350,000<\/a> Jews live in Pennsylvania, where enrollment in Jewish schools increased in 2025-26, according to data from Teach Coalition, an Orthodox Union program.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m a huge Jewish day-school advocate, but our goal is not to take kids out of public schools and put them into Jewish day school, because we don\u2019t think that\u2019s a win,\u201d Rosenberg told JNS. \u201cIf every Jewish kid left public school, public schools would become training grounds for Jew-hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Depoliticizing the classroom\u2019<\/p>\n
Testimony at the hearing detailed both harassment and concerns about what students are taught. Julie Webb, a public school history and Spanish teacher, testified that she found a swastika on an eraser and the word \u201cJew\u201d written on a classroom desk. She said that she reported both incidents but saw no result beyond preliminary questioning.<\/p>\n
Webb criticized Philadelphia\u2019s world history curriculum for presenting accusations against Israel without alternative perspectives. \u201cWe cannot allow teachers to move from teaching history into swaying students about political issues,\u201d she testified.<\/p>\n
Naomi Rodriguez, a Jewish parent and educator, testified that school reporting systems obscure antisemitic incidents by categorizing them as graffiti or general harassment, which makes Jew-hatred harder to track.<\/p>\n
David Knoll, associate vice president of public affairs for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, testified about recent reports involving a student who was called a \u201cdirty Jew\u201d and pelted with pennies. Another Jewish child\u2019s face was digitally placed on an image of the body of a concentration camp prisoner, he said.<\/p>\n
Andrew Goretsky, senior regional director of the ADL in Philadelphia, told lawmakers at the hearing that there were 25 antisemitic incidents in Pennsylvania\u2019s K-12 schools in 2025, up from 21 the previous year.<\/p>\n
Jason Holtzman, chief of the Philadelphia Federation\u2019s Jewish Community Relations Council, testified that institutions sometimes deflect complaints about Jew-hatred into arguments about Israel. <\/p>\n
\u201cCondemning antisemitism in Philadelphia should not be contingent upon one\u2019s position on a conflict thousands of miles away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The hearing is the start of putting \u201cpressure on the districts,\u201d Rosenberg told JNS. \u201cNo district wants to have their name in the paper.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s \u201cmuch easier\u201d to combat antisemitism legislatively when Republicans hold the majority, as they now do in the Pennsylvania state Senate, but he has met with \u201cwonderful Democrats in the Pennsylvania legislature,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve chosen not to do anything,\u201d he told JNS. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean that they won\u2019t. We don\u2019t care if you have an \u2018R\u2019 or a \u2018D\u2019 after your name. We just want results.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want you to care about America,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want you to care about depoliticizing the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Rosenberg, the U.S. Department of Justice is \u201cpaying close attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they see the Pennsylvania legislature taking action, it also reshines the light on their potential lawfare actions,\u201d he told JNS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Oct. 1, 2026 \/ JNS) Pennsylvania state senators heard accounts of antisemitic harassment and classroom bias on Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-299388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}