Believe Jewish Students: Antisemitism at Berkeley High

Imagine being a Jewish student at Berkeley High. Imagine being an Israeli-American student. Imagine walking into your classroom and seeing this. No nuance. Nothing with educational content or promoting critical thinking. One sided platitudes. 

Anti-Israel propaganda in a Berkeley High Classroom

What would you do? Would you say something? Or would you just remain silent, hoping that nothing slips out that might affect your grade or college recommendations?

Earlier this year,  the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed a federal civil rights complaint alleging antisemitic bullying by both peers and teachers in Berkeley K-12 schools.

From the ADL 

The complaint documented how BUSD teachers are weaponizing disciplines such as art and history to promote anti-Semitic tropes about Israel. At Berkeley High School, a history teacher screened an anti-Zionist video and forced students to analyze Israel as an apartheid state. This teacher sharply squelched dissent, stating that materials which oppose the apartheid narrative are “laughable.” A high school art teacher showed students violent pro-Hamas videos and displayed anti-Israel and anti-Semitic images during class, including a fist punching through a Star of David. Indoctrination attempts occur in classes for young children. In one second-grade classroom, a teacher hung a Palestinian flag in the window and encouraged students to write “Stop Bombing Babies” on sticky notes to be posted next to the classroom of the only Jewish teacher.

Read this heartbreaking first hand account of one family's struggles with systemic antisemitism in the Berkeley Public schools.

Its a sad testament that no local news source would carry this- and that it had to published in the New York Post.

Written by  Ilana Pearlman, a Berkeley mother of three. Check out How DEI is failing my diverse, Jewish Berkeley, California family.

"Because rather than study free from fear, our kids now endure chants such as “Kill the Jews.” They must study in classrooms with posters asking, “How’s the school/work/life/genocide balance going for you today?” There’s been graffiti at the bus stop in front of Berkeley HS stating “Kill all Zionists.” Jewish students share stories of being told to pick up pennies or having their yarmulkes pushed off of their heads. 

School administrators are well aware of this abuse, but to no avail. “I just stopped reporting things because . . . all it did was make the bullying worse,” one student told me. "

The Berkeley Unified school District now faces a federal investigation.The goal- to determine whether the harassment of Jewish students violated’ protections under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and to determine whether there was retaliation against parents who complained about harassment.

If you or your children have faced antisemitism or bullying in the  Berkeley Unified School District , now is the time to speak up.  More first hand reports will strengthen the complaint and ensure that the district is held accountable for their actions.