The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia wrote nearly a month ago to the School District of Philadelphia, addressing antisemitic comments made by district administrator Ismael Jimenez.
At the end of its letter, dated July 10 and signed by several other local Jewish organizations, Federation stated: “We are watching. And we are waiting.”
With the start of the new academic year just weeks away and seemingly no action taken by the school district, waiting seems to be exactly what these groups are doing.
In a video clip of a November 2023 episode of the “Freedom Friday” podcast with Chris (“Citizen”) Stewart and Sharif El-Mekki that was recently circulated, Jimenez, director of the social studies curriculum for the school district, made statements that “appear to rationalize the Hamas-led massacre of Israeli civilians” on Oct. 7, 2023, the Federation letter stated.
And on June 4 of this year—three days after the firebombing attack in Boulder, Colo.—Jimenez posted a blank red square on Instagram that reads: “The groups who align themselves with American savageness should not be surprised when the savageness is turned on you.”
“Mr. Jimenez has made a pattern of denying the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, refusing to speak about peace or coexistence and downplaying the lived experiences of Jewish people in the face of violence,” Federation wrote. “These actions raise serious concerns about whether he can serve all students with integrity and respect.”
The letter continued, asking the school district, “At what point does inaction become complicity?”
‘You can come with an olive branch … ’
Asaf Romirowsky, executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, who works out of Philadelphia, said that Federation, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Anti-Defamation League are “able to flag antisemitism, but when it comes to actual solutions, that is not exactly their expertise.”
He told JNS that “clearly, there is a serious problem within the school board and the schools, but this problem is not unique to Philadelphia. There is a fundamental problem in the K-12 educational space.”
He said letters are well and good, but they are an antiquated form of action in 2025. “They need to change their entire modus operandi,” stated Romirowsky.
“People don’t read and respond. They don’t even know what’s wrong with these kinds of comments to begin with,” he said, referring to Jimenez.
So, too, he said, is the push for interfaith dialogue, despite a genuine nature to such a request: “What do you do when people don’t want to talk to you? You can come with an olive branch, but there is no possibility of dialogue if someone doesn’t believe in your right to exist.”
Romirowsky said what is needed is teeth—namely, in the form of legal consequences. There is no uniformity as far as the law is concerned, he told JNS, and therefore, there is no way to hold an agency, outlet or individual to specific standards.
To that end, he said, Pennsylvania should adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.
‘We cannot afford to do nothing’
In October, Kristin Marcell, a Pennsylvania state representative who is a Republican, introduced legislation seeking to amend the commonwealth’s Human Relations Act by adopting the definition of Jew-hatred “to provide clarity in identifying and addressing discrimination,” the legislator told JNS.
By updating the definition of Jew-hatred, “the bill would protect Pennsylvanians in their work, school and personal lives from hostility to the Jewish faith and heritage,” Marcell said.
The bill was referred to the State Government Committee on Oct. 21, but has not made progress since then.
“It is disappointing that House Bill 2615 hasn’t been voted on in the House,” Marcell told JNS. “As antisemitism rises at alarming rates, especially in our schools and universities, we cannot afford to sit back and do nothing.”
She said she remains “committed to getting this bill across the finish line.”
