Jewish moms call for state action against Brooklyn board’s ‘discrimination,’ ‘harassment’
The entire parent council in a controversial Brooklyn school district should be disbanded over its discriminatory and antisemitic behavior, four fed-up Jewish moms are demanding.
The Community Education Council for District 14, the volunteer board that covers Greenpoint and Williamsburg, has used its official platform to promote anti-Israel views and has kept Jews from speaking at meetings, according to a petition filed with the state Department of Education.
“Jews and Israelis who reside within the confines of District 14 and whose children attend schools there have not been able to participate in CEC-14 discussions on any topics regarding the education of their children,” the March 13 filing reads.
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel, the parent petitioners — Leah Wiseman Fink, Shy Galor, Irina Marciano, and Jennifer Kleinman — said they were booted from meetings, their social media and Zoom comments were deleted, and they were blocked from the CEC’s social media pages.
Marciano applied for a seat on the board, but has received no notice about a vote, effectively impeding her from joining, the appeal states.
The controversial CEC, led by President Tajh Sutton, has come under fire for exclusionary and political actions, including its promotion of an anti-Israel student walkout in November.
It canceled its last two monthly meetings, claiming it received threats for advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“This case is not about the First Amendment rights of the CEC 14 members; they can express their personal, political views through media associated with their personal accounts,” the petition states. “And this is not a case about the merits of Israeli or Palestinian legal or political positions.”
The bodies exist to “establish educational policies and objectives,” not to “take positions on military conflicts half a world away,” the filing reads.
Social media posts from the council have called Zionists “settler colonizers” and “white supremacists,” the petition states.
It also calls for orders forbidding the CEC to use its platform to communicate opinions about the war, and requiring that Jews and Israelis be able to express their opinions equally.
The petition follows a separate lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court last week alleging that CEC 14 has violated the First Amendment rights of parents with differing views.
The DOE and CEC 14 did not immediately respond to inquiries.
