The Toronto District School Board adopted a new antisemitism report following a meeting that saw fierce debate about antisemitism in Canadian education, anti-Zionism, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion projects.
The TDSB held a meeting on Wednesday with almost 100 delegates discussing the merits of the “Update: Affirming Jewish Identities and Addressing Antisemitism and the Combating Hate and Racism Strategy” report, which detailed the result of consultations with Jewish students, parents, and community groups about antisemitism in the school system and recommended ideas of how to combat anti-Jewish sentiment.
Adding to the experiences detailed in the report, some of the parents emphasized at Wednesday’s meeting how their children had been subject to antisemitism in the schoolyard.
Canadian Women Against Antisemitism’s Revi Mula said that her children had experienced antisemitism from students, staff, and teachers.
Her children allegedly endured swastika graffiti on the school grounds and students raising Nazi salutes. One student reportedly told her child to remove their Star of David necklace, and while she was told that the student would be spoken to, she was distrustful of the past disciplinary processes taken by the school district.
Jewish parent Joanna Barsky, who said she was representing a few dozen other Jewish families, said her eight-year-old son witnessed children playing a Pro-Palestinian-themed war game in which the participants roleplayed attacking Jews. She also claimed the child had seen student artwork of a Palestinian figure with a weapon, stating they would win.
Community member Melissa Tapper referenced a September incident reported on by the Toronto Sun in which seventh- and eighth-grade students went to participate in a Grassy Narrows First Nation protest, which saw the use of anti-Israel slogans.
James Pasternak, a City councilor, told the board that the report was not perfect, but it was important to fight rising antisemitism in the school system.
The Toronto politician highlighted recent vandalism, arson, and gunfire that had been directed at Jewish institutions in the city since the October 7 massacre.
Canadian citizens shouldn’t be targets because of their nationality or faith’s connection to war zones, said Pasternak, further arguing that some were using the forum to continue to fight the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Pro-Palestinian concerns
ANTI-ZIONIST Jews and Palestinian families expressed concerns about their own students, arguing that the report restricted Palestinian identity and delegitimized pro-Palestinian activism.
One third-grade student told the TDSB Planning and Priorities Committee that when she had a Remembrance Day school project to show what peace looked or felt like, she drew herself and her parents at a pro-Palestinian protest.
Her teacher said they couldn’t accept political entries, and the girl argued it was unfair that Palestinians were being bombed because Israelis wanted control over them.
TDSB educator Billy Cheng said adopting the report would impact students such as a Palestinian boy who wanted to write an essay about a supposed genocide in Gaza but was afraid to do so.
Iman Annab of the Toronto Palestinian Families group, saying she represented over 250 families, said that the report criminalized Palestinian identity. The report, which recommended addressing the impact of geopolitical protests on Jewish students and interrupting claims that Jewish and Israeli staff and students were colonizers, framed Palestinian activism as a problem, according to Annab.
“Palestinian students continue to be erased and misrepresented in their schools while the board now faces a serious and frankly shameful problem with anti-Palestinian racism,” she said.
The report recommended action items that included addressing discrimination based on Zionist identity, but some meeting delegates argued it was an extreme political ideology. They contended that Zionism was separate from Judaism. Many cited their connection to the Holocaust and Jewish values as the reason they were standing against a supposed genocide in Gaza now.
Anti-Zionist Jews argued against the report – in which one action item proposes providing staff lessons to understand antisemitism, “including modern manifestations such as anti-Zionism” – saying it was not antisemitism to oppose the State of Israel. Parent Ben Losman said, “It’s not automatically or inherently antisemitic to condemn the actions of the Israeli state or its people or to call for Palestinian liberation.”
David Mandelzys told the board that he was one of 23 Jewish TDSB members who sent a letter last Monday to trustees and senior staff sharing their concerns about the report.
He argued that the TDSB Jewish Heritage Committee involved in the report was a non-elected group that didn’t adequately represent the diverse voices in the Jewish community. The report prioritized pro-Israel Jewish groups and minimized non-Zionists, according to Mandelzys and other delegates, who also often rejected the narrative that anti-Zionist Jews were a fringe Jewish Canadian sect.
FRIENDS OF Simon Wiesenthal Center senior advocacy director Jaime Kirzner-Roberts said it was fine for Jews not to hold Zionist beliefs but said they should not mislead and speak for the broader community by pretending to be a significant portion of the demographic.
Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation’s Michael Teper said the board was seeing a sophisticated propaganda exercise by people who otherwise don’t engage with the Jewish community.
Richard Robertson from B’nai Brith Canada and other mainstream Jewish representatives argued that a significant portion of Jewish Canadians supported the existence of the Jewish state.
Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs Ontario VP Michelle Stock said it was important for the school district to be able to identify when legitimate criticism of Israel strayed into antisemitism. Parent Maya Fitzpatrick explained to the board that the issue was not about the criticism of policies but the vilification of Israel and calls to destroy the state.
A significant portion of delegates were Zionists and attacked anti-Zionist narratives but were not supportive of the report because they saw it as a continuation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies.
Irit Targonsky said that DEI policies were doing more harm than good and that it was unacceptable to divide students by race or religion, adding that politics should be kept out of the classroom altogether.
Parent Miriam Zemell-Bloom said antisemitism had escalated in the school system since 2023 but took umbrage with the framing and rhetoric of the report, claiming that antisemitism could not be fought in a DEI framework. She contended that Jews were seen as oppressors in the DEI lens.
Jewish Educators and Families Association’s Tamar Gottlieb said the quotas for Jewish staff suggested that DEI had excluded Jews in the first place. Gottlieb also slammed the meeting for becoming a forum for what she said were the most active members of the anti-Israel movement, some of whom are not Toronto residents.