AB 715, which claims to fight antisemitism in schools, is not the right prescription for a very real problem.
The past few years have been difficult for committed Jews. We’ve seen a significant increase in antisemitism in our nation and our schools, with school board resolutions and lesson plans that at best are problematic and at worst reflect an antisemitic agenda.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is cynically exploiting antisemitism for its own political ends — using it as a pretext to attack free speech and progressive activism at universities while ignoring antisemitism on the American right.
California currently faces its own choice between right and wrong ways to confront antisemitism with AB 715, a bill aimed at stopping antisemitism in K-12 schools. While we applaud lawmakers’ intent, AB 715 is not the right response. The most recent version of the bill, which is currently pending in the state Legislature while awaiting further amendments, has several problems.
AB 715 risks shutting down thoughtful education about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It defines antisemitism so broadly that it could conceivably ban any criticism of Israel or presentation of Palestinian perspectives. Students won’t learn critical thinking or how to make sense of opposing views, while anxious teachers may choose to avoid discussion of the conflict altogether. A better approach would be to use the Nexus or Jerusalem Declaration definitions of antisemitism, which make clear that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic.
The bill seems to be trying to conflate Judaism and Israel by redefining nationality to also include one’s “ancestral ties” and “a social organization where a collective identity has emerged from a combination of shared features….” This is an untested legal concept that is murky and poorly defined. Not all Jews identify with Israel, and not all Israelis are Jewish, yet this bill equates the two. Furthermore, some analysts have suggested this clause might allow a group of residents in any neighborhood to claim they are a nationality because of their “collective identity.”
AB 715 would create an antisemitism prevention coordinator, aka “antisemitism czar,” when there are no similar positions for other kinds of discrimination. There’s no racism prevention coordinator, no Islamophobia prevention coordinator, no homophobia prevention coordinator, etc. Is this fair to other minority groups? Won’t it foster a new round of resentment among other minority groups who perceive that Jews get special treatment? Do we want to start a trend of separate little “czardoms” in the Education Department for every oppressed group?
Who gets to determine if a lesson is a reportable and punishable instance of antisemitism? The bill states that “the lived experience of Jewish pupils and the Jewish community” will determine if an incident is antisemitic. But there are many versions of “lived experience,” even within a single ethnic or religious community. Suppose a teacher leads a discussion about Gaza. One Jewish student has had similar conversations at home with their parents and feels totally comfortable addressing this in the classroom. Another Jewish student says, “They’re all angry at Israel. I’m scared. I feel unsafe. This is antisemitism.” Who’s right?
The bill sets up the State of California as the judge of historical truth by describing “antisemitic content” as “inaccurate historical narratives such as labeling Israel a settler colonial state.” While we may not personally agree with “settler colonial” as a descriptor for Israel, it’s a common term in academia for a certain kind of political entity, and there’s legitimate historical debate over the use of that term for Israel. Should the State of California say that one side in the debate is right and the other is “historically inaccurate”?
Even more worrisome, the “such as” wording opens up many other aspects of Middle East history to governmental censure. For instance, some pro-Israel advocates would consider 1948 massacres of Palestinians (known by Palestinians as the Nakba) to be an “inaccurate historical narrative” and could file complaints or even lawsuits if a teacher discussed it.
While we can all appreciate lawmakers’ desire to reduce antisemitism in the classroom, AB 715 is not the right instrument. We encourage the Legislature to continue to work with the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, the ACLU, the California Teachers Association, the Association of California School Administrators and the California County Superintendents to create a bill that truly addresses antisemitic lessons without creating numerous new problems that could decrease critical thinking and actually backfire on the Jewish community.