Progressive Zionists of California is troubled by the lack of transparency from the California Department of Education in its process for ensuring that the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum is free of antisemitic content. We fully support the inclusion of Pacific Islander and Arab American experiences in the curriculum, as well as the effort to include the Sikh community in the framework.

We are concerned that the new lesson plan on Arab Americans, which was announced less than 24 hours before the first public hearing on the ESMC draft, will incorporate antisemitic elements similar to those in the first draft’s Arab American section, which was widely opposed by a number of diverse communities for its one-sided and limited scope.

PZC strongly supports the broad coalition of Middle Eastern and North African minority groups, AIMEE, in their call to correct the Arab American studies to be Middle Eastern American studies. We look forward to seeing appendix sections that incorporate the requests from this coalition, and encourage the drafters to work with JIMENA and the ADL during the revision process.