A New York school district distributed a study guide for a state-issued exam that described Zionism as “extreme nationalism” and accused Israel of “terrorism.”
The watchdog group StopAntisemitism posted a photo of the study guide, which was meant to prepare 10th graders for New York’s Regents Exam, and called it “straight out of a Hamas playbook.” It’s unclear who made the document or why it was given out to students.
New York State 10th grade Regent Exam study guide – this is straight out of a Hamas propaganda playbook @NYSEDNews
Who compiled and approved this garbage? pic.twitter.com/nK7gmA2DAd
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) June 9, 2025
Half Hollow Hills Central School District spokesman Chip Parker admitted that a “few teachers” shared the study guide across several social studies classes last week. He also denied that the district was responsible for creating and approving the document.
Parker pointed to a statement from the district’s interim superintendent, Brian Conboy, who said the document “contained language and ideas that were factually incorrect and / or offensive.”
“On behalf of the district, I want you all to know that offensive and inaccurate materials such as this do not meet our standards of excellence and are not something we take lightly,” his statement continued. “We can and will do better moving forward.”
The New York State Education Department (NYSED) similarly denied responsibility.
“School districts and charter schools are responsible for developing curriculum aligned to state learning standards,” NYSED spokesman JP O’Hare said in a statement.
The study guide’s distribution coincides with a troubling surge in anti-Semitism across the country. Earlier this month, for example, foreign national Mohamed Soliman firebombed a Jewish group’s weekly march in support of the Israeli hostages, injuring 15. Less than two weeks earlier, Elias Rodriguez gunned down two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.
The state and local officials’ responses to the study guide leave a number of questions. For one, it’s still a mystery who did, in fact, create the document—or if the teachers who distributed it will face any consequences.
It’s also unclear whether the study guide’s descriptions of Israel and Zionism reflect how the state exam handles those topics. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, chairwoman of House Republican Leadership, placed blame squarely on the state.
“The worst Governor in America, Kathy Hochul owns this antisemitic rot in NY education,” Stefanik said in a statement. “This New York State Regent Exam study guide is a disgraceful example of the rampant and persistent indoctrination of our children in the K-12 education system perpetrated by radical Far Left Democrats. I have been leading the charge and delivering results for years on combatting antisemitism in K-12 and higher education.”
O’Hare later added to his statement, saying NYSED takes “issue with anyone attempting to cloak misinformation in the guise of combating antisemitism. That’s not advocacy, it’s manipulation.” But when the Washington Free Beacon asked what would prompt teachers to distribute the study guide, O’Hare merely pointed the Free Beacon to a department website that included a wide range of links and documents. None of them appeared to answer the question.
It did, however, include materials on topics related to Juneteenth, The 1619 Project, and Learning for Justice, a program of the Southern Poverty Law Center that works to “dismantle white supremacy.”
The study guide, meanwhile, echoes language in a past Regents Exam that drew criticism. The study guide notes that “[f]ighting began immediately” after the United Nations partitioned land for Israel, with every war ending with the Jewish state gaining more land.
The January 2023 exam showed maps depicting changes to Israel’s borders over time and asked students to answer who “benefited most from the changes shown on the maps.” The correct answer was “Zionists and Jewish immigrants.”
Critics at the time noted that changes to the border stemmed from wars started by Arab states, the New York Post reported.
Several experts similarly condemned the study guide Half Hollow Hills Central teachers distributed. Israeli legal scholar and George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School professor Eugene Kontorovich told the Free Beacon that it was riddled with inaccuracies and bias.
“Zionism is not an ‘extreme’ form of nationalism, it is simply the name for the nationalism of the Jewish people,” Kontorovich said. He also took issue with the review sheet’s accusation that “every war ended with Israel gaining more land.”
“The War of Independence did not end with Israel getting more land, but rather with Egypt & Jordan occupying swathes of territory. The 1973 War did not end with Israel taking more territory, rather in 1974 it gave up parts of Golan Heights,” he added. “It is also dishonestly silent about Israel’s massive territory concessions – leaving Sinai, Gaza, Northern West Bank.”
Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, called the study guide “low grade propaganda” meant to “brainwash students.”
“The study guide is, in fact, not a study guide. It’s an example of low grade propaganda. It is an effort to brainwash students,” Abrams told the Free Beacon. “It’s obviously written by someone who is prejudiced against Jews and the state of Israel. So it’s pretty bad stuff.”
It’s also unclear when, exactly, the study guide was created. Conboy, in his statement, said it was created before Oct. 7, 2023, “prior to the horrific events of October 7, 2023, and at a time when all districts were transitioning to a new Regents exam.”
Parker, however, didn’t answer whether that meant the guide was created for an outdated exam or if it was intended for the new version. Instead, he estimated that it was made between 2018 and 2020.
This article was originally published at freebeacon.com
