Opposition swells against landmark bill to curb antisemitism in California schools

Supporters of a landmark bill meant to curb antisemitism in California’s K-12 schools are pressing ahead with negotiations in the final two months of the legislative session, despite opposition from the California Teachers Association, a powerful force in state politics.

The CTA, a labor union with more than 300,000 members, flung a new obstacle in the bill’s path on July 3, when it joined some progressive and anti-Zionist groups in announcing opposition to the legislation. The bill’s opponents say the measure elevates antisemitism over other forms of bigotry and confuses anti-Israel criticism for antisemitism.

Assembly Bill 715 is supported by the largest Jewish organizations in the state and the entirety of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, for whom it is the top legislative matter this year. Sept. 12 is this session’s final day to pass bills in either the state Assembly or the Senate.

“We have an antisemitism problem in California schools right now,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-S.F.), co-chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. Describing AB 715 as the caucus’ “only legislative priority this year,” he said, “it’s not acceptable for Jews to be demonized in California classrooms. We need to put a stop to it.”

The measure replaced a since-abandoned bill targeting ethnic studies earlier this year. Instead, AB 715 is designed to confront antisemitism across the board, responding to an upsurge in anti-Jewish hate across California schools exacerbated by the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, 2023. 

Authored by Assemblymembers Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles) and Dawn Addis (D-San Luis Obispo), the bill would amend the California Education Code to add rules related to creating an “antisemitic learning environment” in the classroom and would create a full-time “antisemitism prevention coordinator” under the State Board of Education to train educators and report to the legislature on antisemitism in public schools. It would also expand the definition of “nationality” to include “ancestral ties.”

Until recently, the most vocal opposition to the measure came predominantly from anti-Zionist groups including Jewish Voice for Peace and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC). San Francisco-based AROC is a staunchly anti-Israel nonprofit fiscally sponsored by the progressive Tides Center.

But the CTA is much more influential than those groups in state politics, and its position carries far more weight. 

The group donates millions of dollars toward political campaigns and ballot initiatives, spending on negative attack ads and shaping the public conversation on education issues. It reported more than $220 million in revenue last year, according to public tax filings. CTA officials met in April with leaders of the Senate education committee, which must greenlight the bill if it is going to pass.

This week, the education committee postponed its Wednesday hearing on AB 715 because of uncertainty about whether it would advance in light of CTA’s opposition. 

“The bill was at serious risk,” the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC), a backer of the legislation, wrote in an email on Tuesday to its members and supporters.

The education committee is made up of seven members, of which a majority are required to advance a bill. A person close to the negotiations told J. on the condition of anonymity that the bill’s supporters were confident about three “yes” votes, but unsure about the other four. 

Supporters of AB 715 now face a decision — whether to go back to the negotiating table to win over the union’s leadership (whose support they had initially sought), or prioritize negotiating with lawmakers directly and move despite CTA’s opposition.

Lawmakers in support of the bill said the CTA’s support would be welcome, but perhaps not necessary.

“My door is always open to working with those organizations,” said Addis, the bill’s co-author. “That said, at the heart of what’s important here is making sure that children in our K-12 system are in a system that welcomes and affirms them.”

Added Wiener, “The CTA is definitely a major player in California politics. But there’s no such thing as an all-powerful organization.”

Concern about antisemitism in California schools predates the start of the Israel-Hamas war and gained particular attention in 2019 amid debates over ethnic studies — a course offered in many California schools that focuses on race and racism. An initial draft of a state model curriculum for ethnic studies criticized Israel, did not define antisemitism and included a controversial rap lyric about Israelis manipulating the press. (The model curriculum has since been revised.)

Since Oct. 7, 2023, reported incidents of hate against Jews, Israelis and Israel have intensified. Meanwhile, teachers unions in progressive cities including San Francisco and Oakland have shared full-throated support for Palestinians and unsparing criticism of Israel.

A flurry of publicized incidents have shocked large segments of California’s Jewish community and spurred lawsuits, congressional hearings and investigations by the U.S. Department of Education.

Addis compiled a list of antisemitic incidents in California that she shared with J.: A Jewish student had a Nazi flag taped to his back in San Lorenzo Valley; a Marin County teacher told her students there were “too many Jews” in the district; a substitute teacher in the South Bay “made two Holocaust jokes about burning Jews in ovens”; slides shown to students at Menlo Atherton High School said that Israel was created because Europe “felt bad” about the Holocaust so it “took land from Palestine.”

Antisemitism, Addis said, is a “very specific problem” in California that can sometimes be disguised as a legitimate political argument. She called it “discrimination by proxy.”

“People will say, ‘I’m not antisemitic, I’m just anti-Zionist,’” she said. “Then you get this litmus test, these purity tests: ‘Are you the Zionist kind of Jew or are you the anti-Zionist kind of Jew? Because one’s good, and one’s bad.’”

The CTA’s opposition to the bill comes alongside increasingly visible rejections of pro-Israel advocacy from American teachers unions. This week, the National Education Association, of which the CTA is an affiliate, voted to cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, which has for decades provided antisemitism education in American public schools but also supports Zionism.

The CTA’s July 3 letter, signed by legislative relations manager Seth Bramble, was addressed to the education committee chair, state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena), and urged her to vote “NO,” in capital letters, on AB 715.

The bill would “impose limits and define standards for course instruction regarding Israel, Palestine, Zionism, or the Israeli/Palestinian conflict,” something “we don’t do for any other active conflict,” the letter said. It also took aim at the bill’s mandate to hire a state antisemitism prevention coordinator. “The position does not address any other forms of hate or discrimination, something that is equally needed,” the letter said.

Opposition to AB 715 cascaded after the CTA letter. The following day, two more professional associations, California School Administrators and California County Superintendents, announced their opposition in a letter to Pérez.

Jewish organizations rebuked the CTA for what they described as an unwillingness to take antisemitism seriously and the application of a double-standard when it comes to anti-Jewish hate that would not be applied to any other minority group. “CTA’s opposition puts AB 715 — and the safety of Jewish students — at risk,” read a statement issued by JPAC, which was cosigned by roughly two dozen Jewish organizations including every major California city’s Jewish community federation.

Bill supporters told J. that they were frustrated with CTA’s negotiating tactics. For months, the union had advised bill supporters not to target ethnic studies but to focus more broadly on antisemitism, which they did.

“They said to us, ‘You should not be focusing on ethnic studies. You’re putting a target on the back of ethnic studies,’” said David Bocarsly, JPAC’s executive director. “If you really care about antisemitism in the classroom, write a bill about antisemitism in the classroom.”

Wiener said he worked directly with CTA on the bill.

“I have personally been on multiple Zooms with CTA and other education stakeholders,” Wiener said. 

“I was deeply disappointed by CTA’s opposition letter,” he added. “It essentially said, ‘Yeah, we don’t like antisemitism. But there’s nothing we can do about it.’”

By this week, opposition to the bill had intensified enough to halt the bill’s progress.

The difficult fight over the bill is one that, to casual observers of state politics, looked like it might have been avoided earlier this year. In early May, the bill won the support of leaders of four “diversity caucuses” in Sacramento, including the Black caucus, the Latino caucus and the Asian American and Pacific Islander caucus. 

The Assembly voted unanimously on May 29 to approve the measure. 

At the time, though, the text of the bill was in a nascent state, expressing “intent” to combat antisemitism without getting into specifics.

Now fleshed out, the bill is being criticized by progressives as echoing Trump administration crackdowns on university-level antisemitism. 

The bill text as it’s written takes a broad approach to defining antisemitism, describing both antisemitism associated with the right and anti-Israel sentiment associated with the left. It operates under the idea that certain criticisms of Israel, made in K-12 classrooms, can open the door to antisemitism by portraying Israel as an unrepentant force for evil, or claiming the Jewish state is illegitimate.

The bill states that “equating Jews or Israelis with Nazis or Nazi Germany,” for example, contributes to an “antisemitic learning environment,” as does “denying the right of Israel to exist” or denying “the historical, cultural, or religious significance of Israel to the Jewish people.” 

Progressive and anti-Zionist groups staunchly opposing AB 715 took issue with nearly every facet of the bill, including rules against equating Israelis with Nazis. An undated letter addressed to the Senate education committee, cosigned by scores of progressive groups including Black Lives Matter, the Democratic Socialists of America and Jewish Voice for Peace, pointed to a December 2024 article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in which an Israeli soldier is quoted as saying “I felt like a Nazi.”

“Under AB 715, the quoted Israeli soldier as well as Haaretz … would be deemed antisemitic, and this viewpoint would be censored from California schools,” the letter stated.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations California likewise excoriated AB 715, which it called an “anti-education” bill, and celebrated the postponement of the committee hearing, attributing the delay to “the powerful, grassroots coalition that mobilized across California,” according to a statement Tuesday from policy coordinator Musa Tariq.

“We’ll continue to stand with communities defending the right to teach authentically and without political interference,” Tariq said.

While critics have accused the bill of attempting to stifle discussion of the Palestinian cause, supporters say the measure does no such thing. Its text states the bill “does not prohibit instruction about Palestine or Israel or any nation.”

“The experts on defining antisemitism should be the Jewish community,” Bocarsly said, “as would be the case for any other community.”

On Israel, Bocarsly said the intent of the legislation is to prevent classroom discussions from sliding into antisemitism, rather than to litigate which terms or phrases are antisemitic. 

“I know that within the Jewish community, we have a proud tradition of debate and dissent and disagreement,” he said, including on Israel and Zionism. “There’s a lot more universality in our community about what might create a harmful environment for Jewish students.” 

Added Bocarsly, “Just because something isn’t antisemitic by some standards, doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for the classroom.”

The CTA did not respond to requests for an interview. 

The legislature will soon break for a summer recess and will take up AB 715 upon return in August.

Bill supporters have received assurances from the state Senate leader Mike McGuire and the education committee chair Pérez that they are committed in broad terms to sending “an antisemitism bill” to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk before the end of the session. 

As negotiations continue, Bocarsly said bill supporters hope to win broad support in the state Senate. If opponents insist on turning the measure into a “universal anti-hate bill,” he added, “that’s a nonstarter.”