The issue of anti-semitism in the schools took center stage this week as a
Congressional subcommittee, controlled by Republicans, summoned the
superintendents of several K thru 12 school districts to Capitol Hill for a hearing,
including the leader of the Berkeley Unified School District, Enikia Ford Morthel.

Berkeley of course has been a hotbed of protest since Hamas attacked Israel last
October 7 and Israel retaliated by invading the Gaza Strip. The demonstrations
and walkouts against Israel and in support of the Palestinians have not been
confined to the Cal campus, they have been common in the public schools too,
and while the district says it has been doing everything it can to prevent and
respond to anti-semitism and Islamaphobia in this climate of tension and
confrontation, it is now under investigation, with a federal complaint filed that
alleges it is allowing “severe and persistent” anti-Semitism.

For more on this, we are joined on the KCBS Ring Central Newsline by Ilana Pearlman, a midwife from Berkeley who is the mother of a Berkeley High
student who is half-Jewish and half-Black. She is one of the leaders of a group
called Berkeley Jews In School and she went to Washington D.C. to attend the
hearing and meet with members of Congress.