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| Fifth Column |
| NYC education department investigating after office sends out antisemitic toolkit |
| 2025-04-05 |
| [IsraelTimes] Newsletter sent out by career services group includes link to ‘Stop Gaza Genocide’ document, prompting outcry from Jewish education advocates New York City’s department of education on Friday said it had launched an investigation after a department office sent out an anti-Israel toolkit that included “antisemitic language.” “Today, a troubling oversight was brought to my attention, in which an offensive political toolkit was hyperlinked in one of our published newsletters,” New York City Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said in a statement. “The inclusion of this toolkit violates our policies on political neutrality and uses hateful, antisemitic language.” The link to the toolkit was sent out in a Spring newsletter from the department’s Office of Student Pathways on April 1. The office prepares public school students for post-school careers. In the newsletter, beneath an icon for the Holocaust Center for Humanity, …which is in Seattle… were resources for “facilitating supportive conversations.” One of the resources was a link that read, “Scripts to contact representatives.” The link led to a Google doc titled “Stop Gaza Genocide Toolkit,” from the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, according to images that Jewish teacher advocates shared with The Times of Israel.The toolkit surfaced after a source in the public school system shared the newsletter with the EndJewHatred advocacy group, said Michelle Ahdoot, an activist with the group. EndJewHatred publicized the newsletter, leading to the chancellor’s statement. “Israel is on a total rampage of death and destruction,” the toolkit said, urging readers to call Congress to protest. “There will be NO REST for Congress while they fund and enable genocide. Blood is on their hands,” the document said. The document included images of protests, information about “money from pro-Israel groups,” protest graphics for social media, links to flyers to print out and information about attending protests. “Israel is mass murdering Palestinian families with our tax dollars,” the document said. The toolkit backed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel, calling for boycotts of companies including McDonald’s, Disney and Domino’s Pizza, Why those three? as well as the Israeli companies Ahava, SodaStream and Elbit. A graphic showed the Sabra hummus company’s logo dripping blood over the word “killer.”
A spokesperson for the education department confirmed the details of the toolkit to The Times of Israel. “This language is hurtful to many in our Jewish community, and we deeply apologize,” Aviles-Ramos said. “Once leadership became aware of this link, we immediately ordered its removal and have already begun conducting a thorough investigation as to how this was added to a [New York City Schools] communication.” The text of the newsletter said it was sent to people who had been involved with the Office of Student Pathways. It wasn’t clear how many people received the message. Jewish public school advocates have long argued that antisemitism is rampant in the school system and pushed for reforms. “This is a prime example of how embedded this hate is in New York City public schools and how the administration has failed to oversee all of the diffent components within New York City to ensure that the hate’s not spreading,” said Tova Plaut, a co-founder of the New York City Public School Alliance, a Jewish advocacy group. Related: New York City: 2025-04-01 Columbia University anti-Israel protest group booted from Instagram, again New York City: 2025-03-30 Tracing the links: Columbia students’ lawyers, street protest groups part of linked anti-Israel network New York City: 2025-03-28 Chicago dubbed America's murder capital as Democrat leaders 'demonize' police, splurge on migrants: alderman |
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