School District of Philadelphia Parents for Palestine

When we first learned about the ADL affiliated School District of Philadelphia Jewish Family Association (SDPJFA) in a Philadelphia Inquirer article in late February we were, to say the least, confused. 

The group is not part of the School District of Philadelphia (SDP), nor does it speak for all or most Jewish families, and in many cases it is targeting schools where it has zero parents with children in the schools. 

Yet it was able to force the actual SDP to censor student work and prevent the investigation and firing of one of its members, a teacher, who doxed children attending a public school in Philadelphia. 

Its intimidation, defamation, and dishonest tactics targeting K-12 schools and teachers resemble the tactics seen by national right-wing organizations who have focused attention on private colleges since last fall. Groups like it have for years attacked Social Studies education and African-American studies specifically. And it will get much worse unless we get organized and speak up for public education in Philadelphia.

That the SDP has consistently caved to a group that is not transparent in its leadership or funding, and peddles in the denial of the Nakba to which so many Philadelphia students and families are directly impacted is unacceptable. 

It is absurd that the SDP allows an outside organization to use its name. The SDP’s lack of responsiveness for months to this and so many issues and concerns led to our response: the creation of this organization with our name, School District of Philadephia Parents for Palestine.

When the SDP publicly demands that SDPJFA drop “School District of Philadelphia” from its name, and this outside group does so, our group will also drop SDP from our name and this website as well.