While American universities have faced unprecedented scrutiny (and DOJ ire) for antisemitism, the nation’s public schools are also gaining attention for anti-Jewish harassment.
A recent civil rights lawsuit against the Philadelphia School District reveals antisemitic rot that runs just as deep in one of the largest public school systems in the country.
And now, a federal judge has ruled the case can proceed to trial, rejecting the school district’s bid to dismiss it.
The Philadelphia School District has faced numerous complaints of antisemitism. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the school failed to adequately address them in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years.
Philadelphia educator Heather Mizrachi can confirm. In April, she sued the Philadelphia School District over unchecked antisemitism surging through the school system immediately following the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel.
Mizrachi, who is Jewish and the daughter of an Israeli, works in the Philadelphia school district’s central office as a curriculum specialist.
According to the filing, she was targeted by colleagues and ignored by school leadership after raising concerns about antisemitic displays and harassment following the horrific attacks.
The lawsuit says that for months on end, Mizrachi was subjected to social media posts from her co-workers calling for the destruction of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. They equated Jews and Israelis to white supremacists, referred to Israel as a “terrorist state,” and cheered on the violent Hamas attacks, according to the filing.
The vile, antisemitic onslaught became impossible to ignore by the end of last year, when co-workers allegedly placed a “Free Palestine” poster in the corridor leading to Mizrachi’s workstation:
The lawsuit says the red-painted hands in the poster have been used as a rallying cry for violence against Jews and Israel. They allude to the “Ramallah Lynching” of 2000, when two Israelis were surrounded and murdered by a Palestinian mob. An infamous photo captured one of the killers holding up his blood-stained hands, now a symbol of the brutal event:
Mizrachi submitted many complaints to school leadership, the lawsuit states, but to no avail. She was roundly ignored—or worse. In a social-media post, Ismael Jiminez, the district’s Director of Social Studies Curriculum, allegedly derided her pleas for help as “White tears”:
Mizrachi’s lawsuit states she “has been forced to endure conditions that, by any objective measure, are grossly offensive, severe, and pervasive,” alleging claims for encountering a hostile work environment and discrimination under Title VII.
And now, that lawsuit has legs. Last month, U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody denied the school district’s motion to dismiss Mizrachi’s complaint. The case will now proceed through discovery, with a trial date to be set after December 1, 2025.
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