PHOTO: Jewish Federation fo Greater Portland Director of Community Relations Bob Horenstein addresses the launch meeting for the Federation's K-12 Parent Advocacy Groups Monday, June 3 at the Stampfer Chapel at Congregation Neveh Shalom. "You, as parents, are our eyes and ears," Horenstein told the crowd of more than 125 parents. (Rockne Roll/The Jewish Review)

By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review
“We can’t be silent anymore,” Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Director of Community Relations Bob Horenstein told a packed Stampfer Chapel at Congregation Neveh Shalom the evening of Monday, June 3. “That’s what you are here for.”
Ceasing to be silent is the entire point of the Federation’s K-12 Parent Advocacy Groups, launched at Monday’s meeting. With antisemitic incidents on the rise in schools and a local teachers’ union pushing a curriculum that labels Israel as a “settler-colonial” enterprise and describes the entirety of “Palestine” as under a “violent Zionist military occupation since 1948,” it is imperative to have parents engaged as partners in this advocacy with the schools.
“It is something I feel will fuel antisemitism,” Horenstein said of the curriculum, called “Teach Palestine” and endorsed by the Portland Association of Teachers, the union of Portland Public School’s educators, which has been engaged in anti-Israel advocacy for months following the Oct. 7 attacks. (See “PAT promotes one-sided narrative on Gaza,” Mar. 13, 2024, pg. 1) “You may not live in the Portland school district, but you should still care about what’s going on.”
The advocacy groups, a follow-up to a webinar hosted May 22 with the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, are meant to provide parents with tools to look out for their children’s wellbeing. It’s a model that’s seen positive results in Texas, Indiana and North Carolina, among other locales. 
“Especially since Oct. 7, we’ve seen that parents and community members wanting to do something who have felt so paralyzed and so unsure of what direction to take,” Federation Director of Educational Initiatives and Associate Director of Community Relations Rachel Nelson told The Jewish Review. “This is a model and a method in which they can advocate for themselves for their kids and be part of the community response in a very targeted, guided fashion.”
After opening remarks by Nelson and Horenstein, the more than 125 parents split into geographically focused groups to work with facilitators and discuss issues specific to their school districts. In those opening remarks, Horenstein explained that parents are an essential conduit between the Federation’s work combatting antisemitism and the particular school where it’s happening. 
“Our goal is to be a resource for the school,” Horenstein said. “I can’t recall an instance where we weren’t welcomed into a school once the parents introduced us.” 
He explained that addressing specific incidents among students or tackling longer-term issues like school culture through programs like the Anti-Defamation League’s "No Place for Hate" both start with parent involvement and engagement.
“You, as parents, are our eyes and ears,” he said. 
And while much of the current motivation and need to advocate for students stems from antisemitism and political advocacy in the classroom, Jewish parents working together to engage with their children’s schools already has a successful history in the area with the implementation of holiday equity policies advocated for by Jewish parents. It’s an example of the work parents can do together to engage with schools to support their children and families collaboratively. 
“[While Parent Advocacy Groups are] reactive in terms of the situation that’s happening, they can also be proactively working with districts, creating and fostering relationships, so that districts have connection points of concerned parents, parents who want to be involved parents,” Nelson said. 
For more information or to get involved with a Parent Advocacy Group in your school district, email Nelson at rachel@jewishportland.org or Horenstein at bob@jewishportland.org.