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As LA Teachers’ Union Nears Vote on BDS Motion, LAUSD Board Member Speaks Out

A similar motion—written in the wake of renewed conflict in the Gaza Strip this May—has already been adopted at several UTLA area meetings held this summer. The union, which represents an estimated 30,000 Los Angeles Unified School District educators, wrote in a statement on its website that those earlier motions do not represent “the official expressed opinions of UTLA or its elected leaders.”
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August 31, 2021
Alan Turkus / Wikimedia under the Creative Commons Generic Attribution 2.0 license

United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), one of the city’s largest and most influential teachers’ unions, is set to vote at its September board meeting on a motion that would endorse Boycott, Divest, Sanction—an international movement seeking to pressure Israel into changing its policies toward Palestine—and call upon President Joe Biden to slash foreign aid to Israel. 

A similar motion—written in the wake of renewed conflict in the Gaza Strip this May—has already been adopted at several UTLA area meetings held this summer. The union, which represents an estimated 30,000 Los Angeles Unified School District educators, wrote in a statement on its website that those earlier motions do not represent “the official expressed opinions of UTLA or its elected leaders.” UTLA says it stands “against both anti-Jewish hate and violence and anti-Arab hate and violence wherever they occur” and denounces “the recent attacks on Jewish people in Los Angeles.”

Despite these assurances, many Jewish families say they worry about their children’s safety and education as they return to LAUSD’s more than 1,000 campuses this fall. 

Nick Melvoin, who represents the Westside and San Fernando Valley on the LAUSD Board of Education, has expressed concern that the motion could spur an uptick in antisemitism on local campuses. Melvoin, who also serves as the board’s vice president, became the first Board of Education member to publicly oppose the motion, writing in a press release in June that it would “not move us closer to peace in the Middle East” and that “UTLA risks repeating a dangerous history of scapegoating Jews.” 

In an interview with the Journal, Melvoin voiced his disappointment with “the silence from other elected officials,” including his board of education colleagues, on the BDS motion. Since announcing his opposition to the motion, he said that “only one or two other city elected officials have come out” against it, a move he called “an unfortunate double standard.” 

“When there are incidents of racism, like anti-Asian hate, I’m grateful that my colleagues join me in standing up to speak out against it,” he said. “Yet, when there are antisemitic acts, whether in West Hollywood or via resolutions by the teachers’ union, it remains disappointing to me that more folks don’t come out and condemn it.” 

Melvoin said he felt compelled to speak out against the motion to ensure schools remain bastions of tolerance and spaces in which all students feel included. As a Jewish elected official, Melvoin said he has a particular obligation “to speak out against intolerance and injustice perpetrated against all peoples.”

Born and raised in West Los Angeles, Melvoin was first elected to the Board in 2017 after working as an English teacher at Markham Middle School in Watts, where he also coached soccer and baseball and helped launch the school newspaper. A lawyer by training, he previously served in the White House with the Domestic Policy Council and in the U.S. Attorney’s office, where he focused on civil rights investigations.

Since joining the LAUSD Board of Education, Melvoin has emerged as a vocal advocate for the rights of Jewish students and communities.

Since joining the LAUSD Board of Education, Melvoin has emerged as a vocal advocate for the rights of Jewish students and communities. Last year, Melvoin worked with the Jewish Federation and similar organizations on the ethnic studies curriculum recently mandated for all California high schools, ensuring its material was inclusive. Melvoin said he felt the curriculum omitted antisemitism, one of the most commonly reported hate crimes in the state. 

When Melvoin first joined the Board, he also worked to end a professional development course for teachers on Middle East history that he described as a vehicle for BDS indoctrination. 

The BDS movement seeks to place economic pressure on Israel to change its policies in the Palestinian territories. These efforts are often criticized—including by the Anti-Defamation League—for employing antisemitic rhetoric and delegitimizing Israel. The website devoted to the BDS movement states that “Israel maintains a regime of settler colonialism, apartheid and occupation over the Palestinian people.”

“Why are our teachers and teachers’ union focusing on this when we should be focusing on getting schools reopened, especially at a time of rising antisemitism in L.A.?”

“It’s unfortunate that, every few years, this rears its ugly head,” Melvoin said. “It’s important that our schools and teachers remain neutral on the complicated issue of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Why are our teachers and teachers’ union focusing on this when we should be focusing on getting schools reopened, especially at a time of rising antisemitism in L.A.?”

As the vote nears, Melvoin said he feels confident that the BDS motion does not represent “the views of all or even a large minority of our teachers.” He said he was gratified to see so many teachers “come out to stand up for our Jewish students and communities and speak up about the inanity of weighing in on Middle Eastern politics from a local union.” 

Nevertheless, he believes that “now is an important time for our teachers to work with students and their families to talk about what’s going on” in Israel, “and make sure that students feel comfortable coming to school, especially when they see things like the antisemitic violence in West Hollywood,” which is in Melvoin’s district. 

“That doesn’t mean not acknowledging the right of a Palestinian state or not criticizing a particular Israeli administration,” he said. “But it means coming from a place of tolerance and inclusion and not passing a lazy resolution propagated by the BDS movement without really understanding what’s behind it. When you trace who’s behind the BDS movement, you see that they’re not friends of tolerance and they’re not friends of our public schools in L.A.”

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