EXCLUSIVE: A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro announced that the Philadelphia school district must address the growing spread of anti-Semitism in classrooms.
The alleged anti-Jewish climate in the city’s eighth-largest school district, nicknamed the City of Brotherly Love, recently prompted a congressional investigation into an education system allegedly tainted with hatred of Jews and Israel.
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Anti-Israel protesters march against the war in Gaza in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 25, 2024. (Matthew Hatcher/AFP via Getty Images)
The congressional letter said: “The Committee is deeply concerned that the SDP is failing to meet its obligations under Title VI. Since October 7, 2023, the Committee has received allegations that the SDP is rife with anti-Semitic incidents, including allegations of teachers spreading anti-Semitism in the classroom and the SDP condoning anti-Semitic strikes that isolate Jewish students.”
The letter continued: “Because of these alleged failures, the SDP entered into a federally mandated Corrective Action Plan with the U.S. Department of Education in December 2024: However, according to press and whistleblower reports, anti-Semitic incidents have continued to spread since the plan.”
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Governor Josh Shapiro speaks during the Celebration of Freedom Ceremony during Wawa Welcome America on July 4, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)
According to the Philadelphia Educators for Palestine, “all resistance is just. We reject any false equivalency between the violent systems that oppress us and our responses to them.”
Signal text messages stated that the anti-Israel group has recruited schoolchildren to further their anti-Jewish state agenda. District policy prohibits teachers from communicating with students on social media platforms. “To maintain a professional and appropriate relationship with students, district employees should not communicate with students currently enrolled in district schools on personal social media sites,” the SDP policy states.
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One Jewish parent said, “There are teachers and administrators who perpetuate hatred of Jews,” adding, “[Ismael] Jimenez uses his public social media to create hatred for Jews.” Ismael Jimenez is director of social studies curriculum for the SDP.
Sunrise light falls on the dome of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, January 2, 2025, as the 119th Congress begins on Friday. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The congressional letter also names Jimenez as a senior SPD executive who has been “widely condemned by Jewish advocacy groups in light of his” pattern of denying the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, refusing to speak of peace or coexistence, and downplaying the lived experiences of Jewish people in the face of violence. In a recent example, following the murder of two Israeli embassy officials and the anti-Semitic firebombing in Colorado, the senior administrator wrote: “The groups that align themselves with American brutality should not be surprised when the brutality turns against you.”
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Today, according to the letter from Congress, the SDP employs numerous teachers who allegedly promote anti-Semitic content in their classrooms. One such teacher is said to have threatened Jewish parents and students online. She and other Philadelphia educators are also said to have learned lessons from an initiative called Teaching Palestine, whose teaching materials rationalize terrorist violence and advocate the destruction of Israel.”
The congressional letter highlights the actions of the teachers and administrator. Someone who allegedly “threatened Jewish parents and students” was identified as Kaziah Ridgeway. Other teachers are said to have used lessons from “Teaching Palestine,” according to social media posts and the letter.
The Anti Defamation League described the saying as “a anti-Semitic slogan often featured in anti-Israel campaigns and sung during demonstrations.”
Memorials at the site of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack at the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, Israel, on Monday, May 27, 2024. (Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The US-designated terrorist organization Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, massacring more than 1,200 people, including more than 40 Americans.
Robinson recalled a professional development trainer telling a student group called “No Place for Hate” that they “needed to stop promoting white heroes named Shakespeare and Einstein, and said we should promote refugees.”
When Robinson noted that German physicist Albert Einstein was a refugee who had fled Nazi Germany, the teacher development specialist said, “But he was a Jew.” Robinson said, “I started seeing what was going on in the school district and it had been going on for 20 years.”
While Shapiro immediately addressed the situation, other leaders in the state preferred to pass the buck.
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