US Jewish educators cancel Reggio Emilia study trip over demanded Gaza statement

Right · 2The Paradigm Project, a US-based professional network of Jewish early-childhood educators, cancelled a study trip to Reggio Emilia, Italy, that it had organised for 68 Jewish educators. 1 2 Right · 2The cancellation followed a demand, pushed by local pro-Palestinian activists, that participants sign a statement reading "I distance myself from the occupation of Gaza and the violation of children's and human beings' rights in the occupied territories as well as in every place in the world." 2 1 Right · 1According to the Jerusalem Post (a JTA report), Paradigm told Reggio Children by phone on October 7 that it was cancelling, and emailed participants on October 9 citing "antisemitic pressure being placed on the group"; on a Zoom call organisers also cited safety concerns, a participant said, because activists were scrutinising the educators' personal profiles. 1

Right · 1Reggio Children, the host organisation partly owned by the municipality, said the statement was never an official participation requirement. Spokesperson Francesca Severini told JTA the wording was "material for discussion" in a private WhatsApp group that the American organisers were not part of, and that they received it without the context that it would not become official language. 1 Right · 1That account is contradicted by earlier public statements: on October 7 Reggio Children acknowledged that educators had been asked to distance themselves from the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, and Mayor Marco Massari said the new charter "will be signed by all delegations visiting Reggio Emilia in the coming months and years." 1 Right · 1A leaked recording of an October 6 meeting of the city's early childhood education council, broadcast by Italy's Tg3, has Reggio Children president Maddalena Tedeschi discussing asking participants to sign declarations distancing themselves from the "occupation of territories and genocide." At that meeting Reggio Children presented a charter, "For a Democratic and Participatory Education", which was approved and is on its website; it opposes human rights violations in occupied territories worldwide without naming Israel or Gaza. 1

Right · 1A separate delegation of 22 Israeli educators arrived in Reggio and was taking part in the programme this week. Mayor Massari and city education official Marwa Mahmoud did not respond to the Jerusalem Post's requests for comment. 1 Right · 1The episode followed months of local tension in which activist Cosimo Pederzoli had publicly accused some participating schools of supporting the Israeli military. The Jewish Community of Modena and Reggio Emilia condemned boycotts of initiatives involving Jews and called conflating diaspora Jews with Israel's government antisemitic. 1 Right · 1Participants described the effect on them: Pesha Kletenik, head of Manhattan Day School, called it "one of the most painful experiences I've had"; Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, which had seven educators scheduled, backed the cancellation; and Steve Freedman of Schechter Bergen withdrew an educator from a separate November trip. 1

Right · 1In a JNS opinion column, Casey Weiss, who writes of a Pittsburgh school's director of early-childhood education, Katie Riggs, says she was due to fly days later and learned two days before departure that the trip was cancelled; the column says protesters demonstrated outside the Loris Malaguzzi Centre, and that Riggs will visit three Reggio-inspired centres at Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles instead. 2 Right · 1Severini said Reggio Children has worked with American Jewish and Israeli educators for roughly three decades, has hosted educators from countries including China, Russia and Iran, knew of no comparable controversy with other groups, and hoped to continue dialogue with the American educators. 1