Yesterday the U.S. Department of Education announced four new Title VI investigations, which allege discrimination on the basis of race, color, and/or national origin. One of the investigations is of New Jersey’s South Orange-Maplewood Schools District (SOMA). The other three are in Hawaii and California.

According to the announcement, “the probes are for alleged discrimination involving shared ancestry, which includes antisemitism, under the 1964 Civil Rights Law.”

SOMA, which has a substantial Jewish population, has experienced a spate of antisemitic incidents. Just last week an assistant principal of Columbia High School sent out instructions to all staff on the observance of Ramadan. The memo (see below) labeled the U.S. “a co-conspirator with Israel, preventing Muslim Palestinians from partaking in Ramadan as the Israeli Zionist occupation enacts a genocide against them.” Acting Superintendent Kevin Gilbert quickly apologized to the community—the memo had been shared widely on social media—writing, “this resource contained language that, at any time, would be inflammatory but, particularly now, is deeply problematic, and inappropriate for our schools.”

This past December the Maplewood Police Department investigated “violent” antisemitic graffiti in a girls bathroom at Columbia High School. In response, the Maplewood Township Council issued a statement saying it “unequivocally condemns this antisemitic act – it is vile and dangerous, as it directly threatens the safety of students in our schools, This is unacceptable and intolerable behavior. Hate has no home in Maplewood, we will continue to call out bigotry and antisemitism wherever and whenever.

In October 2022, a teacher sued SOMA for “complicity in a parade of outrageous, false,  defamatory and antisemitic statements and relentless discriminatory treatment.”

In 2021 both townships’ leaders issued a statement in regards to increased incidences of antisemitism, saying, they “unequivocally stand in solidarity with the Jewish community and condemn antisemitism in all its forms, without exception.”

Jewish News Syndicate notes,

The South Orange and Maplewood district serves more than 7,200 students in 10 schools, according to its website. On Jan. 4, the district launched a “Renewal & Reset” initiative designed to target biased speech and graffiti. “The graffiti on the walls has to stop. We know that there is too much hate in the world,” Luisa Iuliano-Cabrera, assistant principal of Columbia High School, stated at the time. “We want to be mutually supportive of each other. Be kind to each other and be kind to
yourselves.”

The district added on Jan. 4 that “last month, antisemitic graffiti was found in a restroom at the high school.”

Kevin Gilbert, acting superintendent of schools, and Kaitlin Wittleder, South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education president “issued a joint letter condemning antisemitism, Islamophobia as well as ‘sexism, transphobia, xenophobia, anti-Asian hate and hatred of any kind,’” it said.