A Jewish father in Los Angeles is suing the renowned West LA-based private Brentwood School, arguing that its attempt to embrace diversity after the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 led to "racial divisiveness" and discrimination against Jews.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
In the complaint filed on June 8 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jerome Eisenberg, whose minor daughter attended the school and is referred to in court filings as "J.E.," claims, among other things, breach of contract, violation of California's Unruh Civil Rights Act and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Under the Unruh act, businesses are barred from discriminating against individuals for numerous reasons, including religion.
Named as the defendants are the Brentwood School and the head of school Michael Riera. The Brentwood School is a K-12 co-ed school whose alumni and parental body include celebrities and politicians. Annual tuition for grades six through 12 is nearly $50,000.
According to the complaint, Eisenberg enrolled his daughter for the 2019-20 academic year, but changes in the school curriculum soon occurred. In his daughter's eighth-grade literature class, for example, classic texts such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies were replaced with Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America.
Additionally, students were forced to study charts on "Becoming Anti-Racist," the complaint alleges.
While the school's Office of Equity and Inclusion created affinity groups that allowed students and parents to share their culture with each other, attempts to create an affinity group among Jewish parents were "stifled" by Brentwood School leadership, Eisenberg claims. The complaint attributes this to the defendants' "antisemitic animus."
When he expressed concern about this and other issues, his daughter was eventually asked to not return to Brentwood for ninth grade, Eisenberg said, although she was allowed to finish her eighth-grade year at the school.
"As a result, J.E. was deprived of attending school with the friends she loved and the community she knew," the complaint noted.
"Michael Riera pulled a bait-and-switch with the school's curriculum and culture," the lawsuit states. "Parents eventually discovered defendants' scheme to transform the school under a racially divisive, antisemitic ideology that seeks to indoctrinate children to reject Western values."
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
Attorney David Pivtorak of the LA-based Pivtorak Law Firm is representing Eisenberg. In a phone interview with JNS, he said the lawsuit aimed "to bring what has happened at the school to light."
The complaint does not specify how much Eisenberg is suing the school for, but "whatever a jury believes he is entitled to, that's what he will be awarded," Pivtorak said.
In a statement, Brentwood School denied the claims made by Eisenberg, saying "the allegations contained in the complaint are baseless, a work of whole fiction and nothing more than a desperate attempt to embarrass the school."
According to the school's website, it has taken many steps to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion in recent years. The student populations at its elementary school – serving grades kindergarten to fifth grade – and its middle and high school for grades 6-12 are currently 49% students of color, according to the website.
An estimated 40% of the student population is Jewish.
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
