Concerned Jewish Faculty & Staff Stands with Sharon, MA Teacher Targeted for Teaching about Israeli Occupation
July 17, 2026
“Sharing a film on the daily experiences of Palestinians cannot be construed as antisemitic. Such an accusation — against a Jewish teacher, no less — cheapens the notion of antisemitism and places everyone in greater danger.”
SHARON, MA – A case of classroom censorship in Sharon, MA, shows how conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism erodes educators’ autonomy and robs students of learning opportunities, Concerned Jewish Faculty & Staff (CJFS) said.
Last month, two Sharon High School parents complained when a World History teacher showed two difficult films in class: a documentary on PTSD in the Israeli military, and the Oscar-nominated Palestinian short film The Present. A volley of outside letters amplified the complaint. The teacher, who is Jewish, was forced to stop teaching the unit, which she had taught for five years without incident. Instead, the school principal took over a class period to deliver “balanced” material in the teacher’s place — a deeply humiliating action that publicly undermined the teacher’s authority and sent a damaging message to students. Online commenters called the teacher a “self-hating Jew” and a “pick-me Jew” and subjected her to sexual insults and death threats. The district did not step in to protect her.
What happened next was worse. Without conducting any formal investigation, the Sharon School Committee sided with these parent complaints and actively participated in spreading misinformation that “antisemitic” material had been taught at the school. At a May 20, 2026 meeting, the School Committee considered a resolution to ban discussion of controversial topics — an alarming proposal in the context of a history course, which by its very nature encompasses painful and controversial perspectives. Ultimately, the Committee voted to direct the superintendent to scour the Sharon Public Schools curriculum for “antisemitic content” (without defining what that term meant) and to report his findings in September.
Meanwhile, complaints of anti-Muslim bias in the same school system have gone uninvestigated and unaddressed. Parents in Sharon note that when Muslim students face discrimination, including isolation from school activities, the physical violation of a student’s hijab, students being labeled as terrorists, and the cancellation of events such as “Eid Popsicles” meant to support Muslim students, the School Committee consistently turns a blind eye.
Sharon has been a leader in silencing pro-Palestinian speech. Its Select Board adopted the misleading and controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism in 2021, the first Massachusetts municipal government to do so.
But this spring’s World History incident follows a national pattern. As mainstream Jewish support for Israel’s government declines precipitously, upstart political groups focused on state and local pro-Israel advocacy have stepped up their campaign to discipline and silence Jewish educators who are even mildly critical of Israel. Cowardly administrators and school committees have enabled these attacks. Caught in the middle are students who want to learn a range of authentic perspectives from and about the Middle East. This academic year has also seen controversies around antisemitism training or Israel-critical speech in Lexington, Concord, and Brookline.
At this perilous moment, with antisemitism and related forms of white nationalism on the rise in Massachusetts and nationwide, CJFS urges education leaders to recognize that conflating Jewishness with Israel endangers and marginalizes Jewish people as well as Arabs, Muslims, and other minority communities. “Sharing a film on the daily experiences of Palestinians cannot be construed as antisemitic. Such an accusation — against a Jewish teacher, no less — cheapens the notion of antisemitism and places everyone in greater danger,” said CJFS member Ben Allen, a professor at Emmanuel College.
Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff is a membership organization of about 300 Jewish faculty and staff from colleges and universities throughout New England. We represent a range of backgrounds and hold diverse views, but we are united in opposing the invocation of Jews and Jewishness — and misguided or cynical claims of antisemitism — to penalize Palestine solidarity activism, to stifle academic freedom, or to otherwise attack inclusionary commitments. CJFS is a member of the National Campus Jewish Alliance, a national network of diverse groups of Jewish higher education workers united by our commitments to critical inquiry, freedom of expression, and multiracial democracy on our campuses and beyond.