Fifty-one top city Department of Education officials were invited to watch footage of the Oct. 7 atrocities committed by Hamas to better understand the Jewish plight, but none responded or attended, The Post has learned.
Chancellor David Banks, his deputies, superintendents, and several UFT representatives were first invited to the screening at the Israeli Consulate by embassy volunteers on Dec. 5 and then two days later by the NYC Parents Alliance.
The parent group, which represents Jewish families mostly from specialized high schools, sent a letter urging the DOE officials to attend.
Besides a few automatic “out of office” replies, not a single response was received, an Alliance parent told The Post.
Volunteers with the Israeli consulate have been organizing the screenings in the Big Apple, with the latest held Thursday for academics, including staff from Columbia University, New York University, Cooper Union, and CUNY.
The footage includes gruesome Hamas body-cam footage of the terror group’s slaughter of 1,200 Israelis, an attack that launched the Jewish state’s war with Gaza.
“To not respond to us at all does not feel very supportive. It enforces the feeling that the DOE does not take antisemitism seriously,” said the father of a Brooklyn Tech student.
“We believe that viewing this private screening is a necessary step toward developing an understanding of the reaction of the NYC Jewish community to this atrocity,” the letter from the Alliance reads. The sessions include the opportunity to ask questions of the consul general and Israeli soldiers and engage in debate.
Parents and other groups have been calling on the DOE to stem a rise of antisemitism in city schools.
The Citywide Council on High Schools this week passed a resolution calling for an antisemitism hotline, public data on hate incidents to be shared, and employee training.
The DOE had no comment.