Sacramento, California– SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Tuesday aimed at combating anti-Semitism in schools.
The California Legislative Jewish Caucus said the law would help respond to troubling harassment of Jewish students. But critics, including educators and pro-Palestinian advocates, said it could inadvertently hinder teaching about complex issues in classrooms.
“California is taking action to confront hate in all its forms,” Newsom said in a statement. “At a time when anti-Semitism and intolerance are on the rise nationally and globally, these bills make clear: our schools should be places of learning, not hate.”
The law creates an Office of Civil Rights with a coordinator appointed by the governor who will develop and provide training to help school employees identify and prevent anti-Semitism. The coordinator shall consult with the State Board of Education to make recommendations to the Legislature on policies to address discrimination against Jews in schools.
The new Office for Civil Rights could cost the state about $4 million a year, including money for six employees, according to the State Operations Agency, which oversees departments in Newsom’s administration.
Students in public schools nationwide are generally protected from discrimination through state, federal, and county policies. But lawmakers in states like Missouri, Vermont and Tennessee have gone further by introducing legislation specifically aimed at combating anti-Semitism in K-12 schools. These efforts come amid political tensions in the United States over the war between Israel and Hamas.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs He vetoed the bill earlier this year It would have banned teachers from promoting anti-Semitism in schools. She said the bill is about attacking teachers, not combating anti-Semitism.
President Donald Trump’s administration has halted or frozen federal funding at colleges, including University of California, Los Angelesdue to allegations that they failed to adequately respond to anti-Semitism. UC President James B. Milliken said the cuts, which are being litigated, would not address anti-Jewish acts, and that the university system’s efforts to address anti-Semitism were ignored.
The Anti-Defamation League, which supports the new law, tracked 860 anti-Semitic acts reported to the group last year in non-Jewish K-12 schools across the country. Reports include harassment, vandalism and assault. This represents a 26% decrease from the previous year but significantly higher than the 494 reported in 2022.
Lev Miller Ruderman, a Jewish student at San Lorenzo Valley High School near the coastal city of Santa Cruz, told a legislative hearing that school officials did not take any anti-Semitic acts on campus seriously during his freshman year.
Another student used school materials to make a Nazi flag and pinned it to Ruderman’s back, he said. Ruderman walked past several students across campus before a teacher asked him about it, he said.
“I felt sad, confused and exhausted,” said Ruderman, who spent the rest of the school year at home.
The Office for Civil Rights does not require legislative approval for teacher education materials. But some teachers have criticized part of the law that requires all teacher instruction to be “factually accurate” because they say it could unintentionally stifle learning.
Many controversial topics have conflicting truths depending on perspective, said Seth Bramble, director of the California Teachers Association. Not allowing these facts to be taught promotes rote learning over critical thinking and gives advocates “a new legal tool to disrupt teaching and threaten teachers,” she said.
An earlier version of the bill set specific requirements for “educational materials related to Jews, Israel, or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” including that they be balanced, accurate, not promote anti-Semitism, and not characterize Israel as a settler-colonial state.
The law no longer refers to… Israel-Hamas warBut critics said it could still have a chilling effect and prevent open discussion of controversial issues in the classroom.
“Teachers’ speech about Palestine or the Gaza genocide will be monitored, distorted, and reported to the Anti-Semitism Coordinator,” Teresa Montaño of the California Faculty Association said in a statement.
Democratic state Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbor, who co-authored the bill, said in September that lawmakers must address the harassment, bullying and intimidation faced by Jewish students.
“When swastikas are drawn on elementary school playgrounds, or when a Nazi flag is taped to a Jewish student’s back, or he is chased and yelled at, we will not look the other way,” he said in a statement. “This bill is about ensuring safe and supportive learning environments that align with our state’s values.”