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The San Francisco Unified School District has rescheduled a teacher training about antisemitism for Oct. 9, a district spokesperson confirmed to J. on Tuesday. The district called off the original training, scheduled for Sept. 11, amid an outcry from anti-Zionist groups and pushback from teachers.

The development will likely prolong controversy about the mandatory training for high school teachers, both in public advocacy and in private conversations.

The American Jewish Committee, a century-old Jewish advocacy group that was scheduled to lead the Sept. 11 session, will provide the materials for the rescheduled training. It is unclear whether AJC will lead the Oct. 9 workshop, based on J.’s correspondence with the district. 

The district canceled the Sept. 11 training following apparent pushback from members of the teachers union and a stark press release co-signed by three anti-Zionist groups accusing AJC of being a “pro-war lobbying group” that has “openly opposed a ceasefire in Gaza.” 

Two days after the cancellation became public, four Bay Area Jewish nonprofits responded with a joint statement imploring the district to go ahead with the training. The Jewish groups also noted that they were “currently working with district leadership” on the issue.

“SFUSD committed to hosting these trainings in response to a meteoric rise in antisemitic incidents following the October 7 attacks in Israel,” according to the statement co-signed by the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, the AJC, the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund. “The trainings will help educators learn who the Jewish people are, what antisemitism is, and how to respond to the antisemitic hatred targeting students, teachers, and parents.”

Three anti-Zionist activist groups — the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), the Council on American-Islamic Relations Bay Area (CAIR) and Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area (JVP) — gained public attention for opposing the training. But there was much more going on behind the scenes, Kristy Erickson, a Lincoln High School teacher and union member, told J. on Monday.

Erickson, a physical education teacher who sits on the executive board of the teachers union, the United Educators of San Francisco, said that members mobilized against the training for a host of reasons both mundane and political.

The UESF has been vocal in its opposition to Israel in the past, adopting a resolution on Nov. 16 calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and for the U.S. to “stop aid to Israel” without mentioning the Oct. 7 Hamas rampage. In 2021, the union endorsed the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, becoming the first American K-12 teachers union to do so.

Erickson said that union members complained about having short notice for the required training, which was scheduled to take place after regular school hours and which in her view violated the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.

“Some sites got notification on Friday, and some teachers didn’t learn until Monday morning that they were going to be expected to stay after their contractual workday on Wednesday,” she said. “That really irritated a lot of people because your workday ends at a certain time. People have children to pick up after school. Some people have second jobs.”

That wasn’t all. Erickson said there was a contingent of educators within the union that, though they supported the idea of antisemitism education, chafed at the idea of AJC leading the session.

“There are some people that are concerned specifically about that organization,” she said, adding, “I haven’t done my research on it.”

This week, San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) canceled an antisemitism training for educators led by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), a Jewish organization fighting hate for more than a century.

JCRC Bay Area, @AJCGlobal, @ADLCalifornia and @JewishBayArea issued… pic.twitter.com/T5xA6m15OZ

— JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) September 14, 2024

With ties to the Reform movement, AJC did not take a strong position on Zionism around the time of Israel’s founding, but it has since become a strong supporter of Israel and opposes, for example, the BDS movement, which it calls “insidious” and an attempt to delegitimize the Jewish state.

The SFUSD workshop had little to nothing to do with Israel, according to the school district, which said in an email to J. on Tuesday that the training was meant to provide “knowledge and framing about Jewish identity,” information about how to identify and prevent antisemitism in schools and “tools for holding nuanced conversations.”

Erickson also spoke of a third factor impacting teachers’ concerns about the training: that it was scheduled for Sept. 11. Erickson said some union members drew a connection to the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

“Some people were like, ‘Hmm, interesting. Did they plan it on September 11th on purpose?’” she said. “You know, our country was attacked. And there are people whose families experienced discrimination after that because they were Middle Eastern.”

The school district had asked AJC to lead an antisemitism training, according to Seth Brysk, executive director of AJC’s regional branch, amid complaints from Jewish families about a climate of anti-Israel activism, reports from the district itself that Jewish families had left over the past year, and following a year punctuated by two district-related investigations into issues tied to antisemitism and Israel. Jewish parents and teachers, in particular, had encouraged the district to schedule a training.

“I think a training like this creates valuable learning opportunities about Jewish identity and culture, and the challenges faced by Jewish people, just as we do for any other culture, ethnicity or group,” said Julia David, an English teacher at Washington High School.

The first training was set for four of the 17 high schools in the SFUSD. The district indicated that it would offer the training at more high schools in the future, KQED reported. 

One of the two investigations is being conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, which announced in January that it had opened a probe into the SFUSD’s handling of antisemitism complaints under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. SFUSD joined a long list of academic institutions already under federal scrutiny over their response to antisemitism after Oct. 7. Most are colleges and universities.

The other investigation was internal. The school district conducted its own investigation into whether AROC, one of the anti-Zionist groups campaigning against the AJC-led training, improperly orchestrated a student walkout for Gaza in October. The investigation found evidence that an AROC staffer was on campus at the Galileo Academy of Science and Technology on the day of the walkout and that “unidentified adults” were at Balboa High School.

The ongoing campaign in San Francisco to challenge the antisemitism training comes amid a broader effort in the United States to oppose antisemitism education in American schools if support for Israel is believed to be involved. 

Earlier this year, a coalition of anti-Zionist groups in California lobbied stridently — and unsuccessfully — against a state bill instituting Holocaust and genocide education in schools because of the involvement of Jewish Family and Children’s Services, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that supports Israel. 

Meanwhile, a national campaign to “Drop the ADL” as a “partner in social justice work” is underway because of its support for Israel and a perception that it is insufficiently progressive. The ADL for decades has led anti-bias workshops in American public schools and has long been considered an authority on anti-bias education, including its ongoing project called No Place for Hate.