Jewish Groups Call Out Philly School District After Administrator Blames Israel for Oct. 7

Jewish leaders on Thursday called on the School District of Philadelphia to take action against an administrator who they say has “rationalize[d]” Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks against Israel.

The Philadelphia chapter of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other Jewish groups wrote in a letter to the school district that they are “deeply troubled by a recently circulated video clip of Ismael Jimenez, Director of the Social Studies Curriculum for the School District of Philadelphia” in which he “appears to rationalize the Hamas-led massacre of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7.”

“In a time of heightened threats to Jewish communities, school leadership must take seriously any endorsement or rationalization of hate-fueled violence,” the letter continued. “To the School District: At what point does inaction become complicity?”

Jimenez appeared to blame Israel for Hamas’s massacres during a recently unearthed podcast interview from 2024.

“When we look at October 7th, this didn’t happen out of the blue, right?” Jimenez asked. “This is generations, right, of folks who feel like their voice has been denied.”

The letter comes a week after the Washington Free Beacon reported on parents’ concerns about rising anti-Semitism in the school district, including among administrators like Jimenez, and their contention that Gov. Josh Shapiro (D.) has not taken the problem seriously.

The ADL Philly letter said Jimenez has “made a pattern of denying the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, refusing to speak about peace or coexistence, and downplaying the lived experiences of Jewish people in the face of violence … These actions raise serious concerns about whether he can serve all students with integrity and respect.”

Other organizations that signed the letter include the American Jewish Committee of Philadelphia, Gratz College, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Philadelphia, StandWithUs Mid-Atlantic, and the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History.

Jimenez has called Israel a “terrorist state” and a “racist apartheid theocracy” in various social media posts. He also claimed that it has been “proven recently that Hamas had nothing to do with kidnapping that started current invasion of the Gaza strip.”

Jimenez and several other Philadelphia school officials recently launched a “Racial Justice Organizing Committee” for educators. The group posted a flyer on Instagram this week in which they called for the release of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and demanded that people “Reject Amerikan Patriotism” on July 4th. The post also featured a Hamas logo.

Other committee members include Hannah Gann, a high school teacher who accused Israel of “genocidal terror” and declared, “F— the police until Palestine is free!”; and Keziah Ridgeway, a high school teacher who called Israel’s military actions in Gaza “worse than gas chambers.”

Philadelphia parents told the Free Beacon last week that the school district has become an “absolute cesspool” of anti-Semitism and anti-American hatred.

The district settled a federal discrimination case with the Department of Education last year brought after students allegedly taunted their Jewish classmates with Nazi salutes, swastika graffiti on doors, and threats to “kill the Jews.”

The North American Values Institute, a watchdog group that tracks extremism in schools, said the district’s social studies curriculum—which Jimenez oversees—has replaced “historical instruction with political ideology.”

The district’s history courses, for instance, ask students to “find a song that they think should replace the national anthem” in response to “race and racism in the United States.” They also describe capitalism as “closely intertwined with imperialism” and claim it “led to the subjugation of peoples and the extraction of resources from colonized lands.”

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