{"id":53366,"date":"2025-12-05T22:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T22:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/53366\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T22:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T22:20:07","slug":"philly-schools-under-u-s-house-investigation-for-alleged-antisemitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/53366\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly schools under U.S. House investigation for alleged antisemitism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter<\/a> to keep up with the city\u2019s public school system.<\/p>\n

Several Philadelphia teachers urged the Board of Education Thursday to protect staff and students amid a congressional investigation into alleged antisemitism in the district.<\/p>\n

U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Rep. Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican, launched the investigation last month, alleging that the School District of Philadelphia \u201cemploys numerous educators who allegedly promote antisemitic content in their classrooms.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a letter to the Superintendent Tony Watlington<\/a>, Walberg said the committee has gotten allegations that the Philadelphia school district \u201cis rife with antisemitic incidents\u201d and targeted certain district educators who it alleges \u201cpromote antisemitic content.\u201d<\/p>\n

The House committee\u2019s investigation follows a separate U.S. Department of Education civil rights investigation into antisemitism in the district that concluded last year. The department found that the district did not adequately address incidents of antisemitism<\/a>. In response, the district agreed to review and revise its anti-harassment policies and provide appropriate training on racial and ethnic discrimination to all students and staff, among other commitments.<\/p>\n

Walberg\u2019s letter states that the term \u201cpotential antisemitic incidents\u201d includes any incidents involving the targeting of \u201cJews, Judaism, Israel, Israelis, Zionism, or Zionists.\u201d Several civil rights groups have previously urged<\/a> House lawmakers not to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.<\/p>\n

The committee\u2019s requests include asking the district to provide all communication since Oct. 7, 2023, \u201creferring or relating to Jews, Judaism, Israel, Palestine, Zionism, or antisemitism.\u201d <\/p>\n

The committee also launched similar investigations into the school districts in Berkeley, California, and Fairfax County, Virginia.<\/p>\n

The Board of Education did not address the investigation at its meeting Thursday, and a school district spokesperson said the district does not comment on ongoing investigations.<\/p>\n

However, several teachers and community members testified at the meeting, calling on school leaders to refuse to share additional information with investigators that could put staff at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new investigation is political theater and government overreach,\u201d said district educator Alexandra Volin Avelin. \u201cIt is not about protecting students. It\u2019s about intimidating and silencing teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volin Avelin, who is Jewish, said she also opposed how the House committee defined antisemitism. \u201cSharing accurate information about events in Israel and Palestine is not antisemitism,\u201d said Volin Avelin. \u201cThe district must clearly reject this attempt to weaponize antisemitism and silence dissent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither the Department of Education\u2019s investigation nor the House committee\u2019s investigation addressed a separate civil rights complaint alleging discrimination against Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students at a district middle school<\/a>. The Trump administration closed the department\u2019s civil rights office in Philadelphia in March<\/a>, leaving cases in limbo.<\/p>\n

District teacher Freda Anderson, who is Jewish, said she worries about rising antisemitism and reports of threats to Jewish religious schools in Philadelphia. <\/p>\n

\u201cYet none of this is what the feds have chosen to investigate,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cIt\u2019s a witch hunt, and it will target Black, brown and Muslim students and staff, while doing nothing to protect Jewish people.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the House investigators target those student and staff groups, Anderson said the board has a clear duty: \u201cIt will be your job to protect these people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebecca Redelmeier is a reporter at Chalkbeat Philadelphia. She writes about public schools, early childhood education, and issues that affect students, families, and educators across Philadelphia. Contact Rebecca at rredelmeier@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter to keep up with the city\u2019s public school system. Several Philadelphia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7623,30008,30010,69,71,70,7625,30009],"class_list":["post-53366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-chalkbeat","tag-district-teacher-keziah-ridgeway","tag-house-investigation","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philly","tag-school-board-meeting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53366","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=53366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}