Testimony

• Together for an Inclusive Massachusetts (TIM) | February 10, 2025

  Together for an Inclusive Massachusetts (TIM) is a diverse group led by Boston Workers Circle, Massachusetts Peace Action, Jewish Voice for Peace Boston, If Not Now Boston, Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine, the Council on American-Islamic Relations – Massachusetts, Sawa: Newton-Area Alliance for Peace and Justice, MTA Rank and File for Palestine, with the support of more than 50 other groups across the state that came together around the belief that addressing antisemitism is essential, and must be done with care, reflecting the diversity of all Jewish people in the Commonwealth and within a framework that embraces equity and inclusion for all. We want to ensure that the Commonwealth’s next steps are inclusive, transparent, and constructive. To be clear, it is our deep and unwavering commitment to equality and justice for all–including Jewish people and Palestinians–that compels our work. 

  Thank you for giving us the opportunity to present a panel to discuss issues related to antisemitism in K-12 public and private education. We look forward to working with the Commission on this important topic and its potential to be a model for the nation in addressing antisemitism using anti-racist principles. 

  Commitment to Diversity of Jewish Voices

  Representatives on the Commission picked specifically to bring a Jewish perspective have affiliations with organizations, such as the ADL, AJC, and JCRC, that exclude and seek to delegitimize an important part of the Jewish community. The ADL is open in its belief that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. This puts the ADL, and similar groups that purport to represent the Jewish community to the outside world, in conflict with the growing numbers of the anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jewish community, who represent around 20% to 69% of the American Jewish community (depending on survey methodology).

  The mainstream pro-Israel organizations represented on the Commission have been fighting antisemitism for decades, and yet they themselves say that antisemitism is worse than ever. Clearly, their approach isn’t working. Does it not make sense to have a new discussion, one that is more open and less accusatory, and one that brings in a range of voices of those directly affected by the work of the Commission?

  We would like to reiterate our hopes that the Commission will:

  • • conduct fair and open hearings so that everyone who wants to testify gets to testify. We believe that open discussion is the only way to develop a fuller understanding of antisemitism. Fair and open hearings are the norm for legislative and commission hearings; 
    • seek diverse views at every Commission meeting by encouraging presentations by groups and experts not affiliated with Commission members who bring alternative viewpoints;
    • support political systems that promote equality and uphold rights regardless of ethnic, national, or religious identity;
    • advocate for legislation and policies that protect students’ right to learn and educators’ freedom to teach, including critical examinations of the history or actions of the U.S. and other nations;
    • In alignment with state and national standards, encourage legislation and policies that protect pedagogical inquiry into subjects like race, gender, slavery, capitalism, apartheid and colonialism, while safeguarding constitutionally-protected campus discussions and protests on these topics.

  • Concerns about the potential direction of the Commission

    We recognize that the purpose of this Commission is to address antisemitism in Massachusetts, to protect members of the Jewish community and to educate Massachusetts residents to better understand and value the Jewish community’s history and culture.  However, due to the representation on the Commission, we are concerned that this Commission could in addition, or instead, become a vehicle to advance punitive measures and enshrine political support for the state of Israel in Commonwealth statute and policies.

    The members of Together for an Inclusive Massachusetts represent individuals and organizations who have witnessed firsthand, and in our communities, politically- motivated false allegations of antisemitism deployed as a way to silence, intimidate and punish actions that threaten US political support for Israel. There is a risk that political actors on or affiliated with members of the Commission will use this important state body to promote a discriminatory and anti-Palestinian agenda against the wishes of a significant part of the state’s residents.

    Labelling Palestinians who talk about their own life experiences as racist against Jews suggests that Jews are harmed by Palestinian humanity or that Jewish safety depends on silencing and erasing Palestinian humanity. This is a form of anti-Palestinian racism. Bigotry and discrimination against one group cannot be addressed by normalizing bigotry and discrimination against another group.

     

    Resources related to the National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism

    The National Strategy was developed with significant input by organizations that serve on our state commission. It promotes the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition as the “most prominent” of several definitions of antisemitism and one the administration has “embraced.”  In this way, the National Strategy conflates criticism of Zionism and the state of Israel with prejudice against Jews. Together for an Inclusive Massachusetts unequivocally opposes the adoption of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, which is used to justify suppression of political speech and to censor balanced, fact-based education. Some members of the Commission, including the ADL, place promotion of the IHRA definition among their top priorities, despite significant opposition. 

    • • • The ADL & the White House antisemitism strategy provides a thorough analysis of the National Strategy and its lack of focus on white nationalism.
        • National Plan Reflects the Debate Over Antisemitism examines the diversity of Jewish perspectives on its recommendations.
      • • Biden Embraces Antisemitism Definition That Has Upended Free Speech in Europe examines the impact of adopting the IHRA definition in Europe from 2017 to 2022.
      • • The Foundation on Middle East Peace maintains a continuously updated database of expert reports, articles, and letters challenging the IHRA definition. FMEP hosted a useful webinar on the IHRA definition and the National Strategy titled Palestinian Rights, the IHRA Definition, & the Battle Around Biden’s Antisemitism Strategy.
        • The IHRA definition is controversial and many experts say it violates the First Amendment. This includes the ACLU, Jewish educators, Human Rights Watch, and many others. The IHRA definition allows antisemitism to be weaponized, which is harmful to Jewish people, Palestinians, and, in fact, everyone else. Its codification is widely opposed, including by the more than 1,300 signatories represented by Concerned Jewish Faculty, which include a hundreds of  Massachusetts faculty members .
        • Jewish people disagree on many issues, including about what constitutes antisemitism and what to do about it.

    Resources related to the diversity of Jewish perspectives about the political ideology of Zionism and definitions of antisemitism

    While the Commission is exploring free speech considerations, as representatives of the Commonwealth, its members must abide by the other limits on state power set by the Constitution, namely freedom from a state’s “establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

    • • • The Jewish community has always held diverse opinions about the establishment of a nation-state for Jewish people, from the beginning of the Zionist political movement, to before October 7, 2023, and in the last year. 
        • Zionists have long equated opposition to Zionism with opposition to Judaism(pdf). That history includes Israeli government efforts to quash American Jewish opposition to the Nakba or to Zionism between the 1950s and 1970s, including by attacking the American Jewish Council which at that time “was publicly critiquing the Nakba and pushing Israel to afford full civil and human rights to Palestinians.”
        • Many religious Jews believe that Zionism, as a nationalist political ideology, is actually in conflict with the fundamental tenets of Judaism. Moreover,  there are more non-Jews who profess to be Zionists than there are Jewish people in the world.  According to the Religion Media Center, there are over 30 million Christian, predominantly evangelical, Zionists in the US, roughly five times the Jewish population. They support the gathering of Jews in Israel in order to usher in the “End Times” when Jews will be converted to Christianity (or die) and Jesus will return to rule for a thousand years. Many Jewish people find Zionism to be antisemitic for this reason.   

    Resources related to training and curricula on understanding antisemitism

    The risk of approaching antisemitism in the way advocated by some members of the Commission (for example, using McCarthyesque tactics to compare “antisemitism from the left” to Soviet-era propaganda) is that it will: a) not protect Jewish people from the major sources of antisemitism, which originate in the white nationalist right-wing and b) perpetuate and normalize anti-Palestinian racism. We believe that an antiracist approach to antisemitism uplifts all communities and does not harm one group for the supposed benefit of another. There are several sources for understanding antisemitism through an intersectional and/or liberatory framework. These are just a few:

    • • • Shane Burley and Ben Lorber, Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism (2024)
        • Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Understanding Antisemitism (2017) and Discussion Guide which provides historical and economic conditions behind some of the most prevalent antisemitic tropes (2021)
        • Bend the Arc: Jewish Action and the Collaborative for Jewish Organizing, Dismantling Antisemitism
        • Parceo’s “Curriculum on Antisemitism from a Framework of Collective Liberation”
        • Diaspora Alliance organizes workshops and resources on antisemitism
        • T’ruah, A Very Brief Guide to Antisemitism (2024) 
        • T’ruah, Criticism of Israel and Antisemitism: How to Tell Where One Ends and the Other Begins (2024)

    Resources related to data and trends of antisemitism

    • • • Unfortunately, our knowledge of the prevalence and nature of antisemitism in Massachusetts is limited, as demonstrated by the findings of researchers at Jewish Currents, The Forward, and by Wikipedia, among others, that the ADL is not a reliable source. 
        • The ADL misrepresents student protest against Israeli actions in Gaza as violent and anti-Jewish. The Crowd Counting Consortium, a joint project of Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Connecticut, collects publicly available data on political crowds reported in the United States, including marches, protests, strikes, demonstrations, riots and other actions. Their most recent study (pdf) analyzes data from nearly 12,400 pro-Palestine protests and over 2,000 pro-Israel protests in the United States during the period from October 7, 2023, to June 2, 2024, concluding that “the pro-Palestine movement has not been violent [and that] the rhetorical core of this pro-Palestine movement has not been a call for violence against Jews, but rather a call for freedom for Palestinians and an end to violence being inflicted upon them.” This was validated by a public letter by more than 750 students across 140 universities expressing solidarity with campus protests and encampments for Gaza.

    Resources about K-12 education (curriculum, DEI and censorship efforts)

    Educational institutions are fundamental to a healthy democracy, and our schools should be allowed to equip students with critical thinking and analytical skills to be able to engage with current and historical events and to develop their own well-researched opinions. Educators need to be able to present a diversity of factual resources as well as the skills to guide students in discussing difficult topics. 

    The Commission’s K-12 education recommendations must align with Massachusetts’ Social Studies Standards and the National Council for the Social Studies College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework Inquiry Arc. Inquiry-based education is a best practice whose “four dimensions are: (1) Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries, (2) Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools (i.e., civics, economics, geography, and history), (3) Evaluating Sources and Using Evidence, and (4) Communicating Conclusions and Taking Informed Action.” Through Inquiry Education, students are supposed to engage with a diversity of materials; ask questions and think critically; understand fact-based information and then formulate their own opinions. These skills are necessary for students to be effective citizens. It is impossible to meet these standards if certain words or perspectives are a priori considered hateful, such as “genocide,” “apartheid,” and “colonialism,” and therefore censored from discussion in the classroom.

    At the January 23, 2024 meeting of the  Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, a panel representing the ADL, AJC and JCRC offered policy recommendations that, if adopted, would reverse Massachusetts’ high standards and deprive students of benefitting from our state’s exemplary practices of inquiry, equity, and inclusion by dehumanizing Palestinians and erasing them from social studies, history and ELA curricula. Additionally, school administrators across Massachusetts are being pressured to impose disciplinary actions against students and educators for bringing these voices into the classroom. This has created a chilled environment akin to the fear educators feel from right-wing book bans and attacks on Black, brown, and queer students.

    • • • School administrators have faced calls for rolling back DEI initiatives under false allegations that DEI initiatives are “contaminated by antisemitism”. The Commission must resist calls to replicate right-wing tactics “in the name of “Jewish safety,” [… to back] a wave of McCarthyist repression targeting Palestine-related speech and activism at educational institutions.”  For example, see Political Research Associates, The Anti-DEI Movement and the Jewish Right: Weaponizing Antisemitism to Defend White Supremacy (2024) arguing that these efforts seek to “draw pro-Israel American Jews into its ranks, delegitimize racial justice movements, divide progressive coalitions, and neutralize its opposition as it moves closer to power.” (see also Harvard University example in “How the fight against antisemitism is now used to promote an ‘anti-woke’ agenda”)
        • The AJC and the JCRC have campaigned to censor Ethnic Studies in Massachusetts pointing to a similar campaign in California. Massachusetts legislators should note that the federal lawsuit targeting California’s Ethnic Studies Consortium and the local teachers union was recently dismissed (court ruling) concluding:

    “The Supreme Court has long recognized that the freedom to receive ideas, and its relation to the freedom of expression, is particularly relevant in the classroom setting.” Monteiro, 158 F.3d at 1027 n. 5; see Board of Educ., Island Trees Union Free Sch. Dist. v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853, 867, 102 S.Ct. 2799, 2808 (1982) (plurality opinion) (“[T]he right to receive ideas is a necessary predicate to the recipient’s meaningful exercise of his own rights of speech, press, and political freedom.”) (emphasis omitted). Students have a right to receive information and “lawsuits threatening to attach civil liability on the basis of the assignment of [curricular material] would severely restrict a student’s right to receive material that his school board or other educational authority determines to be of legitimate educational value.” Monteiro, 158 F.3d at 1028.”

    • • • Anti-education policies and actions advanced by ADL, JCRC, and AJC among others include lawfare (see California and Philadelphia cases), book banning, punishment of dissent, and other harmful practices that must be resisted to protect public education.
        • DESE’s Massachusetts’ History and Social Science Framework offers excellent guidance on navigating US and world history. The Fordham Institute commended Massachusetts in 2021 for “exemplary history and civics standards that…[do] not whitewash, downplay, or neglect the many painful chapters in our nation’s history.” Guiding Principle 2 of DESE’s Framework states that an “effective history and social science education incorporates diverse perspectives,” and Guiding Principle 8 states that history and social science teachers “have a unique responsibility to help students consider events—including current events—in a broad historical, geographical, social, or economic context” (pp. 13; 15-16). Excluding Palestinian history and narratives because they are inaccurately deemed antisemitic is inconsistent with Massachusetts standards.
        • We are concerned that the Commission will recommend or allow school boards or other educational authorities to take on teaching frameworks proposed by extremist groups, some of whom have institutionalized relationships with a foreign government. There is an active campaign in Massachusetts, advanced by ICAN, an Israeli-American lobby group, and the far right organization, CAMERA, to target the MA High School Social Studies Frameworks, and more. 
        • CAMERA’s education analyst proposes censorship of two 6th grade standards (pps. 89, 102) and a high school standard (Topic #7d, page 158) because they reference Palestine and Palestinians. She repeats claims that Ethnic Studies, racial justice/DEI organizations, social justice student clubs and groups like Amnesty International and Southern Poverty Law Center are “anti-Israel” and that “teaching about Palestine really means teaching anti-Israel bias and propaganda.” (See ICAN webinar starting at 1:08:00). Groups like ICAN are proposing alterations to Massachusetts’ Social Studies Frameworks to more closely align with Israel’s education system, which dehumanizes Palestinians and erases them from the historical record. This focus on censoring diverse voices and viewpoints is contrary to Massachusetts’ progressive and inclusive values and would undermine the integrity of our exemplary educational system. 
        • Massachusetts requires schools to integrate genocide education in different subjects from 6th to 12th grades. The frameworks requires the teaching of the conditions of genocide and “historical and contemporary genocides” and encourages students to “engage in an inquiry cycle to answer the question When and how should the United States intervene to address genocide?” Equating this legitimate education with hate, as expressed in the ADL’s recent statement, creates an environment of censorship and intimidation, effectively preventing educators and students from learning about current events in Gaza. Students and educators are silenced amid a climate of fear of punishment for engaging in timely and respectful discourse. We strongly believe that our classrooms must be safe places to engage in critical thinking based on these educational frameworks and reflective of the discourse among Holocaust and genocide (pdf) scholars. Some students may feel uncomfortable when encountering opinions they disagree with, but this discomfort is intrinsic to learning. Feeling uncomfortable must not be confused with being unsafe.

    Resources related to civil and Constitutional rights

    The First Amendment establishes Constitutional rights against a state’s abridgement of “the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” 

    • • • K-12 students’ ability to debate and protest also aligns with DESE’s educational vision, which includes connected, empowered engagement with social issues. 
        • Protection of diverse political opinions, and students’ right to speak and protest actions of their government, is also protected by law. ACLU of Massachusetts urges colleges and universities to defend free expression on campus (Dec 2024).
        • The ACLU, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International USA wrote a joint open letter to college presidents and administrators opposing the use of police force against student protestors. (Oct 2024).

    Because other states are looking to emulate Massachusetts’ path breaking Commission, the bar is set high. Our hope is that this Commission models an antiracist approach to addressing antisemitism, thereby uplifting everyone and bringing all communities together to ensure equality, dignity and safety for all.

    Thank you for considering our testimony. We would be happy to provide additional information, or provide testimony about any of these topics in more detail.

    Together for an Inclusive Massachusetts’ Leadership Team

    Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine 

    Boston Workers Circle

    Council on American-Islamic Relations, Massachusetts (CAIR-MA)

    If Not Now Boston

    Jewish Voice for Peace Boston

    Massachusetts Peace Action (MAPA)

    Massachusetts Teachers Association Rank and File for Palestine

    National Lawyers Guild – Massachusetts Chapter

    Sawa: Newton-Area Alliance for Peace and Justice

    on behalf of tens of organizations statewide who advocate for an antiracist approach to addressing antisemitism

• Elsa Auerbach, Ph.D. | February 10, 2025

  I’m grateful for the work of this commission as we face what is arguably one of the most dangerous periods of our lifetimes, with the rise of white supremacists at the highest levels of government attacking the rights of immigrants, trans people, Jews, Muslims, Palestinians, and more. Our best hope in the face of these attacks is standing together.

  I want to start with two observations about this hearing.  While this commission repeatedly states the importance of presenting several perspectives, the most vocal members of the commission seem completely wedded to only one perspective.

  And I am struck by the fact that no one on the commission seems to be worried about the single greatest threat to Jews, namely the white supremacist antisemitism at the highest levels of our government.

  There are three aspects of my identity that I bring to my testimony today: I am a member of Jewish Voice for Peace – JVP; I am the daughter of Holocaust refugees, and I am a retired teacher educator.  I am a JVP member, an antizionist Jew BECAUSE I am the daughter of Holocaust refugees.  The Shoah is baked into my DNA.  That’s why I call for Palestinian liberation.

  JVP has 20,000 supporters in Massachusetts spanning 285 zip codes with members in 41 state senate districts and 140 state legislative districts. 

  We are fully committed to fighting antisemitism and envision a world where all people can live in peace as equals, where the safety of one group does not come at the expense of another group’s safety.  

  Like many Jews, I oppose all forms of religious or ethnic supremacy. That means I don’t believe that the US should be a Christian nationalist state.  I don’t believe that India should be a Hindu state. And, I don’t believe Israel should be a state that privileges Jews over Palestinians. Opposing Jewish nationalism doesn’t mean I am antisemitic anymore than opposing Christian nationalism means I’m anti Christian. It is critically important for students to be able to grapple with these same distinctions in the classroom.

  This brings me to my identity as the daughter of Holocaust refugees. I am named after my grandmother, Elsa Warburg, who like my parents fled Hitler’s Germany. The Warburgs were prominent Jewish bankers, scholars, and lawyers.  

  Most but not all of the Warburgs adamantly opposed Zionism. They argued among themselves about this. It was not an argument about religion; it was an ideological argument about whether or not Jews needed a “homeland” to ensure Jewish safety.  

  In fact, Jews have argued about Zionism since Zionism’s origin.

   This kind of debate and contestation are core Jewish values. You may know the joke: two Jews, three opinions. So when I hear the proclamation that “anti-Zionism is antisemitic” spoken as though it were a truism, I understand it to be entirely ahistorical – a complete distortion. Moreover, it casts some Jews as good Jews and others as bad Jews based on their support for Israel, comparing apples (a religion) to oranges (a country). I worry that shutting down examination of differences like these will endanger our democratic classrooms.

  I worry that teachers will be penalized if they show maps of Palestine or if they share the fact that more than 38,000 Palestinian children in Gaza are now orphans. Or if they introduce current cases before the International Court of Justice.  Censoring this kind of information is an attack on democratic education.

  Finally, I want to bring my identity as a teacher educator to this conversation.  As any educator knows, the most important thing a teacher can do is to teach students how to think for themselves, to investigate, and to analyze.  

  That means asking questions like: Who benefits from this narrative? Who is harmed by it? Whose perspectives are excluded in this story? Can these claims be verified? Even grade schoolers can grapple with questions like this.

  In my view, these are exactly the questions that you as Commissioners should be asking. When you hear someone say, as if it is a fact, that accusing Israel of genocide is a blood libel or when the ADL cites statistics premised on a disputed definition of antisemitism, it is incumbent on you to question the assumptions about antisemitism they are based on, NOT to accept them as facts. I wish you had interrogated the ADL with as much zeal and vigor as you interrogated the head of the MTA.

  I am not asking that this Commission agree with my views on genocide or Zionism. What I am saying is that it is not up to the state to adjudicate debates that have raged within the Jewish community for more than a hundred years. 

  It is not up to the Commission to declare that some Jews are good Jews and others are bad Jews – or that some Jewish beliefs should be penalized and others privileged.

  It is the responsibility of the Commonwealth to ensure that teachers have the space to teach students how to ask good questions and understand multiple perspectives. And it is the responsibility of this commission to focus its energy on the very real threat to all of us posed by white supremacists at the highest levels of government. 

  If this commission goes the route of privileging an Israel-centered approach to fighting antisemitism, it runs the risk of being seen as a partisan political tool and losing all legitimacy. At this dangerous moment in history, it is the Commission’s urgent task to ensure that critical inquiry is the core of our pedagogy. 

  Elsa Auerbach, Ph.D.

  • Professor Emerita, English and Applied Linguistics Departments, University of Massachusetts Boston
  • Coordinator Teacher Education for English Department (2007-2010)
  • Director, Freshman Writing Program, English Department (2007-2012)
  • Jewish Voice for Peace Boston, member (2010-present)

• Merrie Najimy, M.Ed. | February 10, 2025

  As an Arab-American veteran educator, I bring my own experience with racism that informs my pedagogy and practice along with 35 years of teaching experience developing and integrating anti-bias, anti-racism curriculum.

  Antisemitism- rooted in white supremacy- is real and must be fought as an intersectional struggle. It manifests as

  • Swastikas on school walls
  • Antisemitic insults leveled at school sports team
  • Setting fire to synagogues
  • The replacement theory
  • Musk’s inarguable nazi salute and Nazi-esque speech to the AFD in Germany

  What antisemitism isn’t:

  • Palestinians expressing their aspirations for freedom, equal rights and dignity
  • People standing in solidarity with these aspirations 
  • Criticizing the state of Israel and the system of Zionism  
  • Naming what the international court and human rights organizations call plausible genocide 

  Conflating the two- as some organizations here today do- is anti-Palestinian Racism, which erases Palestinians as people connected to their land, denies the Nakba, dehumanizes Palestinians- justifying violence against them, and defames them & their allies as inherently antisemitic, anti-democratic, and terrorist sympathizing.

  The well-coordinated attacks on MTA by ADL, JCRC, AJC, CAMERA, Sen Velis and others  are misguided. It has lead to doxing of and  death and rape threats to educators, and MTA members bullying other MTA members who stand in solidarity with Palestinians. I will be happy to share details. 

  Silencing discourse on Israel and Palestine through intimidation tactics is not fighting antisemitism. Rather it harms one group to elevate another and detracts from fighting real antisemitism. These tactics have engendered disgust and outrage at the organizations that use them, leaving us all unsafe.

  Instead  we must:

  • Teach antisemitism as one of many forms of systemic oppression,
  • Help students to developing critical thinking by interrogating history, 
  • Follow DESE’s Guiding History & Social Science  Principles and stopbullying.gov prevention strategies
  • Integrate humanizing stories- as early as preschool- where children can see the similarities and humanity  across identities
  • Introduce stereotypes & stereotype busting and explore social issues by mid elementary school
  • Study conflicts in middle & HS through  examining primary sources, multiple narratives, deliberating & debating as to make informed decisions 
  • Engage students in looking at their own identity & social position, considering what they know & where their information comes from to become aware of their own biases 
  • Approach situations that do arise w/ inquiry & empathy, making space for hard conversations,  
  • Follow the example of  Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan who walked through the encampments daily and wrote in an op ed “I made clear that if any (Jewish students) felt harassed, I would intervene. I also said that I could ensure their ability to pursue their education but that I could not protect them from being offended.”  
  • Create affinity spaces and have trusted adults available help all students process events in the world that impact their lives & to help them distinguish between comfort and safety

  I will be happy to go into depth with these ideas during a Q&A.

  Merrie Najimy, M.Ed. is an Arab-American, veteran anti-racist elementary school educator of 35 years. Her experiences of marginalization and alienation from a white dominant school curriculum and culture led her to develop an anti-racist pedagogy as an educator. Throughout her career, she has led grade level teams to develop curriculum units on topics like social issues, stereotypes & stereotype busters, and integrated curriculum on indigenous people in NE -past and present- which incorporated the history of the establishment of the Town of Concord. Merrie was  also trained through Peggy McIntosh’s National S.E.E.D project to facilitate professional development with educators on understanding systems of oppression and how to combat them.

  In 2018, she was elected as the president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association and served until 2022. She then went back to teaching as an elementary STEM educator. Outside of her role as an educator, Merrie runs workshops with educators, administrators, community organizations and corporations on Anti-Palestinian Racism.

• Emilia Diamant, LCSW | February 10, 2025

  First of all, I want to thank the Commission for hearing my and our testimony here today.

  I come to this conversation not just as a Jewish educator on social justice and antisemitism, but as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, a social worker trained in trauma informed care, and a proud product of the Massachusetts school system. My ancestors, my teachers, and my rabbis, taught me that fighting antisemitism is never just about protecting Jews—it’s about fighting the systems that enable it, the fear that fuels it, and the divisions that keep us from building real safety. 

  1. Antisemitism is real and it is unique, and its weaponization is dangerous. As an educator, I teach that antisemitism is a real and ongoing threat across political lines. But I also see how it’s too often used as a weapon— to divide Jewish communities from our natural allies, to silence dissent and criticism and to push a scarcity mindset that isolates us rather than builds solidarity. Antisemitism education is NOT a zero sum game–when we teach that antisemitism is interconnected with other forms of oppression, we deepen our collective understanding and strengthen all our movements for justice. I have found that when I teach this framing, teenagers come back to me with stories of stronger relationships with their non-Jewish peers, that they have been able to explain antisemitism more clearly to administrators and feel supported by their learning to do so.
  2. My grandparents’ survival was about resistance and relationships. One thing I carry from my family’s history is that Jewish survival has never been just about Jews. My grandparents, Maurice and Helene (of blessed memory) weren’t saved by Jewish exceptionalism—they were saved by those who resisted, by those who refused to comply with unjust laws, by those who saw their struggle as interconnected with others. They came to this country and joined unions, fought for civil rights, engaged in movements for justice, because they knew what it meant to experience hate. Their legacies are motivators for my own understanding of what it means to fight for a better world.
  3. We need an expansive framework, not a narrow one. When I talk about antisemitism, I always ask: are we fighting it as part of a broader struggle against white supremacy, authoritarianism, and all forms of oppression? And that is what I want this commission to consider as it continues this important task. 

  Some key things that I hope this commission considers putting into place as best practice for PREVENTION of antisemitism in schools:

  • Rapid Incident Response: Finding ways to call attention to, and increase awareness about hate violence in the immediate aftermath of incidents of violence is an important part of hate violence response and prevention. It can be important for impacted and allied communities, as well as city agencies and elected officials to respond with a unified voice against violence. Rapid incident response may include community alerts, town hall meetings, neighborhood safety events, and school-based and neighborhood education across multiple identities.
  • Data and Reporting: Data and information about the hate violence occurring in our communities is a critical tool for identifying strategies to end violence. Marginalized communities feel safest reporting incidents to community-based organizations, which can help them to make a safety plan and determine whether or not they would like to report to law enforcement or another city agency. Groups must be funded to do this data collection work. This includes support for training and access to data collection software, as well as support for community-specific hotlines to receive reports.
  • Community Education: Many incidents of hate violence occur in public spaces and go unchallenged by witnesses. Bystander/upstander intervention training empowers community members to safely ally themselves with individuals targeted as victims when an incident of hate or harassment is underway in public. 
  • Intercommunal Collaboration: A main driver of intercommunal tensions in neighborhoods where communities live close together is competition for scarce resources. One way to ease those tensions is to facilitate communities working together on projects that benefit everyone in the neighborhood. This can be done by making grants on a multi-year basis to community-based organizations for groups like religious congregations to come together for park beautification, food distribution or other pro-social activities. Working together toward shared goals will help people build relationships, learn to trust one another, and develop the understanding that we can collaborate across differences.
  • Restorative Justice Programs: Much of the current effort at stopping hate violence is focused on criminalizing acts of hate, while the root causes of hate violence remain unaddressed and the violence remains unchecked. Restorative justice is a means of giving all who are stakeholders in an incident – survivors, people who have done harm, and the communities to which they belong – a voice in how harm can be repaired and future harm prevented. Restorative justice can give survivors more of a voice and provide opportunities for healing while holding those who cause harm accountable for their actions. Creating restorative justice pilot programs focused on incidents of hate violence committed by minors that do not meet the hate crimes standard can provide opportunities for education, accountability, healing, and reform.
    

  To honor Jewish history—not just the trauma, but the resilience—we need to teach that fighting antisemitism isn’t about shutting down conversations; it’s about opening them up. My ancestors didn’t survive just so we could live in fear—they survived so we could fight for a better world. 

  I hope this commission considers my testimony here today as a charge to include diverse voices in your analysis and learning, to approach this crucial issue from a solidarity framework, and to consider how to encourage critical thinking amongst our student body. When I bring a solidarity framework of learning to my students of all ages I have found them to bring gratitude for the nuanced conversations they have, the ability to turn questions over and dive into new concepts head first with their classmates, rather than be told that there is only one right way to understand a concept. I am hopeful that this is the opening to a rich and fruitful conversation that we can continue here today and into the future. Thank you again for your time and consideration.

  Emilia Diamant, LCSW is a 20 year educator, social worker, organizer, and proud Bostonian. She has a degree in Informal Urban Education from NYU and a Master’s in Social Work from UNC-Chapel Hill.  She has taught in Boston, New York, North Carolina, Costa Rica, Italy, Israel, and Ukraine, working with learners of all ages, from pre-K to adults, with a focus in middle school through the mid 20s audience. She is a native Bostonian and currently lives in Waltham, MA.

• Sana Fadel, MPA | February 10, 2025

  My testimony will focus on three topics:

  • Weaponize IHRA definition in Title VI claims
  • Censorship of curricula
  • Political goals of silencing and censorship

  IHRA Definition

  The recommendations of Biden’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism rest on defining antisemitism, strongly favoring the IHRA definition. This definition which we unequivocally oppose – whether adopted formally or used informally – expands the definition of antisemitism to include not only incidents of hate and discrimination against Jewish people but also certain criticism of the state of Israel. 

  Limiting the applicability of civil rights laws based on one’s political views about a foreign government is extremely troubling. A new category of “anti-Israel” hate is being used to threaten the basic tenants of a democratic society: (1) our right to criticize, protest and advocate to influence our own government’s policies and actions and (2) our children’s right to a robust education that prepares them to be critical thinkers to fully participate in our democracy.

  No other form of racism or hate incorporates attitudes towards a foreign government or political ideology, nor seeks to erase and criminalize an entire people (Palestinians). That would be no different than claiming that hostility towards Iran or Afghanistan is Islamophobic and imposing that view on discipline, curriculum and professional development.

  The formal adoption of “anti-Israel bias” in our state’s policies and administration would lay the ground for: (1) silencing and disciplining of students and teachers; (2) control of schools’ curricula through censorship and book banning; and (3) inflating and distorting data on antisemitism in schools.  This may make the classroom more comfortable for some students by avoiding difficult discussions about Israel and Palestine in the classroom, but adopting these recommendations does NOT make Jewish students safe. 

  Weaponize IHRA definition in Title VI claims

  We oppose using allegations of a “hostile learning environment” to advocate for the erasure and criminalization of Palestinian history, culture or humanity.  

  This conflation of “being” safe and “feeling” safe is reminiscent of the anti-equity arguments that discussing systems of oppression and supremacy and its legacy makes individual students uncomfortable. This argument assumes students are incapable of understanding systemic oppression as opposed to individual bias.  Similarly, a definition of antisemitism that is deeply intertwined with creating a new category of rights (namely “anti-Israel) leaves no space for students and parents, Jewish or otherwise, who do not adhere to its ideology.

  Teachers have been accused of promoting a “hostile learning environment” when sharing balanced classroom materials, which include Palestinian perspectives, or if students share  or even acknowledge empathy and identification with Palestinians. Examples include, 

  • A student spoke sympathizing with Palestinians and calls for peace
  • A Palestinian student before he even spoke about his own experience
  • Anyone who called for a ceasefire before Biden/Harris called for a ceasefire
  • Fabricated accusations against an educator to build the case for parental review of all curricular materials related to Israel/Palestine
  •  school issued a statement expressing concern for Israelis and included concern for Palestinians in the same sentence
  • A school that includes Palestinian narratives in its curriculum
  • A school worksheet referencing historic Palestine before 1948
  • The scapegoating of the MTA is a prime example

  The underlying theme in all these examples: a mere accusation was all that was necessary to upend a student or teacher’s life with the bigger goal of influencing the staffing and curricula in a school district. You too will hear these stories but they will be presented to you as examples of antisemitism and it is your job to dig into the facts and motivations behind these stories. It is not antisemitic for Palestinians to speak openly about their own life experiences, and to suggest as much serves only to silence Palestinian voices and heighten anti Palestinian racism.

  Censorship of curricula

  Campaigns to censor and control curricula and books are not new to Massachusetts schools, but the Commission must not appease calls to control educational materials that do not center and support Israel. 

  The distortion and misrepresentation of Palestinians’ culture and history and their political aspirations as antisemitic dangerously diverts attention away from acts of hate targeting Jewish people and institutions. 

  There is also a long-standing campaign to censor Massachusetts’ History and Social Studies framework This past summer CAMERA, a right-wing Israel advocacy group, summarized their approach. And I quote “teaching about Palestine really means teaching anti-Israel bias and propaganda.”

  Both the AJC and the JCRC blasted Ethnic Studies curricula in public schools mirror right wing attacks on the same ethnic studies curricula that address colonial histories in Latin America, Africa and Asia or arguments that teaching about slavery makes white students “unsafe”. This extends systemically by calls to censor history and social studies curricula that present Palestinian perspectives alongside Israeli perspectives. 

  Two months ago, a federal appeals court ruled that a curriculum that merely makes people feel uncomfortable is not discriminatory, nor does the inclusion of anti-Zionist material preclude students from exercising their religion. And I quote: 

  “The Supreme Court has long recognized that the freedom to receive ideas, and its relation to the freedom of expression, is particularly relevant in the classroom setting…[T]he right to receive ideas is a necessary predicate to the recipient’s meaningful exercise of his own rights of speech, press, and political freedom.”. Students have a right to receive information and “lawsuits threatening to attach civil liability on the basis of the assignment of [curricular material] would severely restrict a student’s right to receive material that his school board or other educational authority determines to be of legitimate educational value.”

  “..it is far from clear that learning about Israel and Palestine or encountering teaching materials with which one disagrees constitutes an injury”

  Political goals of silencing and censorship

  As a parent, I want my children to be challenged and I am grateful to every teacher who has used their position to protect our children’s right to learn. It is appalling to me to see educators treated and smeared as the enemy. I also stand behind my educators’ unions because our teachers can not do this alone.  My children need the union to have our educators’ backs, so that they can have our children’s backs.

  I will end by quoting Vice President Vance, who echoed President Nixon: “The professors are the enemy”. I will also quote Prof. Jason Stanley, author of “Erasing History”: “The leaders of the movement to attack universities and schools are all Ivy League grads. …These guys are sending their kids to Harvard, Yale and Princeton…. They are attacking the [educational] institutions, the universities, because the universities provide critical inquiry into the kinds of myths that’s required for these kinds of politics. This kind of politics elevates the dominant group…Erasing history paves the way for ethnic, racial and religious nationalism.” 

  Sana Fadel, is a member of Sawa: Newton-Area Alliance for Peace and Justice (“Sawa” means “together”). She is a proud public school parent and began organizing in the Newton Public Schools with like-minded parents in November 2022 to advocate against a local campaign coordinated with the national “anti-woke” FAIR and Parents Defending Education to eliminate diversity and equity initiatives in the Newton Public Schools.  Since October 2023, she has been a member of Sawa, a grassroots organization whose members represent a diversity of ethnicity and faiths from Newton and surrounding cities and towns, to address the local fallout of the Israel-Palestine war. She has a Masters of Public Affairs from Columbia University.