JTA — A potential breakthrough arrived in May in California’s years-long debate over ethnic studies, in which Jewish groups fought to ensure that a curriculum mandate would not lead to teachers presenting Jews unfairly or singling out Israel. For the first time, influential lawmakers from several racial and ethnic caucuses offered to help the effort — as long as ethnic studies did not draw exclusive scrutiny.

The result is a collaboration between the state legislature’s Jewish Caucus and the chairs of the Black, Latino, and Asian American and Pacific Islander caucuses on a bill to address concerns about antisemitism throughout the state’s education system.

“There was a level of ownership around ethnic studies by folks that are in those ethnic communities, and nervousness that in our desire to prevent antisemitism in that discipline, it looked like it was an attack on ethnic studies, when it wasn’t,” Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, a member of the Jewish Caucus who is one of the bill’s two primary authors, said in an interview.

The concerned lawmakers came up with the idea of broadening the effort during legislative negotiations earlier this month, according to Zbur, who isn’t Jewish himself but whose Los Angeles district has one of the highest concentrations of Jews in the state.

“They said, ‘Why don’t we actually focus on antisemitism in all the ways in which it’s appearing in our schools and do a bill that’s more broadly focused on antisemitism,’” Zbur said. “There’s a genuine desire to stand with the Jewish Caucus to remedy what’s happening.”

The compromise comes amid a broad spike in antisemitism globally, widespread concern about antisemitism in K-12 schools, and as some politically progressive educators appear to be promoting criticism of Israel in their classrooms.

It also turned out to be particularly timely. In California, the ethnic studies mandate that was approved in 2021, requiring that all high school students take an ethnic studies........

© The Times of Israel