Seattle area elementary school teaches ‘antisemitic views and propaganda’ to second graders

According to a letter from the StandWithUs Center for Combating Antisemitism (CCA), during a December social studies class taught at Syre Elementary school in Shoreline, Washington, “seven and eight-year-old children” were taught “deeply bigoted, antisemitic views and propaganda in a ‘lesson’ that amounted to indoctrination.”

https://Twitter.com/thehoffather/status/1758366869226918214?s=20

A video in the lesson showed students a video of children participating in anti-Israel protests.

The video also glorified the violent antisemitic activists that disrupted the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

The CCA letter was sent to school principal Michelle Carroll and Susanna Reyes, Superintendent of the Shoreline Public Schools, at the request of concerned parents in the community and asked for a reply by January 31 but did not receive one. Phone calls were also ignored.

According to the letter, Syre engaged in “indoctrination, promoted hatred, and created a hostile classroom environment towards the Israeli and Jewish communities.”

According to the organization, the posting of this inappropriate and unbalanced “lesson” on a schoolwide electronic communication platform only served to compound the harm to the Jewish community.

The CCA noted that the social studies “lesson” also displayed a blatant disregard for Shoreline Public Schools policies, including, among others, those regarding controversial issues, academic freedom, selection of academic materials, and absence of bias.

CCA Director Carly Gammill said in a statement, "The exponential increase in anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric since Hamas' October 7 massacre and kidnapping in Israel is clearly evident on college campuses and in the community. Situations like this demonstrate that we are dealing with a far more insidious problem that has crept into the educational system at much lower levels, with teachers indoctrinating young minds with anti-Israel propaganda and misinformation that incites violence and undermines and denies 3,000 years of Jewish history in the land of Israel."

Regional director of StandWithUs Northwest Randy Kessler, added, "Furthering such false and biased narratives to young audiences—including through the use of videos that glorify violence— threatens to solidify antisemitic thoughts and carries the potential of encouraging further violent actions. To safeguard Jewish and Israeli students and to protect the students at Syre Elementary and other schools from further indoctrination into false and biased narratives, we call upon the school district to take immediate corrective action, including providing education about Jewish identity and antisemitism."