In a Thursday speech on the Senate floor, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) censured the New York City public school system in regards to the circulation last week of an antisemitic newsletter.
“I’m still in disbelief,” said the Congress member. “The bullet point on the newsletter that the public schools of New York sent out was called: ‘Guidelines for teaching about genocide,’ and if you clicked on this phrase in the newsletter, it sent you to another site. Do you know what the site was? ‘Stop Gaza Genocide Toolkit.’”
Kennedy said the newsletter contained “the biggest bunch of antisemitic rot you can imagine.”
The Office of Student Pathways Newsletter, a monthly publication distributed to students and parents in New York City’s public school system, included a link on April 3 to a “toolkit” that encouraged students to boycott pro-Israel organizations and advocate for Palestine on social media, according to reporting by the New York Post.
A version of the “toolkit” appears to have also been linked in a newsletter from October-November 2024, according to Kennedy.
“That document called on all the teachers and all the students in the New York public schools, and everybody else reading the newsletter, it called on them to participate in ‘rage week’ and ‘resist genocide’ by mobilizing on Saturday, Oct. 5, for a ‘Day of Action’ ahead of the anniversary of Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023,” he said. “That was the date of the terrorist attack on Israel, which apparently the administration of the public schools wants to celebrate.”
Melissa Aviles-Ramos, chancellor of New York City Public Schools, said in a statement last week that the inclusion of the toolkit was a troubling oversight, “in which an offensive political toolkit was hyperlinked in one of our published newsletters.”
“The inclusion of this toolkit violates our policies on political neutrality and uses hateful, antisemitic language,” she stated. “This language is hurtful to many in our Jewish community, and we deeply apologize. Once leadership became aware of this link, we immediately ordered its removal and have already begun conducting a thorough investigation as to how this was added to a New York City School communication.”
The New York City Department of Education will implement stronger vetting protocols moving forward, according to Aviles-Ramos.
“We remain laser-focused to foster respect, safety and civil discourse in our schools and ensure our Jewish students and families feel safe and supported,” she stated.
In a statement on Sunday, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) criticized the New York City Department of Education for publishing “anti-Israel propaganda.”
“There is no place for ideological indoctrination in public education,” he said. “An apology from the Department of Education is necessary but insufficient.”
He added that “the individual responsible for injecting personal politics into official communications, where it doesn’t belong, should be fired.”
