By Mikhail Zinshteyn

WHAT THE BILL WOULD DO

Assembly Bill 715 by Assemblymembers Rick Chavez Zbur and Dawn Addis, Democrats from Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo, respectively, would create a state Office for Civil Rights with an antisemitism prevention coordinator and create new processes to root out discriminatory learning materials in schools. The coordinator would develop and provide antisemitism education to teachers and school boards and also recommend other proposals to combat antisemitism.

The proposed law seeks to extinguish antisemitism in classrooms, though the definition of that concept has been the source of heated rhetoric that isn’t reconciled in the bill. A previous version defined antisemitism, including the “denigration” of believers of Zionism. Now the legislation’s focus on addressing antisemitism is limited to legislative declarations that have less legal teeth. Members of the public would be able to file anonymous complaints about alleged bias in school learning materials.

WHO SUPPORTS IT

The bill was sponsored by a coalition of Jewish cultural, political and social outreach groups called Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California and was a priority for the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. No members in either chamber officially opposed it, though 14 lawmakers didn’t vote. The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museums of Tolerance also backs the measure. “Jewish students across our state are being harassed, bullied, and intimidated simply because of who they are,” said Zbur at a legislative hearing in September. He noted instances of anti-semitic slurs and swastikas spray-painted on a Manhattan Beach school playground and San Francisco teachers being given “materials that justified Hamas’s October 7th attack.”

WHO IS OPPOSED

College student associations, faculty union groups, the main K-12 teachers unions and groups representing the interests of Arab and Muslim Californians and some progressive Jewish groups oppose it. California Teachers Association lobbyist Seth Bramble testified that it would codify into law “subjective standards for instruction under the term ‘factually accurate,’” and “would give advocates on multiple sides of controversial issues a new legal tool to disrupt instruction and to threaten educators.”

WHY IT MATTERS

The rhetoric in schools following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas and Israel’s subsequent military response has brought to a boil long-simmering frustrations about how to talk about Israel and Palestine. The bill’s earlier language defining antisemitism disturbed many progressives, who viewed it as simpatico with President Donald Trump’s efforts to liken anti-Zionism to antisemitism. Some coalitions of Jewish scholars say criticizing Israel is not inherently antisemitic, but many other Jews cite evidence of widespread Jewish intolerance in rhetoric and action.

GOVERNOR’S CALL ✅