August 7, 1:00 PM EDT - Livestream and in person at the State House, 24 Beacon St., Boston MA
The next Antisemitism Commission meeting will be August 7th at 1pm:
TIM calls on the Commission to delay voting on its K-12 education policy recommendations
Commission begins discussing higher education
TIM encourages in-person attendance at the August 7th Commission meeting (live stream option available)
Link to Commission Meeting Details
Antisemitism Commission Must Delay Vote on Flawed K-12 Education Recommendations
The Antisemitism Commission released its revised K-12 education policy recommendations for all public and private schools in the Commonwealth and plans to vote to approve these recommendations at their next Commission meeting on August 7th. The revisions do not address - and in some cases, double down on - flaws in the initial recommendations. TIM urges the Commission to delay the vote to allow time to fix flaws in the report.
The Commission - an unelected, non-representative body which was created exclusively to advise the state legislature - intends to bypass the legislative process (and the public engagement it would necessitate) by submitting recommendations directly to local school districts, school committees, public and private school administrators and the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
We urge you to contact your state legislators to alert them to the shortcomings of the Commission’s process and the risks of the Commission’s current recommendations. Please share your concerns that the Commission’s recommendations exclude many experts’ recommendations and point out that the Commission has not provided an opportunity for public comment on the draft recommendations.
Some of the more problematic recommendations:
The Commission recommends that every educational agency (school districts, school committees, private schools, and the state department of education) and the Attorney General’s office “consult” a controversial definition of antisemitism that restricts speech. The IHRA definition deems certain criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights to be antisemitic and is widely rejected by lawyers, civil rights experts, many Jewish Studies scholars, and K-12 educators, among others. The recommendations simultaneously deny that the IHRA definition is “legally-binding” and refer to it as the “official” definition of the Commonwealth.
Schools that adopt the Commission’s recommendations would be accepting the state’s interference in establishing that support for Israel is integral to Jewish identity, so those Jews whose identity is not tied to Israel are not "real" Jews violating separation between church and state enshrined in the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment.
The Commission ignores existing mechanisms for students and families to report bullying and harassment to school administrators as well as the ability of students and families to report to the state if their school doesn’t uphold their rights. These recommendations remove local control by creating a state-operated anonymous tipline for students, parents and educators to report other students or educators, separate from schools’ own reporting and investigative processes. The recommendations also require DESE to operate a reporting mechanism to report so-called “problematic” curriculum and classroom materials. Such a recommendation, mirrors right wing groups that seek to censor classroom content by targeting educators personally [such as TeacherWatch, or the so-called Parents Defending Education] which will not only result in censorship of curriculum and classroom materials related to Israel/Palestine but also content related to sexual orientation/gender identity and racism.
The Commission’s recommendations set the stage for schools to adopt curricula and professional development by vendors that erase and demean Palestinians and, Palestinian history, narratives and rights. For example, the Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS) has a ready-made curriculum on the history of the “Arab-Israeli Conflict” that has been recommended by some members of the Commission. A recently published study of this curriculum found that it contains misleading, inaccurate and incomplete information from a partisan perspective.that it does not foster the development of skills such as historical analysis and critical inquiry.
The Commission’s recommendations nominally address what the US National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism calls “the greatest terrorist threat” to Jewish people and other marginalized communities in the US, white supremacy. Instead the recommendations mirror right-wing talking points used by the Trump administration, which inaccurately paint the teaching about or advocating for Palestinians as “pro-Hamas.”
Share Your Concerns about the Commission’s Process with Your Elected Officials
August 7th Commission meeting to also focus on Higher Education
We encourage you to attend the Commission meeting in -person if possible.
The tenth meeting of Massachusetts’ Special Commission on Combatting Antisemitism is scheduled for August 7th @ 1pm at the State House and will be livestreamed here.
The meeting will begin with opening remarks by co-chairs Rep. Simon Cataldo and Sen. John Velis and will set the stage for the themes to be addressed by the invited speakers:
Professor Eitan Hersh, Professor of Political Science, Tufts University, who will present his analysis of college student focus groups
Rabbi Aaron Fine, Executive Director, UMass Hillel
Skye Landau, UMass Amherst student
Dr. Leonard Saxe, Professor and Director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, Brandeis University (see his article on college antisemitism)
Dr. Rachel Fish, Special Advisor to the Brandeis University President's Initiative on Antisemitism (see her article in the right-wing publication FreePress)
If you are a student, faculty or staffer in higher education who is interested in sharing your perspective about antisemitism policy, please take action:
Email the commission (sc...@malegislature.gov) and copy your state representative and senator (https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator) with your experience.
Share your testimony with TIM at inclusivemassachusetts.org/get-involved/submit-testimony/ where we will make public the testimony that the Commission has sidelined. You can also forward your testimony to us or add in...@inclusivemassachusetts.org to the bcc line.
Make a request to formally present to the Commission if you feel comfortable doing so.
Contact your state representative and senator before or after the Commission meeting (or both!) to share your thoughts and experience and ask them to hold the Commission accountable to antiracist principles.
Can you attend the Commission meeting in-person?
In solidarity,
Together for an Inclusive Massachusetts