The Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism, a commission within the Massachusetts Legislature, conducted a hearing Feb. 10 regarding educational materials distributed by the Massachusetts Teachers Association the commission deemed antisemitic.
Today the MTA announced it would remove materials that the commission found objectionable.
The materials included a poster criticizing American aid to Israel with a dollar bill folded into the Star of David, and another depicting a person armed with an automatic rifle and the words, “what was taken by force can only be returned by force.”
Another poster depicted a headshot of Joe Biden along with the title “serial killer.”
There are 100 posters in the collection.
Simon Cataldo, co-chair of the Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism and state representative for the 14th Middlesex district, said concerned teachers reached out to the commission about the antisemitic nature of some of the educational materials distributed by the MTA.
“When many teachers, MTA members, tried to object, and we went through this in the hearing, they were shamed, gaslit, called right-wing, for pointing out the problematic nature of these materials,” said Cataldo.
Cataldo also raised concerns about the response of the MTA — specifically of Max Page, MTA president.
“When I presented obviously antisemitic materials to Max Page, his response was, ‘I’m not going to evaluate that,’” said Cataldo.
State representative Steven Howitt, who represents the 4th Bristol district, also said he was concerned about these materials.
“The majority of the information that has been put forth by MTA for their teachers has been fairly one sided, anti-Israel, anti-Jewish,” said Howitt.
Howitt said he wants the representation presented to be balanced.
“Palestinians have been very good at changing the narrative of what the actual history is,” said Howitt. “As I said prior, if you’re going to present one side, present the other side as well.”
Rabbi Shmuel Posner, of the Chabad House of Greater Boston, said he believes political posturing has no place in education.
“You’re supposed to be educating children,” said Posner. “You’re not supposed to be making political statements or statements about international conflicts.”
Jeff Klein, a board member of Massachusetts Peace Action, said he supports the MTA.
“The MTA, as far as I understand, their packet, was put together by a bunch of teachers, and it was passed by the board of the MTA, all of whom are elected by the members. Unlike a lot of the people on that commission were selected, the MTA is a democratic institution,” said Klein.
In response to the issues of bias raised by the commission, Klein justified the educational materials.
“It’s the Palestinian side that has not been paid attention to over the years. So, in that sense the materials they put together, they have been unbalanced,” Klein said. “But it was an effort to balance the unbalanced coverage in the rest of the universe that teachers are exposed to.”
Klein described the hearing as a “setup job” where the commission spent two and a half hours attacking the MTA, allowed an MTA panel a 10 minute rebuttal, dismissed the panel and continued to criticize the MTA without offering any chance for them to defend themselves.
The MTA panel consisted of a number of educators, including Sana Fadel, a member of SAWA: Newton-Area Alliance for Peace and Justice and public school parent. Another panelist was Merrie Najimy, an elementary STEM lab teacher.
Both spoke out against the hearing, which Najimy described as a “McCarthy-esque inquisition” and criticized the small amount of time allotted to the panel.
“The formal adoption of ‘anti-Israel bias’ in our states policies and administration will lay the groundwork for one, silencing and disciplining of students and teachers, two, control of schools curricula through censorship and book-banning and three, inflating and distorting data on antisemitism in schools,” said Fadel.
Najimy described the situation as an “attack.”
“The well orchestrated attacks on the MTA by the ADL, by the JCRC and the AJC and the likes and camera is not a way to fight antisemitism. In fact, what it’s provoking is violence against other members,” said Najimy.
Fadel described the hearing as a threat to democracy.
“A new category of ‘anti-Israel bias or hate’ is being used to threaten basic tenets of a democratic society,” said Fadel. “First, our right to criticize, protest, and advocate to influence our own government’s policies and actions and second, our children’s right to a robust education that prepares them to be critical thinkers to fully participate in our democracy.”
In an email to the Daily Free Press, the MTA wrote, “The Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism has a willing ally in the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Yet, members and leaders of the commission chose instead to demonize our educators and their union through a selective presentation of material accessible only to union members via online resources about the war between Israel and Hamas. It was an inquisition that was beneath the dignity of the Legislature.”
