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Rising Antisemitism in K-12 Schools Demands National Attention
As I walked through the US Capitol on May 8th — the day of the Congressional hearings on Antisemitism in K-12 schools — I was imbued with a sense of hope. As the Director of K-12 Educator Outreach for StandWithUs — an international, nonpartisan organization dedicated to combating antisemitism — I had the unique opportunity to attend these hearings in person. It was a moment that many had been waiting for, a chance to bring the harassment and bullying that Jewish students and teachers endure to the forefront of national consciousness.
Since the appalling terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, reports of antisemitism in K-12 public and independent schools across the country have surged to shocking levels. Each week, I engage with teachers, administrators, students, and parents who reach out to StandWithUs for support. They share harrowing stories of discrimination and harassment rooted in their Jewish identity.
Reflecting on my days as a high school teacher and administrator, it’s disheartening to see how the landscape has changed. Disciplinary measures that were once seen as fair are now used selectively to target Jewish students, while their aggressors often face no consequences.
Educational materials, rather than being vetted for accuracy and educational value, are hurriedly pulled from the internet, including platforms like TikTok, which perpetuate misinformation about the October 7, the war against Hamas, and countless other issues.
Numerous teachers’ unions, whose mission is to improve working conditions for educators, have shifted their focus towards taking one-sided positions against Israel, or worse. My former union, the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), has been deeply mired in controversy over antisemitism for months.
The MTA recently held an “anti-racism” panel featuring speakers that Jewish groups decried as boosting “antisemitic and anti-Israel falsehoods.” Two Massachusetts legislators described the event as “two hours of anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda.” Some unions have also promoted curricula that border on or cross the line into indoctrination. This shift is not only damaging to the impartiality expected of educational institutions, but also undermines the professionalism of teachers.
During the Congressional hearings, some lawmakers displayed a deep understanding of the pervasive and enduring nature of antisemitism in educational settings. Representative Kathy Manning (D-NC) gave a strong overview of the problems that are reported to StandWithUs every day. She also raised critical concerns about the corrosive influence of propaganda on social media platforms such as TikTok.
Representative Kevin Kiley (R-CA) sharply questioned Berkeley School Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel about her district’s contract with the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (LESMCC), an organization condemned by many, including elected officials, for promoting antisemitic narratives.
He said, “[LESC] grew out of the initial working group to form California’s model ethnic studies curriculum [which] was universally condemned as antisemitic; fourteen members of the legislature, all Democrats, said it is difficult to fathom why the state of California would to actively promote a narrative about Jews that echoes the propaganda of the Nazi regime … so it was revised, but this liberated ethnic studies consortium offers the original version … they split off from the group and said we’re going to stick with the original antisemitic version and that’s the version that you went out and decided to have in your classrooms, is that right?”
Dr. Morthel smiled, thanked him for his question, and told him he was factually incorrect, because they didn’t purchase curriculum from the LESC, they designed it in-house: the money they paid LESC was simply for them to be a “thought partner.” This attempt to sidestep the issue only raises more disturbing questions. Why would any school district pay a group of extremists to be a “thought partner” for anything, let alone ethnic studies courses that are supposed to help fight racism?
However, other members of the committee seemed less prepared. Even worse, Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) tried to actively undermine the fight against hate by giving a representative from the ACLU a platform to promote misinformation about the widely adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism. He also seemed to whitewash the long history of systemic discrimination Jews faced across the Middle East, prior to the establishment of the State of Israel.
The hearing was a promising start, yet two hours is scarcely enough to tackle the widespread problem of antisemitism in schools. It is imperative that further investigations are conducted into the many different ways bias and bigotry are finding their way into our schools. Teachers’ unions must be held accountable when they encourage educators to sidestep state curriculum standards and district policies and promote misinformation into the classroom. Congress should increase funding to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to enable it to thoroughly investigate and address violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act in publicly funded schools.
The media, too, must play its part by treating antisemitic incidents in schools with the gravity and urgency they deserve. As it stands, Jewish students and teachers are suffering, students are being indoctrinated, and our educational system is woefully unequipped to address these issues. It is time for a systematic effort to ensure that schools remain places of learning and growth, not platforms for indoctrination or institutionalized antisemitism.
David Smokler is the director of K-12 Educator Outreach for StandWithUs, an international nonpartisan education organization that supports Israel and fights antisemitism.
The post Rising Antisemitism in K-12 Schools Demands National Attention first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Moves Patriot Missile Batteries from South Korea to Middle East

A Patriot missile battery. Photo: IDF.
i24 News – American Patriot missile defense batteries will be moved from South Korea to the Middle East, according to reports in Asian media on Friday, amid speculation over a potential military action against Iran’s nuclear program and escalating bombardments of Iran-backed jihadists in Yemen.
US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program, and the United States has moved additional warplanes into the region.
Washington and Seoul have reportedly recently agreed on the “monthslong” partial deployment of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, in what is understood to be the first known case involving the relocation of United States Forces Korea (USFK) assets to the Middle East.
Iran in recent years has largely dropped the pretense of enriching uranium for a civilian atomic energy program, as it’s reportedly teetering on the nuclear precipice. Israel believes that a nuclear Iran represents a grave existential threat, consistent with the exterminationist antisemitism of the Islamic Republic’s anti-Israel rhetoric.
After the election of Trump, a known Iran hawk, the likelihood of an U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities has increased precipitously.
The post US Moves Patriot Missile Batteries from South Korea to Middle East first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: Iranian Plot to Assassinate Azerbaijani Rabbi Foiled

The Azerbaijani capital of Baku. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – Iran enlisted the services of a Georgian drug trafficker to carry out an assassination of a prominent Azerbaijani rabbi, the Washington Post reported Saturday, citing security officials.
The plot to murder Rabbi Shneor Segal, foiled by the State Security Service of Azerbaijan in early January, also involved a plan to attack a Jewish education center, the officials said.
The plot was set in motion by an officer with Iran’s Quds Force, who met with Georgian criminal Agil Aslanov, handing him a photo of Segal and detailed instructions on how to murder him, the officials cited by WaPo said. Aslanov’s fee for the foiled hit was $200,000.
The State Security Service said the two men “worked to collect information about a member of a religious community, and sent the location of his residence and workplace to a representative of a foreign special service agency via the appropriate mobile phone application.”
Iran is known to be behind multiple plots against Israeli and Jewish targets, many of which have been foiled by Israeli and foreign security services.
However a recent plot saw three citizens of Uzbekistan murder an Israeli rabbi in the United Arab Emirates on Iranian orders. The three were sentenced to death earlier this week for the murder of Zvi Kogan in November.
The post Report: Iranian Plot to Assassinate Azerbaijani Rabbi Foiled first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu to Depart for Washington on Sunday Directly from Hungary to Meet with Trump

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Feb. 16, 2025. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will depart to Washington DC on Sunday directly from Hungary—where he is presently on an official visit—to meet with US President Donald Trump, i24NEWS learned on Saturday from an Israeli source.
The visit comes following a phone conversation between the leaders on Friday, and a call with State Secretary Marco Rubio a short while ago.
As a result, the planned visit to Washington of Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz will be postponed once again.
Topics of discussion between the two leaders are expected to include the possible military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Gaza war and the future of the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave, the US bombing campaign against Iran-backed Houthi jihadists in Yemen, and the recent imposition of tariffs on Israeli products.
The post Netanyahu to Depart for Washington on Sunday Directly from Hungary to Meet with Trump first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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