel and come to our hometown,” she continued. 

In Maryland, 356 antisemitic incidents were reported in 2024, according to the Anti-Defamation League, the sixth highest number reported in the country. This included 195 incidents of harassment, 154 incidents of vandalism and seven cases of assault. 

In his email, Pittman pointed to surrounding counties — heavily Jewish Montgomery County, which has a $1.7 million safety grant program, and Howard County and Prince George’s County — having “much smaller programs in previous budgets.”

“None, in my view, come close to meeting the needs, and while some have said that even a small program sends a signal that we care, I believe that a small grant program that rejects most applicants leaves too many feeling rejected,” he wrote.  

“I met with advocates for a safety grant program on March 19, with our Police Department and Hate Crimes Prevention Program present. I told them that there would be no grant program in our upcoming budget proposal, but that I wanted to hear more about the need, their security programs, and where the gaps exist. Police held a follow-up meeting with the group to go into more detail,” continued Pittman. 

“A future county executive may see things differently, but I believe that the focus of our county work to protect synagogues and other vulnerable institutions should remain with our Police Department and Hate Crimes Prevention Program.” 

“Our federation is brand new and we have a long way to go to play catch up,” Laszlo Mizrahi told JI. “One thing we have learned is that if you aren’t at the table, you are on the menu. When a county can find $400,000 in funding for more pickleball lighting, but can’t find security dollars, we know we need to work in partnership for a better future.”  

“I believe we are going to achieve this because it is common sense,” she continued. “People understand the threat. We have a fabulous partnership with the police but when you call 911 it still takes time for them to come. When the crisis is a life or death matter of seconds, you need to have a guard on the premises. That’s where the gap is in terms of funding, particularly for the [preschools]. 

Pittman’s office did not respond to a request for comment from JI. 

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore pledged that his administration “will always support Maryland’s Jewish community” in recorded remarks for an event Monday evening marking Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust memorial day, at Beth Tfiloh Congregation in Pikesville, Md., a heavily Jewish suburb of Baltimore.

The Maryland governor, a potential Democratic presidential contender, said that it is his and his state’s “governing philosophy” to “unapologetically confront and condemn antisemitism and persecution wherever it arises,” to provide no refuge to hate, denial and conspiracy theories, to ensure that everyone feels safe to worship and to “realize the full promise of tikkun olam.”

“These are difficult times, but we’ll get through them together,” Moore said.

Moore emphasized the “responsibility” of those living today to commemorate the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust “because time does not carry memory forward on its own — people do.”

“We must work together to protect our history and condemn those who would try to deny it, and we can work together to be part of a change that we hope to see in the world, especially right here in Maryland, in this moment,” Moore continued.

He said that it’s important to continue to elevate the voices of Holocaust survivors while they are still living, and that it will be the “moral responsibility of our generation and our children’s generation to never forget.”

A synagogue in Montgomery County, Md., a suburb of Washington, was defaced with antisemitic graffiti on Tuesday. 

A swastika, the word “genocide” and the phrase “AZAB,” an acronym standing for “All Zionists Are Bastards,” were spray-painted on street signs and banners outside of Shaare Tefila, a Conservative congregation in Olney. The graffiti covered large signs outside of the synagogue that read “Hate Has No Home Here” in several languages below a heart shaped American flag and another that read “We Support Israel.” 

Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, called the act “outrageous.”

“While it is fortunate that no one was physically hurt, it is yet another sad reminder that antisemitic incidents have become common occurrences throughout our region,” said Halber. He added that local officials and police officers responded “immediately.” 

Halber called for increased Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding to applicants in Maryland and specifically to Montgomery County, which has the largest Jewish population in the state. 

“This funding has quickly become an absolute necessity for our community. Policymakers must sustain and build on these investments for our safety,” he said. “Let this incident serve as another reminder: antisemitism always fails. Our Jewish community will never be intimidated into silence, and we will forever be proud to support Israel.”

Last week, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore stood before a crowded room of Jewish attendees just outside the nation’s capital, and proclaimed: “Today, I want to be loud and clear, that Maryland stands with the Israeli people and we support their right to exist in the region with the same sense of safety and security that we all want,” Moore told attendees at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington’s annual “Lox and Legislators” event.

The nuance in Moore’s statement was telling — an expression of support not for Israel specifically, but for the Israeli people. It’s a clear distinction — and a potential shift in messaging for mainstream Democrats seeking to put daylight between themselves and the Israeli government, while not, as they see it, throwing Israelis under the bus.

But it’s also the kind of language reserved for rogue and oppressive regimes. Few politicians mention “the South African people” when speaking about disagreements with Pretoria. Same with “the people of Brazil” or “the people of Poland” when disagreements between Washington and those countries arise.

Separating governments from their populaces is commonplace when talking about countries committing grave human rights violations. In their co-sponsorship of legislation introduced last week backing internet freedom in Iran, Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Dave McCormick (R-PA), both referred to “the people of Iran.” Last month, Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) introduced legislation supporting “The North Korean people” who “face torture, imprisonment, starvation, and forced labor every single day.”

But Israel, a key U.S. ally, is a parliamentary democracy that holds regular (some would argue too regular) elections. And Moore, a savvy politician with potential White House ambitions, can read the political tea leaves within his party. 

A Gallup survey released over the summer found that a majority of Americans — 52% — viewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unfavorably, while just 29% had a positive view of Israel’s longest-serving leader. The July poll reflected Netanyahu’s highest unfavorable numbers in nearly three decades. 

But perhaps most telling was that Netanyahu, in the Gallup poll, was viewed favorably by just 9% of Democrats — likely due to the convergence of a number of factors, among them Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza and Netanyahu’s close ties with the Trump administration.

To be sure, some of Netanyahu’s current standing with Democrats is a result of his own actions. Ron Dermer, the former strategic affairs minister who served as the Israeli ambassador to Washington during the time the Obama administration was negotiating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, is widely credited with developing Jerusalem’s strategy to focus on building ties with Republicans and evangelicals at the expense of attempting to bolster bipartisan support for the Jewish state. 

Similarly, a Pew poll conducted in October found that while 56% of Americans have a favorable view of the Israeli people, 35% of Americans have a favorable view of the Israeli government.

As Democrats look to take back at least one chamber of Congress next year, they are paying close attention to the polls — and hewing campaign messages accordingly. While it may be politically advantageous for Moore and other Democrats with national ambitions to separate the Israeli government from its populace, it could set a dangerous precedent — one that uses semantics to warp reality and drive a deeper wedge between the American public and Israel.

Speaking to the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington’s annual Maryland legislative breakfast on Wednesday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, touted as a prospective presidential candidate, offered support for Israel and for members of the Jewish community facing antisemitism.

“Today, I want to be loud and clear, that Maryland stands with the Israeli people and we support their right to exist in the region with the same sense of safety and security that we all want,” Moore said, echoing remarks he made at a memorial days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, which had been his most recent address to the JCRC.

Pointing to his background as a veteran and a Rhodes scholar who studied the rise of Islamism in the Western Hemisphere, Moore emphasized that he understands clearly the threat of groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and that Hamas “has not been and will never be a faithful partner in any peace process.”

He said that lasting peace requires “humane leadership” for the Palestinians, as well as by Israel, the United States and any other countries involved in the future of Gaza.

“The safety and the peace and security of all people has got to be something that we not just believe in, but we advocate for,” Moore said. “A very clear understanding that the safety of Palestinians is also the safety of Israelis, and the safety of Israelis is the safety of Palestinians.”

“The message that I had on Oct. 13, 2023, has not changed, because I understand that it’s rooted in an internal sense of who I am,” Moore added, explaining that his “foundation comes from faith and with that, an understanding of our commitment to humanity.”

Moore emphasized that many of his ancestors have been ministers, and also recounted the story of how his great-grandfather and his family, who lived in South Carolina, were forced to leave the United States for Jamaica when they faced threats because his great-grandfather preached a message of equality. 

He said that his patriotic foundation comes from his grandfather, who witnessed that rejection from the United States, but later returned to the U.S. anyway. “It birthed an unbelievable love that he held on to [for] the remainder of his life.”

Moore also expressed a strong commitment to ensuring the safety of the Jewish community in Maryland, saying that he wants to see Maryland be a “shining example” where “hate will absolutely find no oxygen.”

He announced that, in his 2027 budget request to the state legislature, he would be maintaining support for $10 million in funding for Maryland’s Protecting Against Hate Crimes Grant Program, which offers funding for nonprofits and religious organizations.

The program, with Moore’s support, was doubled in the 2026 budget from $5 million in the 2026 budget.

“We are going to make sure that people know that not only do we believe in being a loving community, but that we also believe in consequences for those who don’t,” Moore said. “Because as Dr. [Martin Luther] King said, ‘Laws don’t change the heart, but laws do protect it from the heartless.’ For those in our society that choose to foment hate … I want to be very clear, in the state of Maryland, you will find accountability, and in the state of Maryland, you will find consequences.”

He also made reference to the partnership between Black and Jewish leaders in the Civil Rights Movement, who he said were pursuing that same goal, to ensure that everyone can feel safe and have their voice and vote counted.

“We are going to ensure that every single Marylander, including our Jewish Marylanders, that they know that they are coming up in a state that’s loving and supportive … and knows that people should be able to relish in support of their God without knowing that it’s something that is going to cause them to be a target,” Moore said.

Moore said he’d been inspired by a meeting with Sigal Manzuri, who lost two daughters in the Nova Music Festival massacre on Oct. 7. He said he met Manzuri alongside Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and has kept in touch with her since.

“She said to me, as we were praying together, ‘Keep searching for love, because in love there is light,’” Moore said. “I think about her words oftentimes because we’ve seen dark times before, in this state and in this country.”

He connected Manzuri’s words to the need to recognize the dark parts in Maryland and U.S. history, while also recognizing that American democracy is “still the greatest experiment in world history. … Nobody here can argue that our history has been neat, that our history has not had hills and valleys, but it’s always been a history that has been worth fighting for, and it’s always been a history where we fought together.”

Moore also generally praised the attendees — leaders in the Jewish community in various capacities — for choosing to “lean in” in “dark, challenging, difficult times.”

“I’m grateful to walk hand in hand with you today, tomorrow and always to make sure that in this moment we fulfill our promise, tikkun olam,” Moore concluded, using the Hebrew phrase for repairing the world.

Moore and his speech were met with an enthusiastic reception from the crowd.

Several members of Maryland’s congressional delegation also addressed the breakfast meeting.

Notably, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) — who reneged on her pledge as a candidate to support U.S. aid to Israel when she voted earlier this year to suspend some weapons sales to the Jewish state — and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) — who has supported various measures against Israel, including a bill that critics have described as an effective arms embargo for key systems — received warm welcomes and standing ovations from the JCRC crowd.

Alsobrooks made only a brief mention of Israel during her remarks — praising the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas — focusing otherwise on her efforts to combat antisemitism and other broader policy goals and initiatives.

“I know that I am not alone in welcoming the ceasefire in Gaza, urging, still, the return of the final two hostages,” Alsobrooks said, in comments that were made hours before the body of Thai hostage Sudthisak Rinthalak was identified. “It is my profound prayer as we go into 2026 that a permanent end to the war will be there, and that the beginning of healing that leads to a durable peace and the security that Israelis deserve. Peace and security and self-determination for our Palestinians, brothers and sisters as well. This is a fight that must continue every single day.”

She said that the wounds of Oct. 7 have not yet healed, and have continued to fester in part through the surging antisemitism seen across the country.

Alsobrooks said it is “our profound duty to speak up in this moment against rising antisemitism, at a time when we are seeing the vitriol and the violence against our Jewish brothers and sisters rising in a way that we have never, ever seen before.”

Raskin, speaking about security grants for Jewish institutions, said, “We’ve seen a sequence of racist and antisemitic hate crimes around the country that constitute a direct threat to people’s safety and security in their homes, in synagogues, in churches, at nursery schools and so on. … That’s a tremendously valuable investment of money.”

Reps. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) and April McClain Delaney (D-MD) also spoke on a panel alongside Raskin, also offering support for the security grant program.

Despite having publicly spoken out against Raskin for sponsoring legislation that would severely restrict U.S. aid to Israel and expressed concerns about Alsobrooks’ votes to halt certain arms sales to Israel, JCRC CEO Ron Halber said he believes both remain friends and supporters of Israel.

“Jamie Raskin, I believe, is a friend of the Jewish community and I believe he is a supporter of Israel,” Halber insisted to reporters at the close of the breakfast. “We haven’t been happy with some of his votes, but he does it in a thoughtful style. … He is a progressive Zionist who’s disappointed with the Israeli government, but he’s not disappointed with the entire State of Israel.”

He said he’d had an hourlong conversation with Alsobrooks after her votes on the aid measures, and said, “I think that that vote did not represent a shift in her commitment to Israel’s strategic qualitative edge and support for Israel militarily.”

“I consider Angela Alsobrooks a friend of the Jewish people and a friend of the state of Israel,” he added later.

He pointed blame for her and other Democrats’ votes to block arms shipments toward rhetoric online accusing Israel of genocide and deliberate starvation of Palestinians, adding, “those combined created an enormous groundswell that senators who normally wouldn’t have voted that way, voted that way.”

That stands in stark contrast to Halber’s description of Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) as the most problematic anti-Israel leader in the Senate and who has left the “overwhelming majority” of the Maryland Jewish community feeling “betrayed.”

A spokesperson for Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) attacked Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington CEO Ron Halber by name, accusing the Jewish leader of being an “apologist for the Netanyahu government” in response to Halber’s own criticisms of the Maryland senator to reporters earlier Wednesday. 

In his role, Halber works to build bridges between the Jewish community in the Washington area and local elected officials. The comments reflect a remarkable breach between a leading representative of the D.C.-area Jewish community and a senator whom Halber said had once been an ally on a range of issues.

“Sen. Van Hollen, I think, has dramatically lost his way with support for Israel. He’s become the leading senator agitating against Israel in the United States Senate,” Halber told reporters at a JCRC breakfast event in Washington’s Maryland suburbs. “His social media is filled with a lack of empathy for Jewish suffering. It’s filled with a lack of empathy for Israel’s strategic position. It’s almost like [he] cannot wait for the next opportunity to jump down Israel’s throat.”

Halber said that the situation with Van Hollen is a “shame” because Van Hollen and the JCRC have worked together on a range of issues in the past, including funding for Jewish institutions and various domestic policy issues.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) and Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Glenn Ivey (D-MD) and April McClain Delaney (D-MD) were all in attendance at the breakfast, along with numerous local officials.

“I’m very upset about it, and so are many people in this room, because that’s not the Sen. Van Hollen that so many people in this room worked hard to get elected,” Halber continued. “On the issue of Israel, I would say the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community feels betrayed by the senator.”

The Van Hollen spokesperson fired back, accusing Halber of running cover for the Israeli government and failing to represent the range of viewpoints in Maryland’s Jewish community.

“Senator Van Hollen is committed to a values-based foreign policy that holds our friends and our adversaries to the same standards. That’s why he continues to support the people of Israel, but the actions of the Netanyahu Government have increasingly not aligned with our values,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“The Senator often speaks with Marylanders who hold varying perspectives here and has met on many occasions with families of hostages and victims of the heinous Hamas attacks of October 7th. Instead of representing the diversity of views that, in the Senator’s experience, are held by the Jewish community of Maryland, Ron Halber has become an apologist for the Netanyahu government.”

Halber said he’d had a two-hour meeting with Van Hollen a year ago, asking the senator to moderate his rhetoric by showing a greater level of “empathy” and “understanding” of the situation Israel and its people are facing — recommendations Halber said the senator had failed to implement, making Halber “angrier.”

“I think it’s very easy to stand with Israel when you’re crying over Jewish victims, but it’s harder to stand up with Israel when she’s doing the right thing,” Halber continued. “And I think the senator has shown a lack of strategic understanding of Israel’s dilemma. And I’m not saying he’s got to be Israel’s cheerleader, but it would be nice if he had more balance in his remarks.”

He said that many people have delivered a similar message to Van Hollen, asking him to offer greater acknowledgement of Israel’s struggles, but have instead received a “consistent, one-sided narrative.”

“The hard thing is to show up when your friends need you, and right now, we’ve needed him, and he hasn’t been there,” Halber concluded.

Responding to the Van Hollen spokesperson’s accusation that Halber’s views are unrepresentative of the Jewish community, the JCRC head emphasized that more than 60 elected officials joined the breakfast event, with similar participation expected at upcoming Virginia and D.C.-focused breakfasts, and that a diverse array of Jewish organizations — religiously and politically — participate in the JCRC and the gatherings.

“Our job is to articulate a representation that represents the broad swath and mainstream of the Jewish community, which I believe we successfully do, and I’m proud of our record,” Halber said. “[JCRC member organizations] all know that JCRC represents the community with dignity and with the greatest broadest consensus and inclusivity as possible. … I’m very proud of the ability of the JCRC to bring such a diverse Jewish community under one tent where they all feel comfortable and represented.”

At the JCRC breakfast, Halber won plaudits from Moore, Maryland’s Democratic governor, who praised him as a dependable sounding board and advisor on difficult issues. 

“When you’re debating, when you’re trying to understand the moment, when you’re trying to remember how we need to respond, when we are watching walls collapse among us, and who can help you get that clarity, even when I have to call him [Halber] at 11 o’clock at night,” Moore said. “By the end of the conversation, I’m lifted up.”

When Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland took the stage on Sunday evening at the Capital Jewish Museum’s gala in Washington, he won over the crowd instantly with his opening line: “Shalom, friends.” 

But as he continued his speech, Moore used the occasion — an introduction of the philanthropist David Rubenstein, one of the dinner’s honorees — to decry rising antisemitism in the United States and, in particular, the murder of Israeli Embassy staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky outside the museum in May. 

“We received, once again, a very unneeded reminder of the fact that this nation still has wounds. That the level of antisemitism that we see in our society is not just intolerable, it’s heartbreaking,” said Moore. “I’m a person of deep faith, and while I might not have shared faith with them, Yaron was my brother and Sarah was my sister.” 

“I know that in their name and in their lives, we are committed in the state of Maryland to making sure that Maryland can be a true safe haven for everybody to know that they should always and will always feel comfortable in their own neighborhoods, comfortable in their own environments, comfortable in their own skin, comfortable in their homes of worship, and comfortable in the thing that gives them peace and joy,” said Moore. 

“In the state of Maryland,” Moore continued, “we will make sure that hate will never find oxygen.”

Moore, a popular Democrat who has been floated as a potential Democratic presidential contender, said on Meet the Press last week that he plans to seek reelection in 2026 and serve his full term — effectively ruling out a 2028 White House run.

A book that centers on Palestinian identity is drawing controversy from some Jewish parents in the Montgomery County, Md., public school system after it was assigned to first grade students as required classroom reading, Jewish Insider has learned. 

The book,“Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur! A Palestinian Folktale,” written by Margaret Read MacDonald, aims to convey a message to children that there are consequences for taking things that don’t belong to them. It tells the story of a woman who “prayed to Allah” for a child and received a pot as her child. The pot, too young to know right from wrong, had a tendency to steal honey from the marketplace and jewels from the king — until she got caught. As punishment, she was filled with muck. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson,” the pot’s mother tells her. “You cannot take things that do not belong to you.” 

While the book does not mention Israel, local Jewish leaders and parents voiced concern that the required book’s subtext sends an anti-Israel message to elementary schoolers and that the reference to “Allah” does not belong in a public school setting. 

A syllabus notes that students can receive supplemental reading materials if “any instructional material conflicts with your family’s sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The book’s lesson that “‘you cannot take things that do not belong to you’ echoes activist rhetoric that falsely casts Israel as an oppressor and the Jewish people as imperialist rather than indigenous,” Dana Stangel-Plowe, chief program officer at the North American Values Institute, a nonprofit that monitors antisemitism in K-12 schools, told JI.

“It reinforces a false narrative that erases the historic Jewish connection to Israel. It sends a troubling message to Jewish families during a time of rising antisemitism,” Stangel-Plowe told JI.

Not all Jewish communal leaders agreed that the book was problematic. Guila Franklin Siegel, chief operating officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, argued that Jewish families should embrace the book.  

“If the only complaint about this book is that it’s sharing a Palestinian folktale that teaches children not to take things that don’t belong to them, I can’t see what the problem with the book is,” Franklin Siegel told JI. “It will be a shame if Jewish people wind up objecting to books only because they have protagonists who happen to be Palestinian.” 

“There may well be books and materials that do misinform students about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we always monitor that work,” said Franklin Siegel. “If we turn this into a back and forth where parents are requesting opt-outs for any material that they don’t see eye-to-eye with, we’ll wind up in a situation where we’re seeing a significant number of students whose parents are requesting opt-outs for things like Holocaust speakers.” 

Meanwhile, Margery Smelkinson, a parent of four MCPS students, told JI that she would have preferred the district find a children’s book that teaches not to steal “without causing controversy.” 

“The real problem is that MCPS chose a book that even requires an opt-out form — why not just pick another book?” 

Smelkinson called on the school district to prioritize helping students get up to speed in reading, math and science instead of “creating more barriers to learning.”

“I’m concerned and curious if my child was introduced to [similar rhetoric] last year,” Diana Tung, the parent of an MCPS second grader and kindergartener, told JI. “I assume in a public school setting there’s going to be pretty diverse spiritual beliefs [but] the context of the tale itself [concerns me]. The themes should be taught using a different folktale, I’m pretty confident there are plenty.”  

“Books and materials approved to be available for use in classrooms, beyond being in alignment with curriculum standards, are selected to be representative of our very diverse community,” Christopher Cram, a spokesperson for the suburban Washington school system, which is the 15th-largest school district in the country and educates a significant number of Jewish students, told JI. “Students and families expect to be able to see themselves in the materials we use.” 

The school system has faced several antisemitic incidents since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, leading to the school board president, Karla Silvestre, being subpoenaed to testify at a congressional hearing in May 2024. Weeks after the hearing, at least six MCPS school buildings — including three elementary schools — were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. 

The assignment of the Palestinian folktale as required reading comes two months after the Supreme Court ruled in Mahmoud v. Taylor that MCPS must allow parents to opt their children out of lessons and books that feature LGBTQ+ themes if the material conflicts with their religious beliefs.

The University of Maryland, College Park and Maryland’s attorney general have asked the state to approve their joint request to settle a First Amendment lawsuit brought by the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

The request to settle the case, which was not previously publicly available information, was revealed in a memo detailing the agenda for an impending meeting of the Maryland Board of Public Works, which oversees matters impacting the state university system. The university’s settlement, according to the agenda posted to BPW’s website ahead of a Wednesday board meeting, would provide $100,000 to defendants through the CAIR Legal Defense Fund, an arm of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. 

“The University of Maryland College Park and the Office of the Attorney General recommend paying $100,000 to settle all claims, including attorneys’ fees, as in the best interest of the State,” the memo reads. 

The University of Maryland declined to comment to Jewish Insider about its request to settle and Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown did not respond to JI’s request for comment.

On behalf of UMD SJP, CAIR and Palestine Legal filed a lawsuit against the university’s College Park campus last September alleging a violation of the students’ free speech after UMD President Darryll Pines announced that the school had canceled an SJP-sponsored anti-Israel rally slated for the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. 

UMD initially granted SJP a permit last August to hold the Oct. 7 demonstration on the campus’ central McKeldin Mall, prompting swift backlash and calls from campus groups including Hillel and the Jewish Student Union — and from former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who was running for the Senate at the time — for the school to reverse course. 

After the university canceled the protest, SJP filed a lawsuit stating that its First Amendment rights had been violated and a federal judge wrote in an opinion that the group “has demonstrated a substantial likelihood that it will prevail [in its lawsuit] on the merits of its freedom of speech claim.” The university then backtracked a second time and ultimately allowed the demonstration to take place, but the lawsuit moved forward. 

Pines said at the time that the initial decision to cancel the event — and all events scheduled for Oct. 7, other than university sponsored ones — was made following a “safety assessment,” which, he added, did not identify any threats to the campus. 

Einav Tsach, a rising senior studying journalism and business, told JI that amid turmoil around the SJP demonstration, Jewish students still “came together as a strong, vibrant Jewish campus community to mark the one-year anniversary of the horrors perpetrated by Hamas.” 

As the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks approaches this fall, Tsach, the former leader of  Mishelanu, an on-campus Israeli-American cultural association, said that Jewish UMD students “remain focused on marking this solemn day in the most meaningful way possible.”

Other than the controversy around last year’s demonstration, UMD, which has one of the largest Jewish student populations in the country — nearly 20% of the College Park undergraduate student body of more than 30,000 is Jewish — has largely avoided egregious incidents of antisemitism that have occurred on other college campuses. 

Maryland Jewish leaders are expressing disappointment over Sen. Angela Alsobrooks’ (D-MD) decision to support both of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) resolutions blocking U.S. arms sales to Israel despite vowing to oppose such efforts when she campaigned for the Senate last year.

Alsobrooks and 26 of her Democratic colleagues voted on Wednesday evening to block U.S. shipments of automatic weapons that Sanders and others claimed were destined for police units controlled by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right official in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. She also joined 23 Democrats in supporting a second resolution relating to U.S. bombs and bomb guidance kits. 

In a statement on her decision, the Maryland senator said she was joining the “voices of so many who feel the moral imperative to demand change. To witness the inhumanity of starving children and say nothing is not just a dereliction of duty but of conscience.”

“Netanyahu and his government must immediately change course. I remain committed to the U.S.-Israel relationship and my belief that the people of Israel have a right to defend themselves. In this moment, we must all do everything in our power as a global community to get desperately needed aid to the people of Gaza,” Alsobrooks said. 

The votes marked a change in position for Alsobrooks, who campaigned last year in the general election contest for her seat on the promise to not support cutting off aid to Israel and subsequently told Jewish leaders after winning the race that she planned to maintain that vow. It was also a shift from her votes against Sanders’ prior resolutions blocking aid this past spring. 

During the contested Democratic primary, however, she pledged to vote against future arms sales to Israel if the IDF invaded Rafah (an operation that later happened) and agreed with the Biden administration’s threat to withhold offensive weaponry.

In the general election, she moderated her position, and distanced herself from Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) antagonistic record toward the Jewish state, which has alienated much of Maryland’s Jewish community. 

Now, many Jewish leaders in Maryland fear she’s aligning herself more closely with Van Hollen on Israel and Middle East policy.

A spokesperson for Alsobrooks told JI in a statement that, “As the Senator made explicit in her statement following the vote, she remains firmly committed to the U.S.-Israel relationship and her support for the security of the Israeli people. This vote was in direct response to the worsening humanitarian crisis in the region and her desire to see the delivery of desperately-needed aid. She will continue to support the people of Israel as well as the people of Gaza while remaining laser focused on eradicating the threat of Hamas and the return of the hostages.”

Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, said that the JCRC planned to request a meeting with Alsobrooks to “try and figure out what her thoughts were on this matter and express our concern” about her votes on Wednesday. 

Halber predicted that Alsobrooks was “probably swayed by the humanitarian disaster that has unfolded” in Gaza, pointing out her comments during the campaign and her votes against the April resolutions. He also noted that Alsobrooks was “speaking publicly at JCRC forums and speaking as recently as our legislative breakfast in December of last year” about her support for continued aid to Israel. 

That record, he argued, was as relevant as Wednesday’s votes. 

“Sen. Alsobrooks made it clear during her campaign that she would be a supporter of Israel, and I do not believe that this one vote takes her out of the pro-Israel camp,” Halber told Jewish Insider. “To me, one vote does not constitute a pattern. One vote does not constitute a dramatic shift in her support for Israel, but it’s certainly something we want to speak to her about and let her know that we are troubled by.”

“The concern is that for the Jewish community, Israel’s ability to defend itself is a holy grail, and that includes the ability to defend itself both defensively and offensively,” he continued.

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, a Jewish philanthropist and Democratic activist in Maryland, said she sympathized with arguments from Democrats and others about the humanitarian situation in Gaza while defending Alsobrooks’ pivot from her prior position on Israel aid. 

“There has been an evolution of facts between the campaign and now, and the situation with the suffering of innocent children in Gaza is highly problematic,” Mizrahi told JI. 

Mizrahi dismissed the notion that Alsobrooks’s vote constituted a broken campaign promise, noting that several other Democratic senators had made similar statements to her and her team during the 2024 cycle that had since come out in support of blocking aid, including Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). 

“Politicians evolve when facts evolve, particularly when they’re bright people. Angela Alsobrooks is an incredibly bright person, of course, and she cares a lot. What I would like to know is her motivation for the vote,” she explained.

Despite this, Mizrahi said she hoped to see Alsobrooks return to supporting Israel aid and to “see her step up more significantly about hate crimes and about antisemitism, because we’re seeing quite a lot of it.”

“I hope that Sen. Alsobrooks will change her vote and will change her tone back to her earlier tone once the ship has righted in terms of the humanitarian situation for innocent people in Gaza,” Mizrahi said, later adding that she wanted to know “whether she feels that if things get better, that she will change her mind again, and that she will enthusiastically support weapons sales to the only democratic ally that America has in the Middle East,” Mizrahi said.

“I’m not going to hold this one vote [against her] until I know more about what her motivation was and what she’s hoping to achieve,” she added.

Bobby Zirkin, a Jewish former Maryland state senator who led an effort to urge Democrats to support former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, over Alsobrooks in their 2024 Senate contest, said that uncertainties over Alsobrooks’s commitment to Israel was a motivating factor behind his decision to back Hogan. 

“There was a reason that I stepped out during the campaign for Gov. Hogan. … My concern was always that she would follow the craziest, most fringe [parts of the] left-wing, which has become Chris Van Hollen in our party,” Zirkin said of Alsobrooks. “She made promises to many people in the Jewish community during the campaign and she has absolutely broken them.”

“You’ve gotta give the Alsobrooks campaign people credit for changing the subject and misrepresenting what she was going to do and all the rest. And by credit, I mean that they hoodwinked people,” he continued. “She pulled the wool over the eyes of a lot of people, and now we’re living with that.”

Rep. David Trone (D-MD), the co-founder of Total Wine & More, has a long and noteworthy record when it comes to philanthropy. 

He is believed to be one of the only sitting members of Congress who is an AIPAC “minyan” donor, which requires a minimum annual gift of $100,000 and is the highest membership level in the pro-Israel group. Trone has also donated millions to the American Civil Liberties Union, establishing the Trone Center for Justice and Equality. 

But in recent years, Trone, who represents Maryland’s 6th congressional district, has had to choose between the two groups because of his vehement opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. While AIPAC supports legislation that bars companies from participating in boycotts targeting Israel, the ACLU opposes such efforts on free speech grounds.

Trone, who voted last year in favor of a House resolution condemning BDS, disagrees with the ACLU. “We’re categorically opposed to BDS,” said the 64-year-old freshman congressman, who is a staunch supporter of the Jewish state and regards the movement as antisemitic. “A company shouldn’t be coerced into boycotting Israel.”

For Trone, such statements are hardly theoretical. Total Wine, which operates more than 200 stores across 24 states, is the largest retailer of Israeli wine in the U.S., according to the congressman, and its website makes clear that it opposes BDS as much as Trone does personally. “From Judea, Stop the BDS Movement,” reads a description below some wines that are produced in the West Bank.

The company has “worked hard to have one of the best selections in the country of Israeli wines,” Trone said, praising the wineries in the Golan, a region he characterized as an up-and-coming wine destination akin to Austria’s Wachau Valley. “And not just kosher, but Israeli wines themselves, some of which are kosher.” Despite his enthusiasm for Israeli wine, Trone was reluctant to name a favorite. “That’s just fraught with problems,” the freshman congressman said diplomatically after a brief pause.

Trone has long supported Jewish causes — at least since he married his wife, June Trone, who is Jewish and insisted their four children be raised in the religion. The family attends two synagogues in Maryland: Temple Beth Ami, which is Reform, and B’nai Israel Congregation, a Conservative synagogue June attends regularly. 

“I told him, I want to raise my family Jewish, so if that was something that he wasn’t interested in, we shouldn’t pursue this,” June recalled to JI in a rare interview, adding that there was never any discussion about her husband converting. “He said that was fine with him, and of course he’s been extremely supportive of my being Jewish, and the kids.”

Ralph Grunewald, the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Howard County, who worked as Trone’s liaison to the Jewish community during his last campaign, described the congressman, who was raised Lutheran, as an “honorary Jew.” 

“I’ve told him that many times,” said Grunewald, who took Trone on his second trip to Israel in February 2018 and solicited the congressman’s donation to AIPAC. “He just gets it in his kishkes.”

Trone said he was intimately attuned to the recent uptick in antisemitic violence in the United States. He lived in Pittsburgh for 15 years, and his oldest daughter, Michelle, received her Hebrew name at the Tree of Life Congregation, the site of a 2018 shooting that killed 11 people.

“We need to be there to support Israel, and that’s something that we are happy to do both in our personal capacity and in our official capacity,” said Trone, who serves as vice chair of the Middle East, North Africa and International Terrorism subcommittee.

Andrew Friedson, a Montgomery County councilmember who sits on Trone’s Jewish community advisory group, backed up that assertion. “David has been a very strong advocate for the U.S.-Israel relationship,” he said. 

Robert Stillman, a Maryland doctor who sits on the local board of the American Jewish Committee, agreed. “He’s co-sponsored every piece of legislation in Congress since he’s been there, that I’m aware of, regarding the safety and security of the U.S.-Israel relationship,” Stillman said. “He hasn’t just been a vote,” Stillman added. “He’s been a collector of votes, an influencer.”

Trone is safely ensconced in Washington after handily winning his primary on June 2 — and he is in good shape to defend his seat come November. But his path to Congress was by no means seamless. 

A failed run for Congress four years ago cost him more than $13 million of his own money, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Last cycle, he poured approximately $18 million more into his successful campaign to represent Maryland’s 6th district, which includes the state’s northwestern portion. Trone is enlivened by his congressional service, he said, despite a tumultuous first term that has included a global pandemic as well as mass protests against police brutality. 

“I created a great, wonderful company, but I found I couldn’t move the needle enough to help those that don’t have a voice,” said Trone.

During his time in Congress, Trone has been focused on addressing mental health issues as well as opioid addiction. In May, the congressman — whose nephew died of a fentanyl overdose four years ago — was appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to a commission that will address the opioid crisis in the U.S.

“It’s really an opportunity to create legislation that’s going to save tens and tens of thousands of lives in addiction,” he said, “so I’m excited about that.”

Trone — who is aware that he is fortunate to have self-funded both of his campaigns — also wants to help out other aspiring candidates during a year in which the Democrats are hoping to flip the Senate while maintaining their hold on the House.

Not that political donations are anything new for the wine mogul. But Trone said there was an added urgency to his mission as the coronavirus crisis has upended traditional campaigning.

“It’s very hard for them, in today’s environment, to hold fundraisers and really get the money that it takes to run a campaign,” he told JI. “So if we’re able to step up because we’ve been fortunate financially, and help them out, that’s certainly, I think, the right thing to do.”

Trone is dispersing his money among more than 40 candidates, according to his wife, who is also making donations. Those candidates include Senate hopefuls Theresa Greenfield in Iowa, Sara Gideon in Maine, Mark Kelly in Arizona and John Hickenlooper in Colorado — all of whom are running in battleground states. 

“They’re the ones who will have the tougher elections,” she told JI.

In late April, Trone gave his most sizable personal donation in 2020 — nearly $250,000 — to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“He wants to now give back,” said Grunewald, comparing the congressman to other wealthy politicians of generations past such as former Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH), who moved into public service later in life.

It is clear that Trone is hoping for a long tenure in politics as he tackles the issues that mean the most to him, while working to assist Democratic congressional and senatorial candidates in their effort to make it to Washington — which he knows, from personal experience, can be a difficult task.

“It’s crucial to be there to help,” he said.

This story has been updated for clarity.