8 min
Inside look at the anti-semitism hearing at Capitol Hill for K-12 superintendents The State of California
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- News
The issue of anti-semitism in the schools took center stage this week as aCongressional subcommittee, controlled by Republicans, summoned thesuperintendents of several K thru 12 school districts to Capitol Hill for a hearing,including the leader of the Berkeley Unified School District, Enikia Ford Morthel.
Berkeley of course has been a hotbed of protest since Hamas attacked Israel lastOctober 7 and Israel retaliated by invading the Gaza Strip. The demonstrationsand walkouts against Israel and in support of the Palestinians have not beenconfined to the Cal campus, they have been common in the public schools too,and while the district says it has been doing everything it can to prevent andrespond to anti-semitism and Islamaphobia in this climate of tension andconfrontation, it is now under investigation, with a federal complaint filed thatalleges it is allowing “severe and persistent” anti-Semitism.
For more on this, we are joined on the KCBS Ring Central Newsline by Ilana Pearlman, a midwife from Berkeley who is the mother of a Berkeley Highstudent who is half-Jewish and half-Black. She is one of the leaders of a groupcalled Berkeley Jews In School and she went to Washington D.C. to attend thehearing and meet with members of Congress.
The issue of anti-semitism in the schools took center stage this week as aCongressional subcommittee, controlled by Republicans, summoned thesuperintendents of several K thru 12 school districts to Capitol Hill for a hearing,including the leader of the Berkeley Unified School District, Enikia Ford Morthel.
Berkeley of course has been a hotbed of protest since Hamas attacked Israel lastOctober 7 and Israel retaliated by invading the Gaza Strip. The demonstrationsand walkouts against Israel and in support of the Palestinians have not beenconfined to the Cal campus, they have been common in the public schools too,and while the district says it has been doing everything it can to prevent andrespond to anti-semitism and Islamaphobia in this climate of tension andconfrontation, it is now under investigation, with a federal complaint filed thatalleges it is allowing “severe and persistent” anti-Semitism.
For more on this, we are joined on the KCBS Ring Central Newsline by Ilana Pearlman, a midwife from Berkeley who is the mother of a Berkeley Highstudent who is half-Jewish and half-Black. She is one of the leaders of a groupcalled Berkeley Jews In School and she went to Washington D.C. to attend thehearing and meet with members of Congress.
8 min