Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, wants the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers to cancel a planned lecture by an activist who has expressed antisemitic views.
Frey, who is Jewish, released a video condemning a speech scheduled for Nov. 22, titled “Being an Educator in a Time of War & Genocide.” It features Taher Herzallah, director of outreach and grassroots organizing at American Muslims for Palestine.
In the video, Frey quoted Herzallah’s statement that “anybody who has any relationship or any support or identifies themselves as a Jewish person or as a Christian Zionist, then we shall not be their friend. I will tell you that they are enemy number one and our community needs to recognize that as such.”
Students should be learning about love, not hate.
— Mayor Jacob Frey (@MayorFrey) November 20, 2024
The MFT Educators for Palestine should cancel their seminar with Taher Herzallah, who has openly expressed anti-Semitic views, including calling Jewish people “enemy number one.”
Schools must be spaces for unity, not division. pic.twitter.com/SzbW0OEXK3
Frey responded: “I don’t want someone who hates Jews to be teaching our teachers on how they should, in turn, teach our students.”
He called the planned seminar “hate, pure and simple. This is a slap in the face to students in our MPS system, to their families and a slap in the face to a number of teachers that I know do not agree with this sentiment.”
MFT Educators for Palestine sponsored Herzallah’s lecture.
Ethan Roberts, deputy executive director of the Minnesota JCRC, said “we cannot have someone who says that Jews are ‘enemy No. 1’ training public school teachers on how to teach Palestine in the classroom and indoctrinate your co-workers.”
He called Herzallah “a hardcore Jew-hater” and described him as “notorious for orchestrating Jew hatred on college campuses. He wanted to weaponize the county board in the suburban county to spread the hatred of Jews and it fell flat in the state, but here he is coming back into Minneapolis schools.”
