The Aug. 29 teachers’ association rally in Newton, Mass., in support of Bill Humphrey—and the counter-rally against him—neatly captures Newton’s and Newton Public Schools’ failure to confront antisemitism in the form of anti-Zionism. Of 24 Newton City Councilors, Humphrey was the only one who refused to sign a 2022 letter condemning the terrorizing Boston “Mapping Project,” and the Massachusetts and Newton Teachers associations (themselves embroiled in antisemitism controversies) have now thrown their financial and organizational weight behind his campaign. For Jewish residents who see record levels of anti-Jewish hatred around the country and a systematic effort by educational institutions to inculcate students with an ideological worldview that denies Israel’s right to exist, it seems that Humphrey is being rewarded for accommodating antisemitism.
The Mapping Project identified the names and addresses of about 500 Jewish organizations in Massachusetts for condemnation and attack. Among its many antisemitic elements, it expressly calls for disrupting Jewish life, noting, “We have shown physical addresses, named officers and leaders, and mapped connections. These entities exist in the physical world and can be disrupted in the physical world. We hope people will use our map to help figure out how to push back effectively.” The Boston Globe described it as “vile and sinister,” and linked it to a “larger effort by anti-Zionist groups who increasingly call for the ostracization of Zionists and Zionist organizations.” Condemnation of the project was nearly universal, even from virulent Israel critics Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, both Democrats.
Every Newton City Councilor signed a letter condemning the Mapping Project, except Humphrey. He now claims that other councilors only did so to avoid being “yelled at” in public forums like his recent candidate question-and-answer panel. Even when confronted with his inability to condemn terrorism, he resorts to antisemitic tropes about Jewish pressure and influence.
The systematic exclusion of Jews and Zionists from public life seen in the United States since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel enacts the project’s goals. Jewish students hide their identities at a rate never before seen in this country, have been attacked on campus, forced to hide from marauding crowds and been physically excluded from campus life. Jewish intellectuals and entertainers have been excluded from industry organizations, ejected from their roles at publications and had appearances canceled for being Jewish. Jewish institutions of all kinds have been mobbed, vandalized and burned. Jewish leaders have had their homes picketed and protested in the middle of the night. Endorsing Hamas and Hezbollah, defending Oct. 7, repeating every anti-Israel calumny, and calling for Israel’s destruction and the ethnic cleansing of its 7 million Jews, explicitly and implicitly (“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” “From the water to the water, Palestine will be Arab,” “Globalize the intifada”) have become daily occurrences.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association is both contributing to the ideological justification for the Mapping Project and backing Humphrey. This summer, the MTA appointed Ricardo Rosa to develop the curriculum resources endorsed last December. Rosa has glorified terrorists and accused Israel of genocide while calling both Israel and the United States “settler colon[ies].” His social-media postings support radical left and anti-Israel personalities, including convicted Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacker Leila Khaled and called for “free Palestine” even while Hamas terrorists were actively murdering Israelis in the wake of Oct. 7. Rosa makes no mention of Hamas or its mass murder, torture, rape and hostage-taking that Black Shabbat, effectively shielding a genocidal, jihadist organization that rejects coexistence with Israel under any circumstances.
Appointing an anti-Israel, pro-terror ideologue to legitimize the indoctrination of students is only the latest of MTA’s policies. In December, the MTA board of directors voted to “call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire” that would leave Hamas in power with more than 100 hostages (Israelis, non-Israelis, Jews and non-Jews), and urged the NEA to pressure the Biden administration to impose an arms embargo on Israel. It was also at that meeting that the MTA board voted to develop the framework and curriculum resources that Rosa now leads. Neither resolution mentioned Hamas, the hostages or the Oct. 7 atrocities, tacitly endorsing the regressive, theological, misogynist, terror organization’s hold on power.
In March, the MTA’s “anti-racism taskforce” hosted a webinar in conjunction with Jewish Voice for Peace that deemed Israel an illegitimate, settler-colonial project—another popular anti-Israel trope—and sought to provide a rationalization for “Why is anti-Zionism not antisemitism?” JVP initially endorsed the Mapping Project before tepidly taking “no position.” This MTA training once again ignored Hamas’s express intent to eradicate Israel and kill every Jew and its vow to repeat Oct. 7 over and over.
In June, the MTA board voted to lobby against the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s working definition of antisemitism at the state level. The MTA says that “right-wing” groups are working to “manufacture hysteria and fear.” The City of Newton and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have adopted the IHRA definition, and the City Council and state legislators will no doubt be surprised to hear they are right-wing fear-mongers.
In short, the MTA is working to create the political environment for the Mapping Project and its supporters to move from the lunatic, antisemitic fringe into the mainstream. Both seek to legitimize radical rejectionism as a step towards Israel’s destruction. The MTA has also endorsed Humphrey, providing more than $10,000 in support for his campaign. Humphrey has done nothing to distance himself from MTA’s antisemitism.
Jewish concerns with Humphrey were borne out last week when Humphrey supporters corroborated his anti-Israel agenda. According to people who attended, when asked whether Israel has a right to exist, one Newton English teacher replied, “it’s complicated,” which is an antisemitic statement under IHRA. Another teacher told a pro-Israel protester to “sleep with one eye open.” Teaching your kids to question Israel’s right to exist and threaten Jews, this is Bill Humphrey.
