Sixty-eight early childhood educators from American Jewish schools have canceled a study trip to Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, citing concerns about antisemitism and participants\u2019 safety.<\/p>\n
The visit, organized by the Paradigm Project, a professional development network, was intended to introduce educators to the city\u2019s internationally recognized approach to early childhood education.<\/p>\n
In an October 9 email, organizers attributed the cancellation to \u201cantisemitic pressures.\u201d A participant told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) that concerns intensified after pro-Palestinian activists began scrutinizing participants\u2019 social media profiles.<\/p>\n
At the center of the dispute is a statement that visiting educators were reportedly asked to sign. In a recording of a meeting aired by Italian public broadcaster RAI, Reggio Children president Maddalena Tedeschi discussed potentially asking delegations to distance themselves from \u201cthe occupation of territories and genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reggio Children spokesperson Francesca Severini told JTA that the wording had been discussed in a WhatsApp group but was never adopted as an official condition of participation.<\/p>\n
That explanation appeared to conflict with the organization\u2019s October 7 public statements, in which it acknowledged asking educators to distance themselves from the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government. Reggio Emilia\u2019s mayor also referred to that commitment in a press release.<\/p>\n
Reggio Children\u2019s published charter asks visiting delegations to uphold human rights, oppose discrimination and condemn genocide. It does not specifically mention Israel or Gaza. A separate delegation of 22 Israeli educators participated in the program this week.<\/p>\n
Pro-Palestinian activists had opposed the American groups\u2019 visit, citing some participating schools\u2019 ties to Israel. According to JTA, one activist accused several institutions of supporting the Israeli military.<\/p>\n
Several American Jewish school leaders backed the decision to cancel. Pesha Kletenik, head of Manhattan Day School and a prospective participant, told JTA she had \u201cnever felt so targeted as a Jew.\u201d<\/p>\n
New publishing house gives voice to Israeli and Jewish Writers<\/p>\n
The Jewish community of Modena and Reggio Emilia also condemned calls to boycott educational and cultural initiatives involving Jews, saying that equating Jewish communities outside Israel with the Israeli government constitutes antisemitism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sixty-eight early childhood educators from American Jewish schools have canceled a study trip to Reggio Emilia in northern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-647005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}