Tim O’Brien, the daddy of a senior at Berkeley Excessive College in California and a supporter of the Palestinian trigger, watched the congressional listening to on antisemitism on Wednesday involving the varsity district’s superintendent, Enikia Ford Morthel. In his eyes, she was “a rock star.”
Three thousand miles away on Capitol Hill, one other Berkeley Excessive father or mother, Ilana Pearlman, who’s Jewish, watched the identical testimony in individual and couldn’t consider her ears, significantly the half the place Ms. Ford Morthel mentioned that antisemitism is “not pervasive” within the college district.
Republican lawmakers accused the leaders of college districts in Berkeley, New York Metropolis and Montgomery County, Md., of responding inadequately to antisemitism in public colleges whereas the directors fiercely defended themselves and their insurance policies. Afterward, native response to the listening to appeared to hinge on one’s views getting in, with few minds modified and a few questioning whether or not the continuing had been definitely worth the time.
Mr. O’Brien, who watched the listening to over espresso and muffins with about 10 different pro-Palestinian mother and father in a classroom on the College of California, Berkeley, disapproved of the listening to typically however thought Ms. Ford Morthel had weathered it properly.
“It was just like the Salem witch trials,” he mentioned, including that the hearings had been a distraction from the devastation in Gaza. However he mentioned it was proper for educators to show their college students concerning the conflict with Israel and the significance of Palestinian liberation. And he thought Ms. Ford Morthel had conveyed that message successfully.
“We had been all hoping that her character and allure and compassion and intelligence would by some means discover a strategy to come via in that sort of noxious atmosphere, and he or she didn’t disappoint,” he mentioned.
Ms. Pearlman, a father or mother behind a federal civil rights criticism alleging “extreme and protracted” antisemitism within the Berkeley college district, mentioned she appreciated that the listening to had been held however was upset within the superintendent’s testimony.
She significantly blanched at Ms. Ford Morthel’s opening assertion denying that antisemitism was a significant downside within the district.
Ms. Pearlman, who watched the proceedings with different Jewish moms within the listening to room, mentioned she had approached Ms. Ford Morthel after the listening to.
“I mentioned, ‘Why don’t you consider us?’” Ms. Pearlman recounted. “She cupped my fingers. I needed to throw up. And she or he mentioned, ‘I do consider you, I do.’ I mentioned, ‘No, you don’t.’”
Ms. Pearlman has mentioned her son, a freshman, noticed his artwork instructor current a picture of the Star of David being punched with a fist and heard one other instructor name Israel a settler colony. She mentioned he now retains his Jewish heritage quiet.
Ms. Ford Morthel declined to offer an interview after her testimony.
Shortly after the listening to, issues grew much more sophisticated within the Berkeley colleges. The Bay Space chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations joined the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in submitting a federal criticism on behalf of college workers members and oldsters alleging “extreme and pervasive anti-Palestinian racism” within the district.
Whereas largely supporting Ms. Ford Morthel, the group mentioned particular person principals had not appropriately addressed incidents together with college students’ taunting of their Arab and Muslim classmates with chants of “terrorists” and “Sep 11.” In one other incident, the criticism mentioned, a scholar ripped off a classmate’s hijab.
Molly Sampson, who has a half-Palestinian daughter within the Berkeley colleges, mentioned that she thought the accusations of antisemitism had been overblown and that the listening to had been a waste of time.
“That is our city, our district, and you then see the way it’s portrayed on the nationwide stage and you are feeling such as you’re residing in upside-down world,” she mentioned. “I assumed our superintendent had unbelievable grace and poise in coping with that.”
Professional-Palestinian rallies occurred in Berkeley and New York after the listening to, with mother and father, academics and different contributors discussing the significance of educating about Palestinians in public colleges.
Muhammad Delgado, a senior at Berkeley Excessive College, mentioned he watched the listening to earlier than attending the rally and mentioned he appreciated Ms. Ford Morthel standing up for the district.
“I assumed our superintendent did properly in defending and pushing again in opposition to this narrative that our educators and our college students are antisemitic,” he mentioned. “My expertise has been one among cooperation and fraternity.”
Like Ms. Ford Morthel, the chancellor of New York Metropolis’s colleges pushed again exhausting in opposition to Republican lawmakers’ rivalry that his college district had not carried out sufficient to cease antisemitism. The official, David C. Banks, acknowledged some instances of antisemitism, however he mentioned that he and the district had addressed them with acceptable measures and that the Republicans had been merely searching for “gotcha” moments fairly than sensible options.
Leah Wiseman Fink, the mom of two youngsters in a Brooklyn public college, attended the listening to and mentioned she felt it had coated some necessary antisemitic incidents in New York colleges however had passed over others.
For instance, she mentioned, she was blocked by her college board’s official Instagram account and never allowed into video conferences after complaining about antisemitism in colleges. She joined different native mother and father in submitting an official criticism concerning the college board’s remedy of Jewish mother and father, however that didn’t come up on the listening to.
“I’m joyful elements of the story bought informed,” she mentioned. “However there are massive elements of the story that bought unnoticed.”
Karla Silvestre, the varsity board president in Montgomery County, Md., outdoors Washington, acknowledged reviews of “antisemitic imagery, language and vandalism” in county colleges and conceded that “we haven’t gotten it proper each time.” However like Mr. Banks, Ms. Silvestre mentioned that her district would quickly roll out new coaching applications and curriculums to deal with antisemitism.
Rachel Barold, a highschool sophomore in Montgomery County, attended the listening to on Wednesday and got here away underwhelmed.
Earlier than the listening to, she had submitted a letter to the workplace of Consultant Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina and the chairwoman of the Home Committee on Schooling and the Workforce, saying that Montgomery County colleges had not labored rapidly sufficient to answer a surge in antisemitism.
Ms. Barold mentioned in a textual content message that she had discovered the listening to “fairly ineffective” as a result of Ms. Silvestre spoke so little in contrast with Ms. Ford Morthel and Mr. Banks.
Adam Zimmerman, who has two youngsters within the Montgomery County colleges and teaches Holocaust schooling to center schoolers at an area synagogue, had not anticipated that the listening to can be a pivotal second, and he mentioned afterward it fairly clearly had not been.
“This isn’t an issue a listening to may ever remedy by itself,” he mentioned. “My hope,” he added, is that college leaders there “perceive that we nonetheless face a really important downside.”
Coral Murphy Marcos contributed reporting from Berkeley, Calif., and Troy Closson contributed reporting from New York.
