56 No. 78 JUSTICE To make matters worse, the girls participated in a social studies class about strong political leaders and were then asked to draw a composite portrait of the leaders who were the subject of the class. The result? A large full color drawing with Hitler’s face.8 The parents went back to the headmaster, whose only response was to attack the parents for accusing him of antisemitism. The very next day, the school summarily expelled all three children, effective immediately. The headmaster even refused to allow a friend of one of the girls to pick up an award that she had been scheduled to receive at a school-wide ceremony the next day. Our suit was coupled with a sophisticated media outreach strategy, which resulted in numerous articles in the press, several of which reproduced the picture of the political leader with Hitler’s face being held aloft by these sixth graders. The Attorney General of Virginia immediately announced an investigation, and we received an outpouring of public support. The result was that we were able to negotiate an impactful settlement that received a lot of publicity. In addition to a $100,000 monetary payment to our client plus an award of attorney’s fees, the Nysmith School undertook major changes. The agreement requires the school to adopt a new, comprehensive anti-discrimination policy and create a threemember committee, including at least one parent of a student, to review complaints. According to the settlement, the school also must hire an independent monitor to oversee the committee’s work for at least five years. In addition, the school must adopt a staff training program on recognizing and combating antisemitism and “provide an annual program for age-appropriate students on the Holocaust.” C. Tackling the Problem in One State-Wide Lawsuit Admittedly, there are limits to the strategy of grinding out lawsuits against one school at a time. As we allege in a cutting edge law suit we have filed in state court against the State of California and its senior public education officials under the equal protection clause of the California State Constitution, the defendants have allowed California’s schools to indoctrinate children, from the earliest ages, to believe that Jewish Americans and Israelis – including their own classmates — are racists, white supremacists, oppressors, and baby-killers who should be shunned.9 Some school districts have allowed this kind of hateful indoctrination to occur, while others have expressly condoned or even promoted it. The entirely foreseeable (and perhaps intended) consequence of this indoctrination is that Jewish children are bullied and excluded by their peers and harassed by their teachers, who silence or mock them if they speak out. Here are just some of the examples of what we allege in this lawsuit: Members of the Oakland Teachers Union were instructed to adopt a curriculum called “Teach Palestine,” which provides kindergarteners a coloring book that instructs young pupils to draw “the Zionist leaders of Israel receiv[ing] money to conduct” a “two-tiered (unfair) system where Palestinians are mistreated and attacked.” The coloring book also states that “[a] group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land, so they stole it by force and hurt many people.”10 A sixth grader was slammed to the ground on school property, called a “stinking Jew,” and beaten up — and the school did not reprimand the perpetrators. A seventh grader, after speaking in Hebrew, was chased by two boys shouting “We want you to die” — and her school did nothing. A mother, speaking at a school board meeting about how Jewish children are called “kikes” and “dirty Jews” at school, was then herself called a “Zionist Nazi bitch” and drowned out by a school employee who made grotesque farting sounds at the meeting − and who later posted on Instagram where the parent worked. In another district, a school board member ranted against the Jewish community, calling Jewish parents “segregationists” and accusing them of spreading “insane” lies and abusing their “privilege.” 8. Id. at ¶ 1. 9. Louis D. Brandeis Ctr. Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism, Inc. v. State of California, No. 26STCV06327, First Am. Compl. & Pet. for Writ of Mandate at 1–2, ¶ 2 (Cal. Super. Ct., L.A. Cnty., filed July 7, 2026). 10. Id. at 82.
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