The Anti-Defamation League has called on a local California school board to apologize after two of its members attacked the Jewish community in comments at a meeting last week.
The controversy is the latest front in the yearslong battle over ethnic studies classes at California schools. At the meeting on Wednesday, the Pajaro Valley Unified School District board unanimously approved an ethnic studies teacher training contract with an organization whose leader has ties to anti-Zionist activists.
The board previously let a contract with the organization, Community Responsive Education, lapse over antisemitism concerns but faced pushback from local students, educators and activists, as well as from the organization’s leader, who played a role in devising a draft ethnic studies curriculum for the state that many Jewish organizations denounced. Since then, the board’s composition has changed.
After Jewish activists urged the board to reject the new contract on Wednesday, worried that it would inject anti-Zionism into local ethnic studies, two school board members took aim at the Jewish community.
“I don’t see you people at protests against immigration,” said Gabriel Medina, who joined the board earlier this year and has since voiced support for the Palestinians and criticism of Israel in meetings. He then referred to Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the man wrongly deported to El Salvador, and to Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian protester arrested by ICE at Columbia University.
“I don’t see you at protests when people are being taken away right now,” Medina said. “I don’t see you advocating to bring back Abrego Garcia or Mahmoud Khalil. I don’t see you guys doing that. You only show up to meetings when it’s beneficial for you, so you can tell brown people who they are.”
Another board member, Joy Flynn, accused the Jewish community members of leveraging their wealth.
“I’ve been a little bit taken aback,” she said, “by the lack of acknowledgement of the economic power historically held by the Jewish community.”
ADL Central Pacific Regional Director Marc Levine condemned the comments and called on the board to apologize.
“The raw antisemitism that was on display at the Pajaro Valley USD board meeting is abhorrent and dangerous,” he said in a statement. “Most disturbing was that the rhetoric came from elected board members. What does that say about their willingness to allow ethnic studies to be used as a gateway for antisemitism to seep into their classrooms?”
He added, “The board owes the Jewish community an apology plus a commitment to engage in serious reflection, and education.”
On Tuesday, Pajaro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Heather Contreras told J. The Jewish News of Northern California that the district “stands firmly against all forms of racism, antisemitism, and hate.”
“PVUSD is committed to fostering a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment for all students, families, educators, and community members — regardless of background, race, religion, or identity,” her statement continued. “PVUSD will continue to work with our diverse communities to ensure our schools reflect the values we expect from our leaders and instill in our students.”
Comments from local leaders
Debbie Israel, rabbi emerita of the nearby Congregation Emeth who was present at the meeting, also called out the board members’ comments and the proposed teacher training contract.
“I’ve heard some hateful and hurtful things this evening and I hope to address them,” Israel said. “Judaism is not just a religion but also a people who have lived in the land of Israel since the time of Abraham, the first Jew. Ethnic studies should respect the right of Indigenous people for self-determination. Yet CRE attempts to deny this right to the Jewish people.”
Most of the people who spoke at the board meeting lobbied in favor of the proposed contract with CRE, including at least one who wore a sweatshirt that said “Jews for a Free Palestine.”
California Jewish groups said a 2019 ethnic studies model curriculum draft included antisemitic language, and have since been on the lookout for efforts to implement that curriculum across the state.
Earlier this month, California’s Department of Education ruled that a San Jose school’s ethnic studies curriculum had discriminated against Jewish students. In February, the Santa Ana Unified School District was required in a settlement to stop teaching ethnic studies courses altogether until they are revised.