Transcript [00:00] I distanced myself from the occupation [00:02] of Gaza. That's a statement that some [00:04] 100 preschool teachers were asked to [00:06] sign last week. Not to get a job, not to [00:08] get a visa, but to attend a teacher [00:10] [music] training. Reggie Amelia is an [00:12] educational philosophy that prides [00:14] itself on open-mindedness. They say they [00:16] oppose all forms of discrimination, [00:18] exclusion, and support an open society [00:20] founded on coexistence of differences, [00:22] but not apparently when it comes to [00:24] Jews. About a 100 Israeli and American [00:26] Jewish educators were supposed to come [00:28] to Italy for a training conference at [00:29] the movement's [music] flagship training [00:31] center. They didn't go. Why? Because [00:33] they were subject to a purity test on [00:35] Israel. Not just the Israelis, but the [00:37] American Jews, too. It started when word [00:38] got out that teachers from Jewish [00:40] schools were on the guest [music] list. [00:41] Local activists, including parents in [00:43] Reggie Amelia, demanded they be kicked [00:46] out, and they went looking for evidence. [00:47] [music] They dug through the teachers [00:49] social media and their personal profiles [00:51] were reviewed. What were they looking [00:52] for? Israeli flags, photos from trips to [00:55] Israel, proof that participants [00:56] supported the IDF. Once they branded the [00:59] teachers as Zionists, there was a town [01:00] meeting with hundreds of people and a [01:02] protest outside the education center. [01:04] So, Reio Children, the group hosting the [01:06] trip, came up with a solution. Before [01:08] they could attend, the Jewish and [01:09] Israeli teachers had to sign this. I [01:11] distanced myself from the occupation of [01:13] Gaza and the violation of children's [01:15] [music] and human beings rights in the [01:17] occupied territories as well as in every [01:19] place in [music] the world. This is not [01:21] just a random education conference in [01:23] Italy. The Reio Amelia approach reaches [01:25] [music] thousands of educators over,200 [01:27] schools in the US while influencing [01:29] early childhood frameworks for millions [01:31] of children across Europe in over 140 [01:33] countries globally. In the end, many of [01:36] the teachers [music] refused to sign the [01:37] petition and did not attend the [01:38] conference. But isn't it crazy that in [01:41] 2026, Jewish attendees were identified [01:43] purely based on their faith and asked to [01:46] condemn a view held by the vast majority [01:48] of the world's Jews. [music] Zionism, a [01:50] word that two decades ago was synonymous [01:52] with Jewish liberation, has now been [01:54] rebranded to mean something grotesque, [01:56] the equivalent [music] of white [01:57] supremacist or genocidal monster. Now, [01:59] of course, this isn't new. Since October [02:02] 7th, we've seen countless examples of [02:04] Zionist purity tests. [music] Jews being [02:05] excluded from progressive spaces in the [02:07] media, the arts, and education. It is [02:09] easy to dismiss stories like this as [02:11] [music] yet another example of blatant [02:13] anti-semitism. They become so mainstream [02:15] that we've stopped being shocked. But [02:16] allowing shock to become an [music] [02:18] excuse not to identify where this hatred [02:20] and discrimination leads is a grave [02:22] historical error.
Since October 7, we’ve seen countless examples of Zionist purity tests—Jews excluded from progressive spaces across media, the arts, and education.
Now, teachers are being pressured to sign anti-Zionist pledges.
