Over Jewish concerns, Bay Area district votes 5-0 to use ethnic studies textbook

Trustees of the Campbell Union High School District, which operates six high schools with 8,600 students in the San Jose, Calif., area, voted 5-0 to adopt the textbook “Voices: An Ethnic Studies Survey” for six years for its ethnic studies courses.

The book “mentions Jews but lacks a meaningful discussion of what antisemitism is, how it works and why it has risen dramatically since the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7, 2023,” according to Oleg Ivanov, executive director of the northern California region for StandWithUs.

“It distorts Jewish identity and experiences by ignoring Jews, who are not ‘white’ in any sense of the term, as well as antisemitic threats from white supremacists and other hate groups,” he told JNS. “It teaches about ‘diaspora’ communities but never mentions how that word is rooted in Jewish history.”

The textbook, which the district board adopted at a meeting on Thursday night, is to be part of a curriculum that “repeatedly uses ‘resistance’ and other terms that extremists have weaponized to promote hatred and violence, with no clear definitions or guardrails,” according to Ivanov.

“Given the numerous antisemitic incidents in this district, it is vital that school leaders engage with the Jewish community in good faith to address these concerns,” he said. (JNS sought comment from the district.)

Tali Klima, spokeswoman for the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, told JNS that it’s “astonishing” that the district board approved “a year-long mandatory course after reviewing only a textbook that teachers are not even required to use.”

“Parents and students repeatedly warned that the concern was never the textbook. It was the unchecked supplemental materials,” she said. “By approving this course without meaningful oversight, the board has effectively handed educators a blank check to introduce political content into a required class.”

“Such irresponsible decision making is especially alarming in a district with a documented history of discriminatory classroom materials,” Klima said.

In April 2025, the California Department of Education determined that two teachers’ “ethnic studies material and instruction” in the district “discriminated against Jewish students,” according to a department report, which JNS viewed.

“This board cannot afford to be negligent,” Klima told JNS. “We will continue to monitor the implementation of ethnic studies at Campbell Union High School District and will hold trustees accountable for any harm to students.”

Marci Lerner Miller, director of legal investigations at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told JNS that “within a short period of time, the state of California found that Campbell Union High School District failed to adequately respond to Jew-hatred and that the district’s ethnic studies materials discriminated against Jewish students.”

“The district should now be focused on addressing the pervasive antisemitism in its schools and completing the state-ordered anti-bias training,” she said. “Instead, the school board adopted an ethnic studies curriculum despite the Jewish community’s serious concerns that the course materials had not been adequately reviewed.”

“This decision undermines the inclusive environment the district claims to offer its students and sends a disturbing message to Jewish families,” Miller told JNS.

During public comment at Thursday’s meeting, parents and students shared concerns that the board had not properly vetted the materials.

A Jewish student said that the district has seen a “painful rise in antisemitism” and noted that the state’s education department found in June that the district didn’t do enough after a student told a teacher, of a Jewish peer, “Don’t talk to that Jew. That’s why the Holocaust happened.”

The student also said that a teacher’s assignment asked students if Hamas members are terrorists or freedom fighters. “These incidents leave Jewish students feeling humiliated and unsafe,” the student said.

The student added that “teachers will have the discretion to use supplementary materials that you have not fully reviewed.”

“Without strict oversight and transparency, these unvetted modules risk introducing more biased content into our classrooms,” she said. “I ask the board to delay making this course mandatory for freshmen until you have thoroughly reviewed the complete framework and established meaningful accountability.”

A parent in the district said that “our district has already experienced serious antisemitic incidents and the California Department of Education previously found the specific instruction materials and teaching in the district ethnic studies program were biased.”

“Do not make this course mandatory yet,” he said. “Please take the time to get it right.”

After public comment, Robert Bravo, district superintendent, told trustees that the agenda item is about adopting the textbook in ethnic studies, not about delaying the ethnic studies graduation requirement.

“What I didn’t hear tonight was specific objections to anything in this book, maybe some general objection again to the use of the ‘oppressor’ framework, but nothing specific, nothing that is factually inaccurate in the book,” he said.

Elisabeth Halliday, a trustee, said via video chat that she read the textbook and took the concerns from the community seriously. She didn’t think the textbook is perfect, but “disagreement with the framework is not evidence of bias and indoctrination,” she said.

‘We’re here to discuss the book and not the entire course,” she said.

“There is some talk about and lessons about ‘oppressed’ and ‘oppressor,’” she allowed. “The fact of the matter is there are people who have been systemically oppressed, purposefully, for centuries in our nation and other nations, and I don’t think that learning about that is going to make people less patriotic or feel guilty.”

Linda Goytia, board clerk, said that the textbook “does not address or focus on Palestinian or Jewish issues at all” but instead on black, Latino, Native American and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

She acknowledged that some could be “annoyed” about a sentence in the book that states that under the Spanish Inquisition, “many Jews were also sent to the New World against their will.”

“I thought, ‘Well, the Inquisition targeted Jews as heretics and tortured and burned as many as they could manage. Those living in hiding under the city of Toledo in Spain would probably have loved to have been sent here against their will,’” Goytia said.

“Just that one sentence alone without context, I kind of thought, ‘Why is that even there?’” she said.

That was the only sentence in the book cited in comments to the board that had the word “Jew,” she said.

One critic told the board that the textbook uses the word “diaspora” for black and Latino communities but not Jews. Goytia said that was true, but she thinks it’s because the book doesn’t focus on Jews or Palestinians.

“At this point in time, I can’t find anything in this volume that would make any Jewish student feel unsafe,” Goytia said.

The Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area told JNS that it has “consistently emphasized to Campbell Union High School District leadership the need to improve its climate to address antisemitism.”

“The district must ensure thoughtful and accurate representation of Jewish identity, history and lived experiences in its ethnic studies program,” it said. “We look forward to continuing to work with the community and district leadership to include Jewish voices across all aspects of campus life and instruction.”

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