By Susan B. Tuchman, Esq. and Morton A. Klein
(March 7, 2025 / USA Today) With antisemitism growing at an alarming rate across the world, including in K-12 schools, it is indefensible that the National Association of Independent Schools, or NAIS — the largest association of independent schools — is contributing to the problem. Its recent “People of Color” Conference, attended by approximately 8,000 educators and students and touted as its prized commitment to equity and justice in teaching and learning, turned into what some described as a “festival of Jew hate.” Yet to date, NAIS has failed to condemn the antisemitism expressed at the conference, let alone acknowledge it.
NAIS prominently featured Dr. Suzanne Barakat as the keynote speaker at the conference, who used her podium to falsely and offensively accuse Israel of “genocide.” Had she been truthful, Barakat would have lodged the genocide accusation against Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that is openly committed to destroying Israel and murdering every Jew. Barakat not only downplayed Hamas’s slaughter, rape and mutilation of bodies in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but also rationalized the terrorist group’s atrocities. Instead of using her microphone to educate the audience of teachers and students about the historical fact that Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel going back thousands of years, Barakat labeled Jews as “colonists” and disgracefully stated that Israel was “founded on ethnocentric superiority and an inherently systemically racist framework.”
Almost more troubling than Barakat’s antisemitic speech was the response to it: Thousands of educators at the conference, who teach at some of our country’s most prestigious schools, stood up and cheered.
Barakat was blatantly violating NAIS’s commitment to equity and justice in teaching and learning, but not a single NAIS official intervened to stop her — as someone surely would and should have had any speaker used NAIS’s platform to demonize Blacks, Asians, Muslims or any other ethnic or racial group, with lies. To date, NAIS has not condemned Barakat for abusing the platform she was given to fuel already soaring antisemitism.
That was not the end of the hate and misinformation at NAIS’s conference. The closing speaker, Dr. Ruha Benjamin, continued the attack on Israel and the Jewish people. Benjamin repeated the false “genocide” accusation against Israel and denied Israel’s right to defend itself — again, shamefully to the applause of the crowd. Despite marketing the conference as a “safe space” for people of “all backgrounds,” NAIS was sending the message that the conference was a safe place for everyone but Jews.
The impact on Jewish students and educators who attended NAIS’s conference was devastating. One student reported that he and other students “felt so targeted, so unsafe, that we tucked our Magen Davids [Stars of David] in our shirts and walked out as those around us glared and whispered.” A teacher described the experience as “like being punched in the gut.” These reactions were understandable: An association supposedly dedicated to inclusivity and inspiring excellence in education had instead helped to indoctrinate thousands of teachers and students to hate Israel and Jews, based on lies.
After the conference, four national Jewish communal organizations complained to NAIS that the conference “normalized” antisemitism. Debra P. Wilson, NAIS’s president, immediately responded, expressing her “profound remorse” to the four Jewish groups. She assured them that changes to NAIS’s speaker selection and content review processes were underway. NAIS also posted “an important note” on its website referring to its exchange with the four Jewish organizations. But the note downplayed the Jew- and Israel-hatred expressed at the conference, chalking it up simply to “divisive and hurtful comments expressed on stage.” NAIS did not condemn the comments or even acknowledge them as antisemitic.
Remorse is not enough
Especially at this frightening time of rising antisemitism, NAIS must do more and without further delay. It must send a forceful message directly to all its member schools and associations of schools, condemning the conference speakers by name who abused their platforms to attack Israel and Jews with falsehoods. NAIS must condemn their speech as antisemitic and explain why it is antisemitic. NAIS must also apologize for failing to fulfill its values and assure its members that it will never again promote or tolerate antisemitism, including when it is masked as criticism of Zionism or Israel.
In addition, NAIS should use its platform to educate and empower its members by encouraging them to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, including the definition’s examples of contemporary antisemitism. The IHRA definition is so widely accepted in the United States and around the world for good reason: It’s an excellent tool for understanding how antisemitism is expressed today, including related to Israel. NAIS should emphasize to its members that they cannot expect to address antisemitism effectively if they do not understand this bigotry in all its manifestations.
In the wake of NAIS’s hateful and hurtful “People of Color” Conference, a remorseful letter to four Jewish groups is woefully inadequate.
Morton A. Klein is the national president of the Zionist Organization of America. Susan B. Tuchman, Esq., is the director of the Zionist Organization of America’s Center for Law and Justice.
This op-ed was originally published in USA Today and can be viewed here.