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Florida rejects Holocaust education textbooks in clampdown on ‘woke’ instruction
(JTA) — Florida’s state education department rejected two new Holocaust-focused textbooks for classroom use, while forcing at least one other textbook to alter a passage about the Hebrew Bible in order to meet state approval.
The books were rejected as part of a broader review of new K-12 social studies material. According to documents provided by the state, the education department did not approve any new texts on the Holocaust this year. Reached by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a spokesperson at the department’s press office was unable to confirm whether there are older Holocaust textbooks already in use that can still be taught in the state.
Under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state has made an effort to clamp down on what he calls “woke indoctrination,” mostly regarding race and gender. The textbooks’ rejection is the latest example of how that drive is affecting Jewish topics as well.
One of this year’s rejected Holocaust textbooks was called “Modern Genocides,” and the other was an online learning course titled “History of the Holocaust.” Both were intended for high school students. “Modern Genocides” was rejected in part for its discussion of “special topics” prohibited by the state — a list that includes terms such as “social justice” and “critical race theory.” The department did not clarify which prohibited “special topics” the book included.
Both of the rejected works also received low scores from the state’s educational review committee, which determines whether a book meets state requirements for instruction on its topic.
DeSantis has advanced Holocaust education while also enabling parents to effectively remove any Holocaust literature they don’t like from school libraries. Florida requires Holocaust education in grades K-12, and in 2020, DeSantis signed a law requiring public schools to certify that they teach about the Holocaust. But a law passed last year allows parents to challenge instructional materials and books in public school libraries, and parents in the state have filed challenges that have led to the temporary or permanent removal of Holocaust literature (including a new adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary) on the grounds that they are inappropriate for children.
Another law, called the “Stop WOKE Act,” bans educators from making students feel guilt or shame in relation to historical events. The state education department also forbids the instruction of “critical race theory,” a term that traditionally concerns a method of legal analysis but that Republicans have used pejoratively to refer to discussion of systemic racism in the United States.
In addition, Republicans in the statehouse have passed a bill that would forbid state-funded higher education institutions from teaching “critical theory” — a change that scholars say could threaten the teaching of Jewish studies. DeSantis has yet to sign that bill into law.
“To uphold our exceptional standards, we must ensure our students and teachers have the highest quality materials available — materials that focus on historical facts and are free from inaccuracies or ideological rhetoric,” Manny Diaz, Jr., Florida’s education commissioner, said in a press release.
The state’s education department announced Tuesday that it had approved 66 out of 101 submissions of new social studies textbooks under its new rubric — some only after the publishers agreed to extensive changes to the text. It rejected the other 35 textbooks that were submitted. Florida last reviewed social studies materials in 2017; state documents do not indicate the percentage of books accepted and rejected that year.
The state did not elaborate on how the Holocaust books failed to adequately teach their subjects. The education department’s Bureau of Standards and Instructional Support, which oversees reviews of classroom materials, referred JTA’s request for comment to its press office, which did not respond to questions by deadline.
The publishers for the two rejected Holocaust texts likewise did not respond to JTA requests for comment. Florida, by virtue of its large population of school-age children, is one of the biggest textbook markets in the nation, and some social studies textbook publishers this year preemptively erased some language about race and segregation in their books in order to gain entry into the market.
Meanwhile, another social studies textbook intended for grades 6-8 was forced by the department to alter a reference to the Hebrew Bible in order to meet state standards. According to state documents, the book’s original version included a question for students reading, “What social justice issues are included in the Hebrew Bible?”
That was altered to an approved version that replaced the phrase “social justice issues” with the term “key principles.” The state’s rationale for the change was that the original phrasing used “Politically charged language when referencing the Hebrew Bible.”
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Jewish real estate magnate Steven Roth likens Mamdani’s ‘tax the rich’ rhetoric to ‘from the river to the sea’
(New York Jewish Week) — Jewish real estate mogul Steven Roth compared New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “tax the rich” rhetoric this week to racial slurs and pro-Palestinian rhetoric on an earnings call for his company, Vornado Realty Trust.
“I consider the phrase ‘tax the rich’ when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country, to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs and even the phrase, ‘from the river to the sea,’” Roth said, referring to the phrase commonly used at pro-Palestinian protests that many Jewish groups consider antisemitic.
The remark by Roth, who has long been a notable philanthropist to Jewish causes, adds to mounting tensions between New York business leaders and Mamdani over his recently announced “pied-à-terre” tax on second homes valued at more than $5 million.
During the call Tuesday, Roth also expressed support for Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel, whose $238 million dollar penthouse was featured in a video by Mamdani announcing plans for the tax last month.
“We are all shocked that our young mayor would pull this stunt in front of Ken’s home and single him out for ridicule,” Roth said. “The ugly, unnecessary video stunt is personal for Ken and sort of personal for me.”
Roth’s comments touched on a longstanding source of friction between Mamdani and some New York Jewish leaders, who have criticized the mayor over his views on Israel and his previous defense of the phrase “globalize the intifada,” another common pro-Palestinian slogan viewed by some as a call to violence against Jews.
In the wake of Mamdani’s election, some Jewish business leaders, including Dave Portnoy, the Jewish founder of Barstool Sports, said that they planned to leave the city altogether, citing the mayor’s fiscal policies and concerns about antisemitism under his leadership.
In a statement responding to Roth’s comments, Mamdani’s office said that he wanted all New Yorkers to succeed, including “business owners and entrepreneurs who create good-paying jobs and make this city the economic engine of America.”
“That does not negate the fact, however, that our tax system is fundamentally broken. It rewards extreme wealth while working people are pushed to the brink,” the statement continued. “The status quo is unsustainable and unjust. If we want this city to become a place that working people can afford, we need meaningful tax reform that includes the wealthiest New Yorkers contributing their fair share.”
The post Jewish real estate magnate Steven Roth likens Mamdani’s ‘tax the rich’ rhetoric to ‘from the river to the sea’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Man who firebombed Boulder Israeli hostage march sentenced to life in prison
(JTA) — The man charged with carrying out a deadly firebombing attack on a march for Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colorado, last year was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Thursday after pleading guilty to muder and dozens of other charges.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national who was arrested at the scene of the attack on the demonstrators last June, pleaded guilty to 101 charges, including 52 counts of attempted murder and one count of murder for the death of Karen Diamond, an 82-year-old victim of the attack who later died of her wounds.
During the June attack, Soliman shouted “free Palestine” and threw two molotov cocktails at the group, Run for Their Lives, injuring over a dozen people. According to an earlier court filing, Soliman said that he had staged the attack, which prosecutors said he planned for a year, because he “wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead.”
Soliman has separately pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges, for which prosecutors could potentially seek the death penalty.
“If I went back, I would not have done this as this is not according to the teaching of Islam,” Soliman said during the sentencing hearing, adding that he wanted federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty. “What I did came out of myself and only myself.”
During his remarks, Soliman argued that he had not been driven by anti-Jewish animus. He later said that Zionism was “the enemy” and that it was his “right” to be against Israel.
Chief District Judge Nancy W. Salomone rejected Mr. Soliman’s arguments, telling him that his “choices were acts of terror, and they victimized an entire community,” according to the New York Times.
“You chose to victimize these people because they were members of the Jewish community,” she said.
In a statement read earlier in court by a prosecutor, Diamond’s sons, Andrew and Ethan Diamond, asked that Soliman not be allowed to see his family again “since he is responsible for our mother never seeing her family again,” according to the Associated Press.
They said that Diamond had suffered “indescribable pain” for over three weeks before her death, adding that “in those weeks, we learned the full meaning of the expressions ‘living hell’ and ‘fate worse than death.’”
The post Man who firebombed Boulder Israeli hostage march sentenced to life in prison appeared first on The Forward.
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LA Orthodox school’s former guidance counselor will avoid jail time in sex abuse case
An Orthodox Jewish high school’s former director of academic support will avoid jail after pleading no contest Thursday to sexual abuse charges involving a student in her charge at the school’s boys’ division.
Julie Tichon, 38, was working at YULA Boys High School in May 2024 when two students reported having separate sexual relationships with her. The LA-based school fired Tichon and referred the matter to the police department. Tichon was charged four months later in connection with one of the students, who was 16 at the time of their alleged encounters.
Tichon will face two years of probation and will be registered as a sex offender for a minimum of 10 years.
In exchange for Tichon’s no contest pleas to one count of felony sexual intercourse with a minor and one count of felony oral copulation with a minor, the court dismissed the two other counts against her, also felony sexual intercourse with a minor. Tichon will also be required to pay restitution to the victim, an amount that will be determined at a sentencing hearing May 28, and to undergo 52 weeks of counseling.
She had faced up to five years in prison.
Speaking outside the Los Angeles Airport Courthouse after the hearing, Tichon said she was sorry for the pain caused to her victim in the case.
She said her mistake came at a time in her life when she was experiencing immense personal trauma, and that that context had informed the district attorney’s decision not to pursue state custody. She declined to elaborate on what the trauma was, but said it was not connected to the case. Since then, she had been receiving therapy, she said.
“The way I was feeling when this happened, like the dark place I was in, I don’t think I’m ever gonna feel that way again,” Tichon said.
She said forced registration felt personally “shameful and embarrassing,” and purely punitive in nature. But she said she accepted the district attorney’s terms “as a sacrifice I have to make for a better life.”
“She is taking responsibility for this,” said Tariq Khero, Tichon’s attorney. “She’s made some terrible mistakes, and she’s not making those mistakes again.”
The family of the victim, which was in court as the plea was presented to the judge, declined to comment.
Tichon’s no contest plea means that any victims won’t be able to use her plea as a form of proof in civil suits against her, though no such cases have been filed. But her agreement does not close the affair for the school where she once worked.
A second student, now aged 20, has separately filed a lawsuit against YULA that alleges years of sexual abuse by Tichon that the school should have taken action to stop.
It claims the school kept Tichon on staff despite knowing of Tichon’s inappropriate sexual conduct with a student’s parent, and that rumors were circulating in the student body of Tichon’s sexual abuse of students as early as the 2021-22 school year.
In the lawsuit, filed in September 2025, the student alleges that Tichon’s sexual harassment and abuse began in 2020, when he was a freshman assigned to her for academic support, and continued through 2024.
The lawsuit claimed Tichon abused the plaintiff by showing him nude and pornographic videos of herself, describing previous sexual encounters to him and performing oral sex on him despite his refusal. (Tichon, who is not named as a defendant in the suit, declined to comment on it Thursday.)
Tichon also harassed the student, he alleged in the lawsuit, by driving to his family’s home and insisting on seeing him; telling other people they were in a relationship; and telling him that if he ever reported her abuse, she would get him in trouble with the school.
The plaintiff also alleged that the school administration knew of an alleged affair Tichon had in 2023 with the married father of a YULA student.
“YULA knew of this sexual relationship, but did nothing to investigate Tichon’s conduct or take any action to inform the students’ parents of Tichon’s conduct,” the lawsuit alleges.
It claims the school made Tichon’s behavior possible by allowing her to give students rides in her car and have additional unsupervised time with students. YULA also did not have any trainings of students or teachers or protocols to prevent child sexual abuse and to prevent educator sexual misconduct, the suit alleges.
It was unclear why the second student’s allegations did not lead to additional charges from the district attorney. The D.A.’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
YULA’s head of school, Rabbi Arye Sufrin, did not respond to an inquiry.
The post LA Orthodox school’s former guidance counselor will avoid jail time in sex abuse case appeared first on The Forward.