After a bruising political fight, a bill designed to curb antisemitism in California public schools passed overwhelmingly in both houses of the state legislature over the weekend at the tail end of the session.
AB 715, which faced staunch opposition from the state’s largest teachers union, progressive organizations and anti-Zionist groups, passed in the Senate 35-0 and then in the Assembly 71-0. Five lawmakers in the Senate and nine in the Assembly either were absent or abstained from voting on the measure, which opponents argue will curb legitimate pro-Palestinian speech.
The Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC), which represents 40 large, mainstream Jewish organizations including Federations, Jewish Community Relations Councils and Jewish Family and Children’s Services, cheered what it called a “landmark” bill. If signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, it is expected to become a powerful tool to counter antisemitism in public schools.
“With today’s vote, California has taken a historic stand against antisemitism in our schools,” JPAC executive director David Bocarsly said in a statement. “For far too long, Jewish students have endured slurs, bullying, and open hostility in their classrooms with nowhere to turn.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-S.F.), co-chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, thanked his fellow lawmakers for their support of the bill.
“I’m so grateful to my colleagues for recognizing the urgent need to eliminate antisemitism in our schools and to ensure Jewish students don’t have to hide their identity or go to school worrying whether they’re going to be bullied, harassed, taunted, or demonized,” Wiener said in a statement to J. “AB 715 is a big step for the Jewish community.”
Referencing Newsom’s 2024 “Golden State Plan to Counter Antisemitism,” the bill states that “antisemitism has proliferated at a shocking speed in recent years, globally and here in California.”
J. recently published a map cataloging reports of antisemitic incidents in Bay Area K-12 schools since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel and the global spike in antisemitism. In Oakland, for example, dozens of Jewish families filed paperwork to leave the public school district halfway through the 2023-24 academic year because they felt persistently under siege by anti-Israel activism and antisemitism.
If signed by the governor, AB 715 will establish an “antisemitism prevention coordinator,” appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, who will focus on anti-Jewish bias and discrimination across public schools, provide training on antisemitism to teachers and administrators and work with school districts to counter anti-Jewish bias. The coordinator will also suggest future legislation and maintain a website with “resources and information specific to antisemitism.”
As part of that, the bill will establish a new state Office for Civil Rights focusing on K-12 schools.
Despite the sweeping approvals in the Senate and Assembly, the passage of AB 715 seemed far from a sure thing earlier in the week. But a flurry of last-minute activity and mid-week votes in the Senate education and appropriations committees advanced the bill to the Senate and Assembly on Friday, as lawmakers wrapped up for the year.
The California Teachers Association, the largest education union in the state, opposed the bill, as did several other education-related groups such as the Association of California School Administrators and California School Boards Association.
In total, about 120 organizations — primarily progressive, pro-Palestinian and/or anti-Zionist — opposed the bill, according to a group called the California Coalition to Defend Public Education. Those organizations included ACLU California Action, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Jewish Voice for Peace chapters, Black Lives Matter California, Democratic Socialists of America chapters and two Bay Area Jewish congregations, Piedmont’s Kehilla Community Synagogue and Berkeley’s Beyt Tikkun.
Opponents said the bill unduly focused on antisemitism and could be used to silence pro-Palestinian speech or criticism of Israel. An earlier version of the bill said that certain criticism of Israel, such as equating Israel with Nazi Germany or denying the “historical, cultural, or religious significance of Israel to the Jewish people,” contributes to an “antisemitic learning environment” and constitutes discrimination. Those clauses were struck during negotiations.
The final version of the bill decries the “vilification of Jews and Israelis” and states that the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, published by the Biden administration in 2023, “shall be a basis to inform schools on how to identify, respond to, prevent, and counter antisemitism.”
CAIR opposed the bill’s use of the Biden plan and many other facets of the bill and urged Newsom to veto it. A Saturday press release from the organization said the legislation will “chill classroom instruction by pressuring teachers to avoid discussion of Palestine, Islamophobia, and other contested topics.”
“This is now Governor Newsom’s test,” Hussam Ayloush, CEO of CAIR’s California chapter, said in a statement. “He can either side with educators, civil rights advocates, and students whose voices are at risk of being silenced — or he can greenlight censorship that will make classrooms less free and less inclusive.”