Since Oct. 7, Philadelphia has been a city of brotherly Jew-hatred, according to a complaint that the Anti-Defamation League filed against the city’s school district with the U.S. Department of Education under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
“Philadelphia schools have a long history of providing a safe and welcoming environment for students of all identities” stated Andrew Goretsky, the ADL’s regional director. “However, in the recent past—and especially in the aftermath of Oct. 7—we’ve seen a stark rise in incidents and attitudes that alienate Jewish students, faculty and families.”
An eighth grader was bullied so severely with neo-Nazi taunts that he left the district, a fourth grader was harassed with demands that she say “free Palestine” and there have been multiple swastika vandalisms in the school district, per the complaint.
The complaint also details “the erasure of Israel from a map handed out in a geography class at Baldi Middle School” and lectures hosted in the district “in which ‘Zionists’ were referred to as ‘exterminators.’”
The district “fostered a toxic environment that has allowed antisemitism against Jewish students to metastasize and fester without repercussions,” added James Pasch, the ADL’s senior director of national litigation.
