A “hostile environment” for Jewish students and teachers at the School District of Philadelphia, which educates 198,405 students at 330 schools, is due in part to an antisemitic social studies program, according to a new report by Rebecca Schgallis, who directs CAMERA’s K-12 program.
The report, published on Wednesday, states that antisemitic materials are used in the district, which also focuses on critical race theory that divides people into “oppressor” and “oppressed,” and uses an “anti-democratic and anti-capitalism curricula that disproportionally singles out Israel and the United States for demonization.”
“The report serves as a warning to communities nationwide: effectively combating antisemitism in K-12 schools requires confronting the underlying ideology that promotes anti-American and anti-Israel sentiment under the banner of social justice,” Schgallis stated.
Kurt Schwartz, the CEO of CAMERA, stated that the district “has institutionalized an ideological framework that effectively calls for dismantling Western institutions and values.”
“By reframing history as an exercise in grievance while omitting key historical facts and context, the district is training a generation to view the United States, Israel and the Jewish people through the lens of ‘settler-colonial’ oppression,” he said.
“We are calling for immediate state and federal Title VI investigations to address the systemic failures and protect Jewish students,” he added.
