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Activists and foreign actors have infiltrated the city’s public schools with anti-Israel material, promoting prejudice and hatred of Jews, according to a new report from a nonprofit think tank.
Teacher groups such as NYC Educators for Palestine have collaborated with extremist organizations, some allegedly linked to hostile foreign governments and terrorist groups, to bring “radical, anti-American ideologies” into schools, said the Network Contagion Research Instituteof NCRI, and the advocacy group New York City Public School Alliance, which co-wrote the report.
“The report shows how the Department of Education’s vetted resources allow radical sympathizers to shape young minds with biased information,” said Tova Plaut, a DOE pre-K coordinator and founder of NYCPS Alliance, a group of Jewish teachers who contributed to the project.
An “Arab World” class map at PS 261 in Brooklyn, which excludes Israel, was provided by the Qatar Foundation, an arm of the country’s ruling family, which has donated $1 million to New York schools. The report found a network of “radical” curriculum developers, activist education groups and foreign influences that contributed to the infiltration of anti-Israel material within the New York public school system. NCRI
The report, released this week, cites DOE documents, school events and staff social media posts as evidence of the findings.
It calls on the DOE to immediately undertake a curriculum review; enforce the Chancellor’s anti-discrimination policy; adopt a definition of anti-Semitism and make training on it mandatory; and increase scrutiny of foreign financing.
“If these ideas are left unchecked, they will be internalized by a new generation of students, who will then graduate, go to college, vote, enter the workforce and raise their own families, further entrenching anti-Semitic beliefs in the broader American society.” according to the NCRI and NYC Public Schools Alliance.
Among the findings:
The DOE’s recommended resources for teachers include the Zinn Education Projectwhich offers classes, workshops and articles highly critical of Israel and the US.
The DOE list of workforce resources links to the Zinn website, which has a section on “Teaching Palestine-Israel and the Unfolding Genocide in Gaza.” claims: “Israel has turned Gaza into a ‘graveyard for children’.
Beacon High School in Midtown used Zinn lessons and articles, along with videos from the Arabic news network Al Jazeera, for a 10th-grade social studies class on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, emails reviewed by The Post show.
The content “demonized Jews” and referred to Hamas as “a political party and militant group,” and not as terrorists, parents said.
Other resources that NYC teachers can use at their discretion include those from the Teach Palestine project, which provides materials that emphasize “Palestinian victimhood” and label Zionism as a “colonialist” movement.
Racist, anti-Semitic graffiti found in a restroom at Beacon High School in Midtown. Parents denounced biased teaching materials at the school. Obtained by The New York Post
Teach Palestine is financially supported by the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), a California-based nonprofit organization with reported ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a US-designated terrorist organization.
In May, the principal of the Ella Baker School, a public elementary school on the Upper West Side, hosted a “Teach Palestine” webinar, sponsored by Rethinking Schoolsthe report said.
The material covered topics such as “anti-Zionism is not automatically anti-Semitism” and “Israel’s attacks on children, schools and historical memory in Palestine.”
These may conflict Chancellor’s Regulation A-830the report said.
The report cites two groups: NYC Educators For Palestine, an arm of the UFT caucus MORE, and Teaching While Muslim, which hosted a virtual “curriculum share” for 80 teachers in February.
The seminar was promoted by Terri Gray, acting director of Virtual Innovators Academy, a remote high school in The Bronx, The Post reported.
Teachers Unite NYC played a leading role in organizing pro-Palestinian protests during a promotional post show in November 2023. NCRI Materials shared through Teach Palestine events focus on Palestinian suffering and little on Jewish experiences, the report found. NCRI
A DOE spokesman said the agency had nothing to do with the event and that it was not Gray’s “The intention is to promote it.”
The NCRI report quotes an alleged case of foreign influence at PS 261 in Brooklyn. In January, news broke that teacher Rita Lahoud had set up an ‘Arab World’ map that excludes Israel on the wall of her classroom as part of a Program “Arab Culture Arts” funded by QFI, the American wing of the Qatar Foundation, a nonprofit owned by the country’s ruling family.
The DOE subsequently had the card removed a spokesperson first defended it.
QFI has donated more than $1 million to the DOE for bilingual Arabic programs at PS 261 and PS 30 in Brooklyn, show data.
Rita Lahoud taught in a program funded by the U.S. wing of the Qatar Foundation at PS 261 in Boerum Hill @italahoud/linkedin
Teachers Unite, a public school education group funded by George Soros’ Tides Foundation, and NYC Educators for Palestine, worked with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) on controversial school dropout campaignsaccording to documents cited in the report.
The far-left PSL has documented ties to China and entities linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
The school walkouts in New York were also part of the Shut it Down for Palestine coalition, which the report said had ties to hostile foreign actors.
In July, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Lindsay Graham 18 entities marked to Attorney General Merrick Garland for possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Acts, including the VolksforumShut it Down for Palestine and the Palestinian Youth Movement – which social media posts indicated was another co-sponsor of the strikes in New York.
PS 261 was accused of “Jewish erasure” because an Arabic map hanging in a classroom showed all the countries in the Middle East except Israel and called it Palestine. csuarez
Jewish advocacy groups have urged public school parents to email Melissa Aviles-Ramos, the new school’s chancellor, and urge her to take action.
City schools are “unsafe for Jewish people, or in fact for anyone who identifies as Zionist or supports Israel’s right to exist,” the email said.
NYC public schools should consider the word “Zionist” as a proxy for “Jewish” offensiveness and grounds for possible disciplinary action, the report says.
The parents also call on Aviles-Ramos to rid the system of “anti-Jewish employees who continue to make being Jewish in our schools uncomfortable at best and unsafe at worst.”
Educational materials in the “Teach Palestine Week” lesson plan exhibit anti-Israel bias, the report said. NCRI
DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer said Friday that officials “welcome the opportunity to review the NCRI report” when it is released this week, but defended the department’s programs to combat hate in schools.
“Our ‘Meeting the Moment’ plan to fight antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of hatred have been extremely pervasive,” Styer said. “It includes vetted instructional materials and professional development on how to best teach about the Middle East crisis and other complex current events. We have also engaged in extensive and ongoing community engagement on this issue.”
Styer did not comment on the controversy Zinn Education Project which the DOE recommends as a resource for educators.
The activist groups NYC Educators for Palestine and Teachers Unite are not “sanctioned or sponsored” by the DOE, officials said.
The action groups were not immediately available for comment.
Additional reporting by Jennifer Gould