School leaders grilled about antisemitism
Republicans not critical of Trump’s statements
WASHINGTON – House lawmakers on Wednesday grilled school administrators who have seen a rise in antisemitic incidents on their campuses, a trend that has affected their schools and classrooms across the country.
“It is impossibly hard to grasp how antisemitism has become such a dominant force in our K-12 schools,” Rep. Aaron Bean, R-fla., chair of the House Education Subcommittee on Early Childhood Elementary and Secondary Education, said in his opening statement. “Jewish students in their districts fear riding the bus, wearing their kippah to school or just eating and breathing as a Jewish student.”
Lawmakers on the Gop-led House Education Committee called forth the three heads of public schools this week to explain how they’ve tried to address and prevent antisemitic incidents against Jewish students. A staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union also testified before lawmakers.
The hearing comes as Republicans have zeroed in on antisemitism on campuses amid their broader scrutiny of American public schools.
The subcommittee has drawn significant attention for highlighting the rise in antisemitism since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Republicans on Wednesday repeatedly sought to portray education leaders as ineffective in their job to stymie antisemitic acts.
Callback to earlier hearing
The House hearing took place against a stark backdrop: Last year, three college presidents triggered a fierce backlash that stretched from their campuses to the White House and would prompt two of them to resign.
Bean kicked off the proceedings on Wednesday asking the administrators direct questions such as whether Israel has the right to exist as a state, if the phrase “from the river to the sea” was
antisemitic, and if Oct. 7 marked a terrorist attack.
All three administrators offered answers that satisfied Bean. But the Florida Republican said the three college presidents who previously testified before Congress also gave similar rebukes of antisemitism, only for protests to engulf their campuses.
“Congratulations, y’all have all done a remarkable job testifying,” Bean said. “But just some college presidents before you that sat in the very same seats, they also in many instances said the right thing but then we watched the TV monitors and America watched the monitors of their campuses on fire with hatred.”
Those testifying included David Banks, chancellor of the New York City Public Schools; Karla Silvestre, president of the Montgomery County, Maryland, Board of Education; Enikia Ford Morthel, superintendent of the Berkeley, California, Unified School District; and Emerson Sykes, of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Challenge to condemn Trump
While there was bipartisan agreewent
ment on the need to address the rise in antisemitic incidents across the country, the top Democrat on the subcommittee, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-ore., directly challenged Republicans to condemn former President Donald Trump, who has his own history with antisemitism.
Bonamici pointed out Trump’s comments that there were “very fine people” on both sides at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017. She also noted that Trump had dinner with Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and Holocaust denier.
“I have not heard one word of concern from my colleagues across the aisle,” Bonamici said. “In fact, what we have seen is consolidation of support for the former president.”
Bonamici asked Republicans to stand up if they condemned the former president’s past actions: “Does anyone have the courage to stand up against this?”
None stood.
NYC schools chancellor blasted
Reps. Elise Stefanik and Brandon Williams, both New York Republicans, after New York City Public Schools Chancellor David Banks for keeping the principal of a high school that experienced antisemitic incidents on the district’s payroll.
“How can Jewish students feel safe at New York City public schools if you can’t even manage to terminate the principal of Open-season-on-jews High School?” Williams asked.
“How can Jewish students go to school knowing that he is still on your payroll?”
Banks said the district removed the principal from his post and that “every employee who works in our schools has due process rights.”
Stefanik also took aim at a different series of antisemitic incidents in a different New York City school where students allegedly chanted, “Death to Jews.”
Banks said he couldn’t discuss that particular case because it was the subject of current litigation, but he noted that an investigation did not find that students actually chanted “Death to Jews.”
‘Fight hate in all its forms’
Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., a former principal of a New York City middle school, largely praised the administrators for responding to antisemitic incidents in their districts.
The New York progressive blasted Republicans for using “language around teaching hate.”
“Our teachers in our schools are not teaching hate, the majority of them. When I say the majority, I mean 99.9%,” Bowman said. “I have never seen that.”
Bowman questioned all the administrators on whether other forms of hate still exist in the country, to which all three answered in the affirmative.
“We must fight hate in all its forms at the same time. I have members of Congress talking about teachers teaching hate – none of them have an education background, by the way,” Bowman said, pointing out that statues in the U.S. Capitol of figures from the Confederacy outnumber statues of Black figures. “I work in an institution that teaches hate.”