UTLA Endorses “Antisemitism Training” by Antisemitic Organization

UTLA has partnered with PARCEO’s “antisemitism training.” This move is just letting the Fox in the Henhouse.

Los Angeles public schools are home to one of the country’s biggest Jewish student populations. Unfortunately, it seems that rather than taking advantage of this to show true solidarity in a time of rising anti-Jewish bigotry, UTLA has chosen instead to engage in gaslighting. PARCEO, a progressive outfit engaged in “Participatory Action Research” and so-called “popular education,” has developed a number of school curricula geared towards K-12, universities, activist groups, and religious or cultural institutions, and has also developed a curriculum on antisemitism. 

The Curriculum on Antisemitism From a Perspective of Collective Liberation, as it is called, claims to focus on antisemitism through a “new lens” of how it connects to and is linked with other forms of oppression. 

Nina Mehta, one of the curriculum’s coordinators and co-director of PARCEO, admits in the opening sessions for this course that she has also worked on a “Palestinian Nakba curriculum” in collaboration with Project 48, a left-wing anti-Zionist group that claims Israel is “settler-colonial,” denies the indigeneity of the Jewish people to Israel, and endorses the demographic destruction of the world’s only Jewish state through the so-called “right of return” for Palestinians living abroad. Mehta’s opening remarks also claim that there is a “misuse of the term antisemitism…directed at those fighting for justice for the Palestinian people, which adds another layer of urgency to this project.” Mehta continues to say that other programs of “antisemitism education…isolates and exceptionalizes antisemitism and dangerously misrepresents what antisemitism is.” (1:27-1:49) 

Disturbingly, but not surprisingly, (3:08) the curriculum focuses solely on right-wing, White Supremacist/Christian Nationalist forms of antisemitism, yet ignores Islamist or left-wing/Communist Antisemitism. 

In another slide (4:23) of the presentation, the curriculum outright states that the IHRA definition of antisemitism–widely respected by scholars and global governments–should not be accepted, and denies that anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism. 

Perhaps this is because Rebecca Vilkomerson of the fringe, Marxist “Jewish” Voice for Peace organization, is involved with the curriculum. In fact, the round-table only contains two Jewish people–despite the fact that this is a curriculum on antisemitism. Besides Vilkomerson, the other Jew is Sheryl Nestel, who has supported the pro-Hamas demonstration encampment movement since the October 7th attacks. Also included in the roundtable for putting together the curriculum is Andrew Kadi, a BDS activist who tweeted in support of terrorists such as Rasmea Odeh. 

These progressive organizations often mandate that the “impacted group” lead discussions on bigotry against them. However, in these roundtables, Jews are relegated to a subservient role in the discussion–if they are present at all. Rather than describing a history of antisemitism or how to combat it, the lectures are grounded in communist gobbledygook about “unity of people fighting across different terrains.” 

It should be no surprise that UTLA has decided to partner with PARCEO to allegedly combat antisemitism. UTLA has been involved in several antisemitic scandals itself, including comments slandering Zionism and, in statements calling for a ceasefire, refraining from condemning Hamas or Hezbollah, or calling for a release of Israeli hostages. In fact, the wording of a UTLA resolution on the Middle East conflict seemingly placed all blame on Israel.  This has led some Jewish teachers in the UTLA to launch lawsuits for being forced to pay dues despite no longer belonging to it. 

UTLA’s cynical embrace of PARCEO’s “antisemitism” program is nothing more than a shallow, performative attempt to deflect attention from its own embrace of antisemitism. Those who dig deeper into its recent political trends will soon discover that this is an insidious and calculated attempt to further embrace antisemitism under the guise of fighting it–and, of course, “all other forms of hatred.”