Since 2023, the Toronto District School Board has been working on an updated strategy to combat several categories of hate and racism in its nearly 600 schools. In the wake of Oct. 7, hundreds of Jewish community members including parents, students and staff have slammed the school board for ignoring rampant Jew-hatred in classrooms, halls and field trips.
Now, after consulting with 125 Jewish students and with members from 35 diverse Jewish community groups, a new report—”Affirming Jewish Identities and Addressing Antisemitism”—is being tabled in front of a committee of school board trustees on Feb. 12. The trustees must vote whether to send it along to the full board for approval, the following week.
The report includes many suggestions, such as beefing up training about Jews beyond Holocaust education; making sure Jews are part of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work; recognizing anti-Zionism as a new form of antisemitism; and hiring more Jewish professionals for senior management positions. While some Jewish leaders are praising the report, others feel the whole concept is flawed by the board’s focus on identity, and urge geopolitics be removed from schools entirely.
On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, we’re joined by Shelley Laskin, a trustee representing the heavily Jewish neighbourhood of Eglinton-Lawrence and St. Paul’s, who calls the meeting a historic moment for the school board; and also by Tamara Gottlieb, co-founder of the Jewish Educators and Families Association (JEFA), who has serious reservations about the report.
Transcript
Note: Transcripts are AI-generated and may contain minor errors
Ellin Bessner: That’s what it sounded like last summer as hundreds of concerned Jewish parents rallied outside the head office of the Toronto District School Board. It was mid-June 2024 and coincided with a key meeting of trustees who were considering a new anti-racism policy. The organizers slammed the TDSB for ignoring obvious evidence of raging antisemitism in its nearly 600 schools, even though the board adopted an anti-Palestinian racism category that month as something they will tackle.
The parents were furious, and they felt the board wasn’t listening to the over 7,000 Jewish students and Jewish staff who reported feeling they don’t belong anymore after October 7th. They’ve experienced cases like being labeled as racist because they’re Zionists or being shunned by clubs and classmates because of the war between Israel and Hamas. Jewish students were criticized for wearing Stars of David symbols on their jewellery. Israeli flags got removed from heritage programmes, and the list goes on.
After that meeting, the board went back to the Jewish community. It held consultations with 35 Jewish groups and 125 Jewish students. The antisemitism report came out a few days ago. It’s in two parts totaling 16 pages, and it’s going to a key committee of the school board on Wednesday. If the trustees accept it, it’ll go on to the full board for a vote next week and form the basis of the new antisemitism policy to be put into place beginning in the fall.
The report contains 32 recommendations, everything from recognizing that anti-Zionism is a modern form of antisemitism to teaching about Jewishness beyond just Holocaust education. The authors also suggest hiring more Jewish middle and senior managers and continuing a Jewish equity coach position. Plus, give safe space in meeting rooms where Jewish students can hang out. And here’s another action: if there are protests or flags or symbols where they say all Jews and Israelis are colonizers or complicit settlers, interrupt that.
I’m Ellin Bessner, and this is what Jewish Canada sounds like for Wednesday, February 12, 2025. Welcome to the CJN Daily, a podcast of the Canadian Jewish News, and made possible in part thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation.
Wednesday’s TDSB committee meeting could be tense. I’m told about 100 people have registered to speak so far.
Groups in the Jewish community have been urging their members to turn up. And that includes both mainstream Jewish organizations and anti-Israel groups, including Independent Jewish Voices and Jews Say No to Genocide, who believe the new antisemitism report poses a direct threat to Palestinian students who oppose Zionism. And the board report wants anti-Zionism to be considered as a form of antisemitism.
These groups also want the board to abandon long-standing support for the IHRA definition of antisemitism, even though it’s been Canadian and Ontario policy for nearly a decade. We have two guests for today’s show. Later, we’ll speak with Tamara Gottlieb. She’s a parent and founder of JEFA, the Jewish Educators and Families Association, who feels the school board’s entire approach to this is deeply flawed. But first, I’m joined by Shelley Laskin, a Trustee for Ward 8 in Eglinton-Lawrence-St. Paul’s. It’s got a large Jewish population. She calls the meeting historic for the board. Jews make up 3% of the student body in the TDSB out of a quarter million, and she’s relieved the board is finally taking its antisemitism problem seriously.
Shelley Laskin: Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Ellin Bessner: Could you tell our listeners what is at stake with this report?
Shelley Laskin: Right. I think what’s really important about it is it’s really the first time the whole board, who are all members of the committee, will be discussing antisemitism and hearing from the community through the consultations that happened in the focus group. And the importance of that is for a long time, Jewish-identifying trustees on the board have spoken about how antisemitism needs to be taken seriously. In fact, in 2017, I actually had to put up my hand around that board table and say, “You’re doing an enhancing equity strategy? Where’s antisemitism?”
So it was very gratifying to read the recommendations out of the report, which is what we heard from the community. These aren’t board-approved recommendations or implementation plans, but it felt like our voices were echoed. The other thing that I think is important about the report is it acknowledged that there is not one Jewish voice. There are many, many people within the Jewish community who identify as being Jewish through religion. Others identify as being Jewish as a people. Others identify being Jewish in a multitude of ways. There’s diversity, there’s intersectionality. And the report acknowledges that not everybody felt the same about every topic that was being discussed, but everyone acknowledged there was antisemitism in the system.
Ellin Bessner: So now that we’re hearing it, I guess the obvious next question is how does the system now deal with it?
Shelley Laskin: Because, again, for many years, it’s been volunteers on the [TDSB’s] Jewish Heritage Committee that have pushed staff to take antisemitism seriously. We need it embedded so that it doesn’t rely on individuals. It’s part of addressing all hate within the system, so no matter who the student is or who the staff member is, they feel they belong within the Toronto District School Board.
Hopefully, my colleagues will simply receive the report so we acknowledge the voices from the community, and then staff will then review it. They will do as they have done with the Islamophobia strategy that went before us. So we see the work that is being done. And, you know, there are more consultations, there is staff looking at the list of what the community would like, determining what’s already started, what needs to be started, what might need resources, and what may not work at this time, and make a plan.
And I’ve worked hard, though, this past week since the report came out on Friday, to provide information to my colleagues so that they clearly understand what it is and what it isn’t, because some are finding it confusing. Our board process can be confusing. They believe that maybe by receiving the report, that means they’ve agreed to all the recommendations, and that’s not what it means. They also said, well, what if we don’t receive it? And I said, well, I don’t understand that perspective because you wouldn’t be hearing from one of our communities. But that’s your call. It does not mean the work stops, however, because we’ve approved the larger strategy, which means staff will still have an obligation to go through what they have heard. So, you know, I do hope that maybe at the end of the day, we can have one combating hate strategy where everyone can see themselves reflected, where all forms of hate within our schools, our staff have the ability to understand and educate against. But we have a ways to go as a system to build the trust that that’s what we will be doing. So until we get there, I think it’s important to say antisemitism, all forms of hate, out loud. It needs to stand as a form of hate that’s prevalent from the data we’ve received. Our schools are part of communities, which means what’s happening out there is happening inside.
It’s not new since October 7, 2023, but it certainly has been exacerbated since October 7, 2023. And many of us are not okay. And when we hear things happening within our schools, it tends to be a very emotional connection. I mean, I watched the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz, and I remember the chair of the World Jewish Congress, who quoted a Holocaust survivor who was there in 2015. He said, you know, we don’t want our past to be our children’s future. And that has just haunted me because my parents dealt with systemic antisemitism. My kids are now dealing with systemic antisemitism. In my generation really, at least I don’t remember much of it. So I really feel like we need to say it out loud. And now that we’ve said it, we are obligated to do something about it so that all our kids thrive in our schools. I mean, I come from a family where we have been very conscious of our rights and privileges. We do not take them for granted, and we feel obligated to ensure that there’s justice for all. And I guess my raison d’être right now is that has to include the Jews.
Ellin Bessner: I’d like to just make sure that we end on the fact that for the first time, there was the concept of anti-Zionism as one of the experiences that many of the people, the Jewish kids, have been feeling. That’s been a very important milestone, is it not, to have this recognized by the board as a problem?
Shelley Laskin: Right. But I do think the definition of anti-Zionism that’s being used in the report is simply the right to self-determination of a Jewish homeland. I don’t think it’s the big P political P of Zionism, but the fact that Jews in our schools in Toronto are being blamed for the actions of a government in Israel is incredibly problematic. And I do think that because we use the IHRA definition in the TDSB, this isn’t about the politics of the State of Israel. This is about simply the fact that the majority of Jews feel that Israel has the right to exist. And when we see signs calling for the destruction or the annihilation of the Jewish people, it’s hate, pure and simple, and it has to be stopped.
Ellin Bessner: Okay, we’ll be watching.
Shelley Laskin: Yeah, it will be a long night, but it will also be a very important night in the history, frankly, of the Toronto District School Board.
Ellin Bessner: Tamara Gottlieb’s voice was the woman you heard speaking to the crowd of protesters last summer, which I played right at the start of today’s episode. Her group, JEFA, was indeed consulted for the board’s antisemitism report, but she says they’ve chosen not to put their name to it now because they don’t endorse it. Tamara Gottlieb joins to explain why.
Tamara Gottlieb: Thank you. So like many organizations, we were part of the consultations. The consultations were meetings that were held, you know, the one I participated in. And I think there were about 10 different Jewish orgs on it. Some of them, my understanding, had up to 15. There was a presentation, there was an opportunity to ask questions. There wasn’t a candid discussion, at least in my group. And I was quite forthright with the concerns that had been brought forward to JEFA by both students and educators. And I think that part of that is that staff are really limited as to what they can say because of their employment contracts and their own code of conduct. It’s a fireable offence for a school board for staff to be speaking up against the policy of the schools. So that really confines discussion though.
Ellin Bessner: But when was this meeting or meetings?
Tamara Gottlieb: We were invited to one meeting. It was over an hour, it was several months ago.
Ellin Bessner: That was the last you heard. And then you got the draft.
Tamara Gottlieb: We were asked to endorse the report without having received a copy of the report. And that precipitated discussion. We were asked to include our names on the report. We asked, we responded “In what capacity?: And long story short, we got a hold of the language that was going to be used and it definitely looked like an endorsement. And so JEFA apprised other community members and then they made the decision not to include any organizations’ names in the report.
Ellin Bessner: Should we read anything into that? That you’re not endorsing the report at all.
Tamara Gottlieb: It was good. To the extent that the Toronto District School Board reaches out to speak with parents, that’s fantastic. To the extent that they reach out to speak with experts in the community, great. That part is good. The part that concerned us was being asked for a tacit endorsement without having seen the report or even participated in the construction of the recommendations. And then of course now we have seen the report and at JEFA we have some pretty significant concerns.
Ellin Bessner: Some of the other major Jewish organizations, CIJA for example, have said this is a great positive step. They weren’t criticizing it in its entirety in the whole idea they were behind it, saying this is good, now we have more work to do. How does JEFA view this report now that you’ve seen it?
Tamara Gottlieb: We have a moral and fiduciary obligation to represent the concerns of Jewish parents and Jewish educators who’ve come to us explicitly to help give them voice. And one of the main concerns that has been brought to our attention since October 7 was how these DEI programs are being used as the mechanism for the dissemination of antisemitic and hateful information. And so we’re deeply concerned that this report continues to work within that DEI framework.
Ellin Bessner: You mentioned earlier that it’s identity politics and this is problematic. And I think I’ve heard that JEFA say, you know, they should be teaching the basics and not geopolitical conflicts. When you read the report though, is there anything that you like about it?
Tamara Gottlieb: So the report is two sections essentially. The first part is essentially a summary of the conversations that were had with stakeholders in the community. I mean, aside from the fact that, as a matter of principle and what we hear from both educators and students all the time, is that parents and students and educators need to be heard and that their voice needs to be front and center. Aside from that, you know, we can definitely see how a lot of the concerns that were brought forth by the community are acknowledged in the description of those consultations. Having a bit of a background on how these school boards work, in this report, the only binding part of the report, the only part that has a bit of teeth to it, is the recommendation section. And in the recommendation section, what we see are a few things. Number one, we see more DEI-related recommendations. We see selecting resources in classroom content based on student identity, and we already know what a slippery slope that is when we’re basing what children are taught in the classroom on the identity of the children in the classroom. We see things like recommendations for equitable representation of Jewish staff in the board, which is essentially another way of saying quotas for Jewish teachers. These are not principles that JEFA can get behind. We see things like the creation of job positions within the TDSB that are only for Jewish people, creating affinity groups or safe spaces for Jewish students,
Ellin Bessner: like a club or a Jewish pizza parties club or whatever.
Tamara Gottlieb: A considerable number don’t even feel safe identifying as Jewish at all. If you talk to people within the board who’ve been responsible for organizing special affinity-related field trips or opportunities, Jewish students won’t sign up. They are afraid to be identified as Jewish. We need our Jewish students to be safe throughout the schools, not just in safe spaces.
There is one reference to anti-Zionism in the recommendation section as being part of staff training, and that is a good thing. But that is the only time that we see anti-Zionism raised in the recommendation section. It’s that recommendation section that is the substance of the report. When a report gets passed, its teeth come from the recommendation, not from the summary of the conversations that have happened with the community.
Ellin Bessner: So they’ve heard you; they’ve heard 125 students and 35 Jewish groups from all spectrums. There’s the meeting coming up later this week where the report will be presented. What’s at risk, what’s at stake if this report goes through?
Tamara Gottlieb: Interesting. And that might be where the centre difference is in the community, that some organizations view this report as having a lot at stake. We don’t see that. We don’t see in terms of the recommendation section there being a lot of substantive recommendations that are going to curb the skyrocketing rates of antisemitism. We’re not in a small challenge when it comes to anti-Jewish hatred in our schools. When the TDSB adopted its new DEI policy, its equity policy, eight years ago, and until before October 7th, there was a 1,000% increase in incidents targeting Jewish students. A 1,000% increase! And then another tripling since October 7th. So I believe that the people who worked on these recommendations did it in earnest, but I also suspect that they are really confined by this DEI policy and the DEI construct within the board. That’s not allowing us to look elsewhere, including the much lower rates of hate-motivated incidents that took place before DEI saturated the school system.
Ellin Bessner: But back to the recommendations. What do you want them to do? What would JEFA want?
Tamara Gottlieb: Sure. The removal of identity politics in our schools. We need to get back to focusing on education. We need to get back to focusing on consequences for breaches of the code of conduct. It used to be that when there were hate-motivated incidents in schools, that coincided with things like suspensions and other meaningful forms of discipline that we no longer see in our school system. We need to see safety not just for Jewish students but for all students. The Auditor General pointed to the fact that the TDSB had some incredibly alarming amounts of violence in the school. We have a crisis for Jewish students. We have a crisis for all students.
Ellin Bessner: So isn’t it better than nothing?
Tamara Gottlieb: I don’t know. If you go to the emergency room and you’re having a heart attack and you’re offered a glass of water, isn’t that better than nothing? Jewish students are leaving the board. Student enrolment across all ethnic groups is on the decline. We have one of the fastest growing cities in North America, and people are not flocking to our public school board. This is a crisis.
Ellin Bessner: And you’re saying Jewish kids and staff should not be there, or should not stay? Should they go to day school or elsewhere?
Tamara Gottlieb: Not at all. I think that further segregation is very dangerous. Listen, it’s entirely up to parents. I believe in choice. I believe that parents should put their kids where their kids are going to do best, but they shouldn’t be fleeing public school. Public school should be an option, and all students should feel safe in our publicly funded institutions. It’s only going to hurt antisemitism and anti-Jewish hatred to a greater extent if Jewish students leave. We need this. Canada was supposed to be this country where we all came, and irrespective of where we came from, irrespective of our backgrounds, we were all here together, and we all embraced Canadian values. That was important. We’re moving really away from those values into segregation and safe spaces for kids and let’s focus in on our differences. The Jewish community’s response to increased funding for Jewish day schools? I can understand where that’s coming from, but it only creates further segregation because even with discounted tuitions, we still leave kids from less advantaged Jewish households in the public system to be even more vulnerable. I absolutely believe in a strong and safe publicly funded school system where Jewish students feel safe and feel that they belong. But they will feel that they belong when they’re not constantly forced to be divided with identity politics. They will feel belonging when they feel safe. They will feel belonging when they can relate to their peers on the team, on the field, in sports, and in the classroom.
Ellin Bessner: Let me just quickly ask you, so are you, if I understood correctly, JEFA wants this report to be rejected and not go further, completely at all, right?
Tamara Gottlieb: No, no, no. Bigger picture here. JEFA wants the issue of identity politics to be addressed. This is very much a band-aid solution. Look, the TDSB adopted the IHRA definition how many years ago, and they are still the same board that adopted anti-Palestinian racism, which is a policy that holds Jewish identity as a form of racism. So there is a danger to adopting another motion that gives a false sense of security for our community. Admittedly, this is difficult to solve: the problem of antisemitism in our schools. What we’re saying is this motion won’t help, won’t address it.
Ellin Bessner: Okay, quickly. The Jewish Jews Say No to Genocide; Independent Jewish Voices—those groups are going to be delegating. What are the dangers that—that you’re worried? Or maybe Jewish groups are worried that they might amend or have the report changed by doing that?
Tamara Gottlieb: Yeah. This is all a false debate. Organizations like that only get a voice in DEI. Without DEI, organizations like that don’t get a voice. Parents get a voice. So we need to start thinking about what’s the framework in which we’re operating. And we all know these are fringe organizations. We have to question the leadership of the board if they’re actually going to give them a seat at the table. That’s the issue.
Ellin Bessner: Okay. Thanks so much for being on the CJN Daily.
Tamara Gottlieb: Thank you so much, Ellin.
Ellin Bessner: And that’s what Jewish Canada sounds like. For this episode of the CJN Daily, our show is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation. I’ve put the links to the report in our show notes so you can read it for yourselves. The meeting is set for 4:30 Toronto time on Wednesday. It’s being live streamed on the TDSB website if you want to watch. The show is produced by Zachary Judah Kaufman. Our executive producer is Michael Freeman, and our music is by Dovbek Levine. Thanks so much for listening.
Show Notes
Related links
- Read the proposed Toronto District School Board antisemitism policy documents and the detailed report being presented Wednesday Feb. 12, 2025.
- Learn more about the controversy that erupted last summer over proposed anti-racism strategies at the Toronto District School Board since Oct. 7, in The CJN.
- Hear how Jewish students at Toronto District School Board schools have experienced antisemitism and anti-Israel hate after Oct. 7, in The CJN.
Credits
- Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
- Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
- Music: Dov Beck-Levine
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