Community Letter to BUSD Board of Education

We care for Jewish people

Our kids need to be seen!

Please ensure that Jewish students and their families can feel and be safe on the Berkeley Schools' campuses. Thanks

Please stop letting special interest groups hijack local meetings. Berkeley needs to be a safe space for all students.

All children deserve to feel three things: safe, loved, and seen. Schools are a place where children should be learning to tolerate their differences, not be ostracized because of them. "We are not asking for BUSD to take a political position on the war. Middle East geopolitics are complex, and the Israel-Hamas war is the result of thousands of years of conflict. Our singular ask at this time is for BUSD to live up to its mission to ensure that all students feel safe at school, that all students are treated equally and inclusively, and that all forms of hate are actively condemned: antisemitism, racism, Islamophobia, anti-Arab sentiment and so on."

Please keep schools safe for our Jewish kids! Anti-semitism at BUSD and all over the Bay Area is very real. Please don’t unknowingly contribute it. This should be a neutral place - not a flag waving place where we choose sides of who gets to be more human.

Please protect and care for this generation.

Berkeley, do this right thing and protect ALL students.

Mother of two Berkeley children with family in Israel

Please protect our children and grandchildren!

I have a child at King MS

Our kids are reporting hearing anti-semitic comments in the hallways, enduring blatant calls to “kill the Jews” or “eliminate Israel.” Non-Jewish students asking Jewish students what “their number is,” referring to the numbers tattooed on many Jews in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Many students have endured anti-semitic statements from teachers, and witnessed art and propaganda hung in their classroom with echoes to Nazi Germany.

Educators are supposed to educate and provide safety for students. Shame on you for not taking action sooner.

Mother of 2 BUSD children - Raina and Kiren Pilania

I am horrified to hear of this terrible lack of concern for our children. It shows a lack of altruism and empathy that we expect of our teaching staff. I presume they are uneducated in the history of Israel/Palestine and are eating up the Hamas line.

What reasons can there be to not accepting these recommendations? We live in the United States not Nazi Germany.

BUSD needs to get on top of this now.

Keep us safe

BUSD must protect all of its students. Jewish students deserve just as much support and consideration as is offered to other students from minority backgrounds.

Jewish students must feel safe and be treated with respect