Berkeley Schools Chief Set to Testify at Congressional Hearing on Antisemitism

On Tuesday, a day before Ford Morthel’s scheduled testimony, the department’s Office for Civil Rights announced it had opened a formal investigation into the complaint.

Berkeley resident Ilana Pearlman said she started alerting other Jewish parents shortly after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, when her son, a ninth-grader at Berkeley High, showed her an illustration his art teacher had presented to the class as part of a lesson on “resistance art.”

“I could understand, you know, maybe resistance art if you have a ton of context behind it,” said Pearlstein, who is involved in Berkeley Jews in School, a faction of parents who believe antisemitism is on the rise in the district.

But, she said,  “I looked at that and I said, ‘It’s a fist punching through a star of David. No, thank you!’”

As Israel launched its ensuing assault on Gaza, she said her son, who is Black and Jewish, told her that signs began appearing on the walls of the classroom, including one promoting a “walkout against genocide” and another listing the daily Palestinian death toll. Pearlman said the teacher also began speaking out against Israel in class and encouraging students to attend an upcoming student walkout.

“He can feel however he wants to feel, but that stops at a public school setting,” she said. “You don’t get to go on your whole anti-Israel rant. The law says ‘No.’”

Pearlman said her son then told her that during the walkout on Oct. 18, some students shouted, “Kill the Jews!”

Pearlman helped mobilize dozens of parents to report alleged incidents of antisemitism, bullying and “pro-Hamas” activism and to demand the school district proactively address the issue. She said the district’s failure to respond effectively prompted the federal complaint, which was filed in February.

“What I want to expose about Berkeley is this reality that Berkeley acts like it’s just so perfect. And we’re just so above racism and all of the ‘isms,’ and we’re not,” said Pearlman, who will be in Washington to attend the hearing. “We suck at it too.”

In April, the district was also hit with a lawsuit from another Jewish parent alleging it had not adequately responded to his requests to share ninth-grade teaching materials about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the LA Times also reported.

In its statement last month, the district said it celebrates its diversity and stands firmly against all forms of hate, including antisemitism and Islamophobia.

“We strive every day to ensure that our classrooms are respectful, humanizing, and joyful places for all our students, where they are welcomed, seen, valued, and heard,” Berkeley Unified’s McDermott said. “We will continue to center our students and take care of each other during this time.”

After the LA Times interviewed Pearlman about the complaint and in March published a story that named her son, she said he was viciously bullied online with hateful messages.

Those messages and other reported incidents also led the Brandeis Center and ADL on Monday to file an expanded complaint against Berkeley Unified, “sounding the alarm that the already-hostile environment for Jewish students is taking a frightening turn for the worse.”

The Brandeis Center, run by a former education department official under President Trump, has filed similar complaints against several universities. It also sued the University of California and UC Berkeley officials in November over allegations of antisemitism on campus.

“Essentially, what we have asked for is a statement to start with by the district denouncing antisemitism in all of its forms,” said Marci Lerner Miller, senior education counsel for the Brandeis Center. She said that means the district would interpret comments that deny Jewish people their “right to self-determination” as antisemitic.

However, many pro-Palestinian parents in the district, a significant number of whom are Jewish – including a group called Berkeley Unified School District Jewish Parents for Collective Liberation – argue that the complaints against the district are unfairly conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

During a school board meeting in March, Andrea Prichett, a teacher in the district, was among the majority in attendance who urged the district to uphold its progressive tradition around free speech, tolerance and human rights.

“The desire to understand Palestine, the desire to understand the roots of the conflict, and the desire to speak freely are not criminal actions,” she said.

During that same meeting, Ford Morthel referred to the federal complaint as “an opportunity and not an adversarial process.”

Ford Morthel, who took the helm of Berkeley Unified nearly two years ago, brought years of experience as a top administrator at San Francisco Unified. When she accepted the superintendent job, she described herself as a leader focused on equity and has since garnered strong support from many parents in the district.

“She leads with concern for folks that have been the most marginalized,” said Erika Weissinger, whose two kids are in Berkeley schools.

Students in the district, and at Berkeley High in particular, are known for their activism against injustice, protesting in recent years for causes like abortion rights and against racism and sexual harassment.

October Hertenstein, a sophomore at Berkeley High who successfully pushed for a gender-neutral bathroom on campus, said although students don’t always feel heard by the district, Ford Morthel has been willing to listen.

“[When] you’re in a room with her, she’s very excited, she’s very animated. She’s very, kind of, ready to talk,” Hertenstein said.

In previous interviews with KQED, Ford Morthel said the school district is committed to ensuring students and staff know their rights.

Berkeley Unified declined KQED’s request to interview Ford Morthel for this story.

KQED’s Holly McDede contributed reporting to this story.