The Berkeley Unified superintendent will testify before a U.S. House of Representatives committee hearing next month during the first Congressional hearings focused on how K-12 schools are handling antisemitism since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Berkeley Unified Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel will testify before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on May 8, joining leaders from at least two other public school districts in New York City and Montgomery County, Maryland.
Previous Congressional hearings focused on how universities have handled protests on their campuses, leading to the high-profile resignations of the Harvard and Penn presidents.
The school district released a statement Monday afternoon informing the BUSD community that Ford Morthel would testify before Congress next month and reaffirming that it stands against antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of hate.
“Although she did not seek this invitation, she has accepted and will be in our nation’s capital on May 8 at 7:15 A.M. PDT to testify on behalf of our district,” the statement said.
“We strive every day to ensure that our classrooms are respectful, humanizing, and joyful places for all our students, where they are welcomed, seen, valued, and heard. We will continue to center our students and take care of each other during this time.”
In the last several months, Berkeley has been thrust into the national spotlight over its handling of antisemitism and how the Israel-Palestine conflict is taught in classrooms, becoming a symbol of the surging tensions in schools over the conflict.
The school district has faced scrutiny from some Jewish parents, who have said that the district failed to protect their students from antisemitism, alongside calls to pass a ceasefire resolution or protect teachers’ right to “teach Palestine.”
A federal civil rights complaint filed in February alleges that Berkeley administrators ignored “severe and persistent” harassment of Jewish students for months, describing incidents from students being taunted about the Holocaust to transferring classes due to pro-Palestine content in classrooms.
The complaint, filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League and covered widely in the national press, also sparked pushback locally from students, teachers and parents, who said the complaint was being used to silence teaching about Palestine in classrooms. They argued that it conflated antisemitism with criticism of Israel and some cast doubt on the incidents of antisemitism described in the complaint.
The announcement of this congressional hearing also sparked criticism. A group of Jewish parents published a statement online taking issue with the idea that antisemitism was widespread in Berkeley schools, characterizing the hearing as a “right-wing attack on education.”
“These congressional hearings are not about Jewish students’ well-being. This is part of the MAGA Republican war on education that is restricting public school students’ right to learn,” the statement read.
A parent filed another suit against Berkeley Unified in April, this one with the Deborah Project, an organization defending the civil rights of Jews in schools. He sued for access to a series of lessons taught over several days to 9th graders about the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The committee, chaired by North Carolina Republican Virginia Foxx, could address similar topics as those brought during the closely watched December hearings, including what constitutes antisemitism and student discipline. The Columbia University president will also testify before the committee soon.
Ford Morthel could face questions about her handling of any of the incidents outlined in the Brandeis Center complaint, which range from chants of “kill the Jews” reportedly repeated at a student walkout to teachers’ involvement in a student protest supporting Palestine.
This story was updated April 16 with a statement from a group called Berkeley Jewish Parents.
