Hey, have you heard of the JFA?
The Lower Merion Jewish Families Association (JFA) is an organization of Jewish parents and caregivers engaged in advocacy on behalf of LMSD’s Jewish students. They describe themselves as a “diverse group of parents…representing all denominations of Judaism and a range of political perspectives,” who aim to “unapologetically [fight] Jew hate, misinformation and anti-Israel bias in K12 education.”
But aside from it’s ostensibly progressive aims of combating anti-Jewish bigotry and it’s public brand as a bipartisan organization, the JFA is aligned with a distinctly conservative agenda: collaborating with conservative organizations, opposing DEI initiatives, and publicly spreading content that exhibits anti-muslim, anti-trans, and anti-arab bias.
“So, is this group…political?”
Lucky for us, that’s answered directly on the organization’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page: “We are not a political entity and do not profess any common political views, domestic or in Israel,” the site says, and the group further describes themselves as “bipartisan.”
But despite this assertion, the JFA has both a history of platforming right-wing figures and conservative ideologies, and ongoing partnerships with deeply conservative organizations.
For instance, in a school board meeting on February 18, a community member raised concerns about the amplification of politically inflammatory content on the JFA Instagram account. Soon after, the content in question seems to have been deleted.
The posts in question included one from December 2024, when the official JFA Instagram account, @lm_jewishfamilies, shared an Instagram reel of President Trump, with a caption that celebrated “Trump’s plan to tackle academic indoctrination” with a clapping emoji. In additional deleted posts, the group also shared commentary from Ben Shapiro, a well-known right-wing commentator. While amplifying right-wing politicians is not enough reason to dispute the group’s claims of bipartisanship, it’s worth noting that we were unable to find any evidence of similar posts featuring the many Democratic politicians or left-wing commentators that support pro-Israel causes.
Does the JFA oppose DEI?
The group’s FAQ page also answered the question, “Do you want to eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs?” by saying “No!” We support efforts to create inclusive and welcoming environments for all students. We do not seek to remove from any group or diminish the important work of advocating for historically and present day marginalized groups in the fight for equity and inclusion.” But in a now deleted Instagram post from December 21, 2024, the LMSD_Jewishfamilies instagram account published a screenshot of a fox news article with a headline reading “Idaho Board of Education bans DEI offices and initiatives in all public universities.” The post was captioned “Yes!” Followed by the raised hands emoji and a string of four exclamation points. “[Claps] to Idaho for seeing sense – how many states still to go?” (The claps were represented as a series of three clapping hands emojis.)
Admittedly, the people responsible for running the JFA’s social media accounts may not necessarily be representative of the organization’s broader work. But if opposition to DEI is a minority opinion within the JFA, it’s alarming to see that these posts were removed unceremoniously and without any acknowledgement of their content.
Harder to explain away, however, is the JFA’s ongoing partnerships with a right-wing organization known as the North American Values Institute (NAVI), a DC public policy organization whose mission statement describes its goals as “empowering, training and supporting parents in their efforts to promote North American values in K-12 education while combating radical DEI and extreme social justice ideologies.”
While the JFA claims it doesn’t want to eliminate DEI programs, NAVI definitely does. Listed by the JFA under the heading “Our Partners: Working with the Best,” NAVI aims to “counter the imposition of radical social justice ideology” in Jewish communities and in schools.
Rather than addressing anti-semitism specifically, the group calls for the eradication of “anti-American” activism and “social justice ideologies.”
The anti-DEI rhetoric espoused by NAVI and exhibited in the JFA’s posts isn’t unique. These ideologies exist in LM, and they’re spreading. There’s been a notable uptick in anti-DEI discourse at school board meetings, such as comments during a September 6 school board meeting from a district parent who asked “Why is DEI in our schools? It is a racist, antisemitic failed policy… Students should not be indoctrinated by divisive political ideology.” As we’ve paid attention to school board meetings and local politics over the past few years, we’ve noticed more and more people arguing against DEI, often in similar language to that on NAVI’s website.
This kind of backlash is far from a local issue. Over the last few years, national advocacy groups—some of them with thousands of members—have lobbied school boards and endorsed favored candidates to advance a culturally conservative agenda and oppose DEI initiatives. Take Moms for Liberty.The group soon saw success in electing its chosen candidates in school boards across the country—such as in Bucks CountySoon after, Central Bucks High School had banned titles like Gender Queer and This Book is Gay from its library.
What sort of rhetoric is the JFA spreading?
It’s possible to dismiss the JFA’s alignment with conservatives as a feature of its bipartisan and politically diverse nature. It may even be possible to square its explicit support of DEI with its barely-hidden alignment with an anti-dei movement. But what can’t be ignored is the repeated instances of the JFA being willing to actively spread bigotry.
The JFA’s instagram account has also been used to spread Islamaphobic rhetoric, including one reel posted on November 9 2024 with the caption “The irony of November being Islamophobia Awareness month. Let’s be very aware of the phobia the world has of islam. And rightly so. These are the new Nazis. Shame on the Muslim community of Amsterdam for participating in this pogrom” in reference to a series of riots that took place in Amsterdam between football fans on November 6 and 7. On December 17, 2024, lmsd_jewishfamilies posted a graphic formatted as a dictionary entry, defining the term “Palestinianism,” with entries like “1. The art of destroying everything around you.” “3. The art of perpetual narcissism” “9. The art of producing nothing of value,” and included the caption “Sorry. Not Sorry. The truth is sometimes hard to hear.”
While evidence of these posts have been scrubbed from JFA’s social media, traces of a connection to far-right politics still linger. At time of publication, a link in the lm_jewishfamilies instagram bio connects to an article by Abigail Shrier, titled “The Kindergarten Intifada.”In the article, Shrier describes a teachers-union meeting in Los Angeles, where teachers discussed “How to be a teacher & an organizer,” for pro-palestinian and anti-zionist causes. Then, Shrier pivots to a thesis: “demonization of Israel in American primary and secondary schools is no passing fad… ‘They’ve moved on from BLM to gender unicorn to the new thing: anti-Israel activism. Anti-Israel activism is the new gender ideology in the schools.’”
Shrier is the author of “Irreversible Damage: the Transgender Craze Seducing our Daughters,” where she argues for her theory of “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria,” the scientifically unsupported belief that being transgender is a “social contagion,” spread between peers. Shrier has publicly opposed bans on conversion therapy and advocates for restricting gender affirming care for trans children. In the article shared by the JFA, Shrier describes her past work by saying “Four years ago, I was among the first journalists to expose the widespread incursion of gender ideology into our schools. Once-fringe beliefs about gender swiftly took over large swaths of society partly thanks to their inclusion in school curricula and lessons.”
Throughout this peice, we have sometimes taken the words of the JFA’s website at face value, especially when they’re describing their work or past accomplishments. We’ve applied slightly more scrutiny to the places where their stated beliefs or goals contradict other information we’ve found independently. Regardless of their intentions, what the JFA’s actions are doing is making LMSD more prone to anti-trans and anti-DEI rhetoric.
To be more explicit: Despite taking down the inflammatory Instagram posts, the JFA has never issued any apology or public statement regarding them. At time of publication, the JFA continues to platform Abigail Shrier, and continues to partner with NAVI. Despite all good intentions, the JFA is making LMSD more prone to islamophobia, transphobia, and racism.
Now, affinity groups set on lobbying school policy are nothing new: Groups like The Lower Merion Gender Awareness and Inclusion Network (GAIN) and affinity networks of Black parents in the district have been organizing in similar ways for decades, lobbying the school board for the inclusion and equal treatment of transgender students and Black students, respectively.
The only thing that makes the JFA unique, in our view, is these contradictions. These instances of islamophobia and collaboration with anti-dei organizations combined with public statements that decry all forms of bigotry and endorse DEI initiatives.
No matter how well-intentioned many of its members may be, the JFA is advancing a conservative, anti-equity agenda, and it serves no one to look the other way or deny these affiliations. To district leaders: when collaborating with and hearing from the JFA, keep in mind the organization’s ties.
To community members: if you find value in diversity, equity, and inclusion, show up. Show up to school board meetings with the same consistency and energy as groups like the JFA. Publicly oppose attempts to roll back equity and equality, and call out bigotry when you see it, even when it’s coming from groups you agree with.
And to the JFA: If you truly stand by your goals of advancing equity and fighting anti-Jewish hate, apologize. Cut your ties with NAVI, publicly acknowledge and apologize for the racism and islamophobia of your past posts, and remove your links to Abigail Shrier’s article with an apology for her piece’s transphobia. Only by working in coalition with other marginalized communities can Jewish students and families achieve any real safety or equality.
