They were trying to support their Jewish students. Unfortunately in this partnership they've precluded students and teachers from being critical of systems which is an important thing for students to learn to do through their education. The ADL's definition of antisemitism includes that any criticism of the state of Israel is in itself antisemitic. That's simply not true and that's not aligned with the beliefs of Jewish adults on that topic. In November 2024 800 Jewish voters in the United States were surveyed as part of the biannual debate which is a liberal pro-Israel lobby. Those Jewish adults, 71% of them said it was not antisemitic to criticize how Israel was conducting the war in Gaza and 59% said it was not antisemitic to accuse Israel of war crimes. Now I want to be clear. Those voters did not necessarily think themselves that Israel was committing war crimes or was conducting the war poorly but they said simply to hold those beliefs is not antisemitic. It's not in itself antisemitic. I also want to highlight that the beliefs of young Jewish adults are very different from the beliefs of older Jewish adults on this question. Less than half of young Jewish adults ages 18 to 34 have favorable views of the Israeli government. Only 45% of them view the Israeli government favorably. And so by choosing to preclude criticism of Israel, the school district of Clayton is not criticizing Israel. What we need to do is put ourselves out of alignment with what their Jewish students probably believe.

And so by choosing to preclude criticism of Israel, the school district of Clayton is not criticizing Israel. What we need to do is put ourselves out of alignment with what their Jewish students probably believe. We need to be supportive of Jewish students, of Palestinian students, of Muslim students, and of Israeli students. We need to be supportive of those individuals but we cannot let this good intention of being supportive of individuals keep us from being critical of oppressive systems and oppressive governments. By supporting students, by supporting each of these individuals in our care, we can make sure that they are able to develop the critical thinking skills to form their own opinions but by precluding criticism we cannot fulfill our educational mission. Thank you. Francis, I can't read your last name. Okay, Piras, sorry. I wasn't going to speak today but I guess I'm up. So I am a resident of Clayton. I also serve on the Clayton equity commission. Two months ago parents from Glenridge addressed the incident that happened at Glenridge at our commission and that was sort of the first time I was introduced to the topic. They also expressed extreme frustration at the response from the board of trustees and the administrators of Clayton. Invited to the meeting was a person from this organization called the ADL, an organization I knew only by their nice sounding name, anti-defamation league, but not much else. They kept touting their program called No Place for Hate.

Invited to the meeting was a person from this organization called the ADL, an organization I knew only by their nice sounding name, anti-defamation league, but not much else. They kept touting their program called No Place for Hate. Over the next 30 days that preceded our next meeting I did some homework on the organization as well as what the district does to make Jewish children above to look after the well-being of Jewish kids and as they should. There's partnerships with the Holocaust museum for example, there's people from local temples invited in to come speak to Jewish kids and so on. The Jewish kids in the high school even have a club. There's a lot that goes on. As far as the ADL goes suffice to say this is not a neutral organization and you don't have to dig very deep to find this organization. that is building a community including safety of Jewish Americans. Yes, anti-Semitism is wrong as is racism and anti-gay stuff and the list goes on, but surely there's a more neutral organization that gets us there. If we want to build an inclusive and respectful city and school district we need to stop putting our thumb on the scale for one side. Kids can see inauthenticity a lot of the time.

If we want to build an inclusive and respectful city and school district we need to stop putting our thumb on the scale for one side. Kids can see inauthenticity a lot of the time. I think we are in, I think we defeat the purpose of trying to stomp out anti-Semitism honestly and the last thing I would like to say is the graffiti also mentioned anti- black hate or racism but this has been completely lost in this discussion. The ADL is here for anti-Semitism. Who takes care of our black kids? I think we need to find something that's neutral that encompasses all these isms and there has to be something out there. That's it. Jessica. Jan code. I apologize if I mispronounced that as well. That's okay. Jan cozy. I also scribbled so that's on me too. Hello. My name is Jessica. I'm a CHS grad and current Clayton resident. I too am here to express my concern over the requirement that Clayton school faculty undergo a mandatory training with the anti-defamation league also known as the ADL. According to the largest progressive organization in the world, Jewish voice for peace, for years the ADL has used its credibility as a civil rights organization to silence critics of the state of Israel and their work has labeled anyone opposed to the state of Israel's suppression of Palestinians as anti-Semitic. This makes it hard to identify actual instances of anti- Semitism that are on the rise due to right wing extremism in this country.

According to the largest progressive organization in the world, Jewish voice for peace, for years the ADL has used its credibility as a civil rights organization to silence critics of the state of Israel and their work has labeled anyone opposed to the state of Israel's suppression of Palestinians as anti-Semitic. This makes it hard to identify actual instances of anti- Semitism that are on the rise due to right wing extremism in this country. As such, I'm concerned that the ADL's presence in our school system will not contribute to erasing anti-Semitism. Instead it will contribute to an unsafe environment for students, teachers and school administration to engage in open dialogue and discussion around what the UN along with Israeli human rights organizations have deemed a genocide. The role of local school boards is to create a space where students can dialogue with others and learn, think critically and share their thoughts and experiences respectfully and safely. My concerns are shared with the largest union in the United States, the national education association who overwhelmingly voted this past June to cut ties with the ADL in recognition of this consistent bias and unreliability. This is the same teachers union that represents the majority of My questions are who made the decision to partner with the ADL for this training on anti-Semitism? Were other programs from other sources considered? Were students considered at all or given a chance to provide input? Were a diverse array of parents consulted?