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An LA charter school housed at a synagogue taught 1st-graders about ‘the genocide of Palestine’
(JTA) – A Los Angeles charter school and the synagogue that rents it space are in turmoil after two first-grade teachers at the school held lessons about “the genocide of Palestine.”
One of the teachers also complained on social media about Israeli flags on the campus of the synagogue, Adat Ari El in North Hollywood.
The incidents have raised concern among parents at both the charter school, named Citizens of the World-East Valley, and the Conservative synagogue, which operates a preschool on the same campus. The school says it has commissioned a third-party investigation and the synagogue says it has gotten assurances from the school about “swift measures to address the situation, including the removal of the involved teachers.“
Neither institution responded to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s requests for comment.
“Many of you have rightfully expressed concern about the situation at the CWC,” Adat Ari El’s senior rabbi, Brian Schuldenfrei, told synagogue members by email on Thursday. “I will be issuing a public statement … during a press conference tomorrow making our position clear.”
The saga comes amid widespread tensions following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, and Israel’s ensuing war on the Palestinian terror group in Gaza. Critics of Israel, as well as its supporters, have marched in major cities around the world. Pro-Palestinian groups have held protests and sit-ins in a range of public spaces and issued statements calling for a ceasefire. In Los Angeles this week, a Jewish man died after a confrontation with a pro-Palestinian protester at a rally, and a brawl broke out surrounding a local screening of footage from Hamas’ massacre of Israeli civilians.
The situation at Citizens of the World-East Valley reveals that debate over the war is cropping up not only in college quads, corporate boardrooms and the halls of Congress, but even in classes of the country’s youngest students. The controversy at the charter school began when first-grade teachers taught about the conflict in their classrooms, then documented their lessons in social media posts and emails.
“I did a lesson on the genocide in Palestine today w my first graders who give me hell 90% of every day but were really into this convo and series of activities,” one teacher, who used the class’s math period for the lesson, wrote on Instagram in a private post that JTA reviewed.
The teacher added, “I started by telling them that we weren’t gonna do math at the usual time bc sometimes there are big things in the world that need our attention and we need to interrupt our usual routines to make space to learn and talk about what’s happening.”
A photo of a worksheet titled “What do humans need to live?” showed students writing their own response, with their first names clearly visible.
“I asked them what they already knew about what’s happening (they knew a lot and had questions) and I drew a little map of the occupied territories of Palestine,” another post from the same teacher says. “Then they organically started coming up w ideas for what could happen (my fav was a kid who was like “what if they just give the land back to Palestine and find somewhere else to live?”)” The teacher ended the post with a heart emoji.
These posts were amplified on the social network X Thursday by Dave Rubin, a conservative Jewish TV pundit with more than 1 million followers who called them “absolutely insane.”
On social media, the teacher also expressed disgust with several Israeli flags the synagogue had placed around the campus after Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,400 Israelis and took more than 200 people hostage. The teacher posted a photo of the campus and accompanied it with a vomit emoji.
Another first-grade teacher sent an email to parents explaining the thinking behind her class’s recent lesson on “what’s been happening in Gaza and Israel.” She said she had held the lesson “because I want kids to know the importance of using their voices to stand up for people and non-human beings anytime they are being mistreated,” according to an email reviewed by JTA.
“I teach as though anyone from any oppressed group could be in our community because everyone deserves to feel safe,” the teacher continued, adding, “I always frame it in an age-appropriate way and through a lens of equity and being a kind and loving human.”
Similar to the first teacher, the second described a lesson that began with “what all humans need to live joyful, safe lives,” which led the teacher to tell her students “that a lot of people aren’t safe and aren’t having those needs met right now.” The students also read a children’s book entitled “Sitti’s Bird: A Gaza Story,” published last year by the Palestinian author and artist Malak Mattar and set during the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. She also described asking her students what they already knew about the region, due to her desire to have the lessons be “child-led.”
“They knew quite a bit collectively,” the teacher said. “I made sure to only teach facts and to be honest about things I didn’t know.” She concluded, “The kids were very engaged in our lesson and we will be continuing these discussions in class. I am honored to have the opportunity to learn from and with your kids and their brilliant young minds.”
Attempts by JTA to contact the two teachers through a variety of pathways were unsuccessful.
According to the California Department of Education, the charter school, which is publicly funded and privately operated, enrolls around 300 students from prekindergarten to second grade. More than 50% of its student body is white, with another 23% Hispanic or Latino. The charter school enrolls some Jewish children whose families belong to the synagogue.
Some of those parents raised the issue with synagogue leaders after some of their children came home from school upset about Israel’s actions in Gaza, according to a parent from the synagogue preschool who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Parents were also concerned about the teacher posting a picture of the campus online, said the preschool parent, who expressed newfound security concerns about sharing space with the charter school.
“Even if it’s not a violent attack, even if it’s just verbal, I don’t want my preschooler to even hear anything negative about Jews,” the parent said.
In a Nov. 7 email to congregants, Schuldenfrei and the synagogue’s executive director, Eric Nicastro, wrote that they had “taken action” with the charter school’s administration “and they have assured us that they are actively investigating and taking swift measures to address the situation, including the removal of the involved teachers.”
The synagogue leaders also said they had alerted their security team to the teacher who had posted an image of their campus on social media.
“We want to make it clear that we will not tolerate antisemitism in any form, anywhere, and certainly not within our own community,” Nicastro and Schuldenfrei wrote, adding, “Together, we can ensure that Adat Ari El remains a place of love, respect, and understanding.”
The charter school principal, Hye-Won Gehring, sent her own email to parents on Nov. 7 that was co-signed by Melissa Kaplan, the executive director of the charter network, which operates five schools around Los Angeles. This location serves students through second grade.
“Recently, we were made aware of concerns circulating among parent groups that teacher(s) have been discussing issues related to Israel and Gaza with students and have been posting content on social media that has raised concerns for many in our community,” the administrators wrote.
They said they had set aside many of their responsibilities to tackle the turmoil at the school and announced their intention to “partner with a third-party investigator” to scrutinize the situation, including potentially by interviewing students with parental consent.
Calling the situation “challenging” and noting that it has caused “pain and distress,” they concluded, “We are confident that we can move forward and come out stronger as a diverse community of CWC families and students.”
The unusual space-sharing arrangement between the synagogue and the charter school began in 2021, when the new outpost of an existing charter network began renting space the synagogue had previously used for its own elementary school, which closed that year. Adat Ari El’s early childhood center is separated from the charter school by a fence.
“Adat Ari El is a Jewish congregation but all CWC activities on campus will be secular, consistent with our philosophy and model,” the school announced on social media at the time, saying about its arrangement, “We could not imagine a better place to start CWC East Valley.”
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‘Down With Fascists’: Columbia Activist Who Said ‘Zionists Don’t Deserve to Live’ Celebrates Charlie Kirk’s Murder
Khymani James, Columbia University student who filmed himself saying Zionists should be murdered. Photo: Screenshot
A former leader of the anti-Israel movement at Columbia University expressed full support for the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last week.
Khymani James, who made the posts, was a “campus a leader in the pro-Palestinian student protest encampment” at Columbia, according to The New York Times.
In the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination, James posted on X, “More. MORE!!!,” referencing the killing. He followed up that post by saying, “Down with all the fascists 
.” (He later also called California Gov. Gavin Newsom a fascist.)
In another post, James wrote, “‘Be careful what you post’ and it’s people rightfully celebrating the inevitable and just fate of fascists. anywho… NO ONE MOURNS THE WICKED 
.”
In addition to the posts he wrote, James also reposted statements such as “Thoughts and prayers for the bullet,” “rest in piss,” and “saw that s–t and started giggling and kicking my feet and shouting YOOOOOO.”
In James’s biography on the social platform X, he notes, “Anything I said, I meant it. DEATH TO EMPIRE.”
This is not the first time James has rhetorically supported violence. Last year, he was on video saying, “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” and proclaiming that people should “be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
He also said, “I don’t fight to injure or for there to be a winner or a loser. I fight to kill.”
Ilhan Omar shaking hands with Khymani James, who openly stated “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” Her daughter then hugs him. https://t.co/FUB63XHo1X
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) April 26, 2024
The comments triggered widespread backlash, and James was suspended by Columbia. The incident also resulted in what was widely seen as an apology for James on behalf of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), one of the most notorious anti-Israel campus groups in the US. Months later, however, the group retracted its previous apology.
“All CUAD organizers were complicit in not maintaining our political line, keeping the statement public on our Instagram, and in neglecting the mental and physical safety of Khymani,” the post read. CUAD apologized for causing “irrevocable harm” to him.
Despite James’s comments about the possibility of murdering Zionists, CUAD’s post claimed that he was criticized and socially ostracized for “fight[ing] back against state violence.”
James also responded to this post, writing on X, “Thank you to my comrades for posting this beautiful, powerful letter. I never wrote the neo-liberal apology posted in late April, and I’m glad we’ve set the record straight once and for all. I will not allow anyone to shame me for my politics.”
“Anything I said, I meant it,” he concluded.
Kirk, 31, was shot and killed during a speaking event at Utah Valley University, where he was engaging in dialogue with students. He is survived by his wife and two young children. A young Utah man — Tyler Robinson, 22 — was taken into custody last week as the suspected shooter, about 33 hours after the assassination, according to state and federal law enforcement.
Kirk was an outspoken supporter of Israel and advocate against antisemitism. He regularly debated students on the subject of Israel and brought his ideas to young people at a time when, according to recent polling, that age group was turning decidedly against the Jewish state.
“There’s a dark Jew hate out there, and I see it,” Kirk told a student during a podcast episode which aired earlier this year. “Don’t get yourself involved in that. I’m telling you it will rot your brain. It’s bad for your soul. It’s bad. It’s evil. I think it’s demonic.”
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Spain’s PM Sánchez Faces Backlash for Fueling Anti-Israel Hostility Amid Surge in Antisemitic Incidents
Cycling – Vuelta a Espana – Stage 21 – Alalpardo to Madrid – Madrid, Spain – Sept. 14, 2025: Barriers are smashed by anti-Israel protesters during Stage 21. Photo: REUTERS/Ana Beltran
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is facing backlash from his country’s political leaders and Jewish community, who accuse him of fueling antisemitic hostility after incidents at the Vuelta a España disrupted the prestigious cycling race.
Amid a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes and anti-Israel sentiment, Lorenzo Rodríguez, mayor of Castrillo Mota de Judíos in northern Spain, accused the country’s leader of “fueling a discourse of hatred” against Israel and the Jewish people.
“The government is fostering antisemitism that will prove deeply damaging for Spain,” Rodríguez said in an interview with the local outlet El Español.
“Sánchez’s moves are less about serious foreign policy and more about deflecting attention from his trials and failures in governance,” he continued. “Spain isn’t leading anything — it’s merely whitewashing Hamas and other terrorist groups.”
On Sunday, anti-Israel protests forced the finale of the Vuelta a España cycle race to be abandoned as police tried to quell demonstrations against the participation of an Israeli team.
In his interview, Rodríguez blamed Sánchez for fostering a hostile climate in Spain, saying the country is witnessing “hatred toward an entire people.”
He also criticized the Spanish leader for failing to take a strong stand on other international crises, including those in Russia and Venezuela.
“We all recognize that the Palestinian people are suffering, but the solution cannot be to blame the Jewish people,” Rodríguez said.
“People are afraid. There’s growing concern because our town was recently targeted,” he continued. “We are being singled out and threatened even though we have nothing to do with this war.”
Before the incidents on Sunday that led to the race’s cancellation, Sánchez expressed “admiration for the Spanish people mobilizing for just causes like Palestine” through their protests.
Madrid’s Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida strongly condemned Sánchez’s statement, accusing him of encouraging hostility and fueling tensions.
“The prime minister is directly responsible for this violence, as his statements this morning helped instigate the protests,” Martinez-Almeida said after the race was canceled.
“Today is the saddest day since I took office as mayor of this great city,” he continued.
Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox party, also criticized Sánchez’s remarks, accusing him of stoking division to maintain his hold on power.
“The psychopath has taken his militias to the streets,” Abascal wrote in a post on X. “He doesn’t care about Gaza. He doesn’t care about Spain. He doesn’t care about anything. But he wants violence in the streets to maintain power.”
Shortly after the incidents, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) publicly denounced the violence, urging authorities to respond quickly and decisively.
“Violence and intimidation have no place in a democratic society and cannot be excused under the guise of freedom of expression,” FCJE said in a statement.
“These violent demonstrations fuel hatred and contribute to a concerning rise in antisemitism in Spain, which we have been warning about over the past two years,” the statement read. “It is unacceptable that violence is justified on ideological grounds and hostility is directed toward the Jewish community”
La @fcjecom condena los graves incidentes que ayer obligaron a suspender la última etapa de @lavuelta https://t.co/8JBO4chMpx
— FCJE (@fcjecom) September 15, 2025
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Spain has become one of Israel’s fiercest critics, a stance that has only intensified in recent months, coinciding with a shocking rise in antisemitic incidents targeting the local Jewish community — from violent assaults and vandalism to protests and legal actions.
On Monday, Sánchez called for Israel to be barred from international sports events after pro-Palestinian activists disrupted the finale of the Vuelta cycling race in chaotic scenes in Madrid.
“The sports organizations should ask whether it’s ethical for Israel to continue participating in international competitions. Why was Russia expelled after invading Ukraine, yet Israel is not expelled after the invasion of Gaza?” Sánchez said while speaking to members of his Socialist Party.
“Until the barbarity ends, neither Russia nor Israel should be allowed to participate in any international competition,” the Spanish leader continued.
¿Por qué se expulsó a Rusia tras la invasión de Ucrania y no se expulsa Israel tras la invasión de Gaza?
Nuestra posición es clara y rotunda: hasta que no cese la barbarie, ni Rusia ni Israel deben estar en ninguna competición internacional más. pic.twitter.com/QlXsnWVKs5
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) September 15, 2025
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned Sánchez’s remarks, labeling him “an antisemite and a liar.”
“Did Israel invade Gaza on Oct. 7th or did the Hamas terror state invade Israel and commit the worst massacre against the Jews since the Holocaust?” the top Israeli diplomat wrote in a post on X.
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas started the war in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, when it led an invasion of southern Israel, murdered 1,200 people, and kidnapped 251 hostages while perpetrating widespread sexual violence against the Israeli people.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities and political rule in Gaza.
As part of its anti-Israel campaign, Spain announced on Tuesday that it will boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest if Israel participates, citing the country’s military offensive against Hamas in the war-torn enclave.
Last week, Sánchez also unveiled new policies targeting Israel over the war in Gaza, including an arms embargo and a ban on certain Israeli goods.
The Spanish government announced it would bar entry to individuals involved in what it called a “genocide against Palestinians,” block Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons from Spanish ports and airspace, and enforce an embargo on products from Israeli communities in the West Bank.
In one of its latest attempts to curb Israel’s defensive campaign in Gaza, Spain has canceled a €700 million ($825 million) deal for Israeli-designed rocket launchers, as the government conducts a broader review to systematically phase out Israeli weapons and technology from its armed forces.
Saar has denounced Sánchez’s latest actions, accusing the government in Madrid of antisemitism and of pursuing an escalating anti-Israel campaign aimed at undermining the Jewish state on the international stage.
“The government of Spain is leading a hostile, anti-Israel line, marked by wild, hate-filled rhetoric,” Saar wrote in a post on X, accusing Sánchez’s “corrupt” administration of trying to “divert attention from grave corruption scandals.”
“The obsessive activism of the current Spanish government against Israel stands out in light of its ties with dark, tyrannical regimes — from Iran’s ayatollahs to [Nicolás] Maduro’s government in Venezuela,” the Israeli diplomat continued.
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US Sanctions Iran’s ‘Shadow Banking’ Network, Ecuador Designates IRGC as Terrorist Group
A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, Jan. 20, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The United States has fired another shot in the battle to break Iran’s illicit finance machine, this time targeting a web of “shadow bankers” moving millions of dollars through Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates to fuel Tehran’s military efforts and terrorist allies.
Meanwhile, Ecuador has become the latest country to blacklist Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hamas, and Hezbollah, naming them as terrorist organizations.
On Tuesday, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated two Iranian nationals — Alireza Derakhshan and Arash Estaki Alivand — as key financial facilitators for the IRGC-Qods Force (QF) and Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL). Alongside them, more than a dozen shell companies and individuals in Hong Kong and the UAE received sanctions for laundering oil money and cryptocurrency transactions to support Iran’s weapons programs.
“Iranian entities rely on shadow banking networks to evade sanctions and move millions through the international financial system,” US Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John Hurley said in a statement. “We will continue to disrupt these key financial streams that fund Iran’s weapons programs and malign activities in the Middle East and beyond.”
The networks OFAC mapped out are intricate and deliberate, comprising a dizzying labyrinth of front companies such as Alpa Trading – FZCO in Dubai and Alpa Hong Kong Limited, coordinated by Derakhshan and his conspirators, with ties to Hezbollah’s financial operators and Syrian oil brokers. Transactions included more than $100 million in cryptocurrency sales on behalf of the Iranian government, funneled through offshore accounts and digital wallets designed to obscure their final destination into the furnaces powering the IRGC’s terror industrial complex.
This is the third time since June that OFAC has targeted Tehran’s “shadow banks.” In July, another sprawling network received sanctions for laundering billions through exchange houses and front firms. This oil sold off the books fuels Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran’s other terrorist proxies.
Sanctions freeze all property in the United States tied to individuals and firms named, forbidding US persons from doing business with them, and threatening secondary sanctions on foreign financial institutions that participate. This has created a financial game of whack-a-mole, with Iran creating new financial fronts as soon as old ones get exposed and sanctioned.
Other nations have also taken action against the threats posed by the Islamic regime in Iran and its primary fist abroad, the IRGC.
On Monday, Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa signed a decree designating the IRGC, Hamas, and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, drawing from intelligence reports warning of their presence in South America and links to local criminal gangs. The decree warned the groups pose “a direct threat to public security and sovereignty.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar praised the decision, writing on X that “Ecuador’s courageous step sends a clear message against Iran’s terror network and strengthens global security. We call on more countries in Latin America and around the world to follow suit.”
The US has previously called for terrorist designations for the IRGC. Ecuador has joined Canada, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and most recently Paraguay and Australia in designating the IRGC.
Last month, Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador after the nation’s intelligence service uncovered the Islamic regime’s hand behind a series of arson attacks against Jewish communities in Sydney and Melbourne. Iran responded by cutting ties and denying involvement.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the crimes “extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil.” He said that they sought “to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.”
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke described the terrorist scheme as “a series of intermediaries so that people performing different actions don’t in fact know who is directing them or don’t necessarily know who is directing them.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said that “the accusation of antisemitism against Iran is ridiculous and baseless.” He added, “According to diplomatic law and in response to Australia’s action, the Islamic Republic has also reciprocally reduced the level of Australia’s diplomatic presence in Iran.”
On Tuesday, Israel struck another Iran-backed terrorist group, Yemen’s Houthis, at the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.