Israeli Influence on American Educational Materials and Publishing
The Bottom Line: A systematic, well-funded effort exists to influence American educational materials regarding Israel and the Middle East. Through organizations like the Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS), pro-Israel groups have proposed 11,000 edits to textbooks with an 80% acceptance rate by publishers, impacting 11 million students across all 50 states. This represents a coordinated campaign to sanitize Israeli history while suppressing Palestinian perspectives in American classrooms.
The Institute for Curriculum Services is the primary organization systematically working to influence American textbook content since 2005. ICS boasts that it has helped improve public education in all 50 states and impacted 11 million students across the country.
ICS Director Aliza Craimer Elias claimed the organization had proposed 11,000 edits to textbooks with an 80 percent acceptance rate by publishers.
ICS operates as a nonprofit under the 501(c)(3) status of San Francisco's Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and was founded in 2005 by the San Francisco-based JCRC after discovering "problematic" textbook content about Jews, Judaism, and Israel. In 2007, ICS became a joint national initiative of the JCRC and the national Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
ICS is a grantee of the Schusterman Family Foundation, which also supports the American Israel Education Foundation, an American Israel Public Affairs Committee charity organizing congressional visits to Israel.
Connection: The Schustermans were among the founders of Birthright Israel and in 2019 donated $1.5 million to AIEF.
Grant Amount: $600,000 in 2017
Purpose: To expand ICS's National Professional Development Scale-up Initiative
Impact: Funding specifically targeted at scaling up textbook influence operations
AIEF is a sister organization of AIPAC that handles educational work rather than lobbying. It conducts educational programs including trips to Israel for members of Congress and provides regular seminars for congressional staff.
Role: Coordinates broader educational influence alongside textbook manipulation
ICS has systematically reviewed textbooks from major American publishers:
In 2018, ICS's list of edits proposed sanitizing Israel's history of pre-and post-1948 ethnic cleansing and military occupations, while laying blame on Arabs for all conflict initiation in the region.
According to ICS, all textbooks must refer to "settlements" as "neighborhoods" and never use the word "Palestine".
The Jewish Federation of New Mexico sent their state's education department an ICS review of social studies standards advocating "Nation of Israel" be changed to "State of Israel."
ICS reviews detailed adding references to acts of Palestinian terrorism while removing contextual information about Israeli actions.
Jewish organizations sent the state's education department proposed revisions made by ICS, attempting to influence curriculum standards.
In 2018, the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR) successfully stopped the state from adopting textbook edits made by ICS.
VCHR sent a letter to the Virginia Department of Education and publishers requesting they not incorporate ICS edits. To VCHR's knowledge, no ICS-sought changes were made to the textbooks during the 2018 review cycle.
"VCHR is of the opinion that ICS is not a true education outfit. It's a public affairs and advocacy group"
Palestinian teachers' unions and UK organizations criticized Pearson for making "hundreds of biased, politicized changes" to GCSE textbooks about Middle East history after pressure from Israel lobby groups.
Following complaints from the Zionist Federation and UK Lawyers for Israel, Pearson temporarily withdrew textbooks and conducted an independent review, ultimately revising the texts while denying overall anti-Israel bias.
These changes were said to distort and misrepresent facts related to Palestine and Palestinian people.
McGraw-Hill Education announced the recall and planned destruction of a political science book containing maps deemed inaccurate and anti-Israel by pressure groups.
The foundation works extensively in Israel education and engagement through multiple channels:
ICS and its supporters argue they are working to ensure students learn accurate information about Jews, Judaism, Jewish history, and Israel, claiming previous textbook content was inaccurate and biased.
Critics allege this represents a coordinated effort to:
The influence appears to operate primarily through:
The major American textbook publishers (Pearson, McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) remain primarily American-owned companies, though they have been consistently responsive to organized pressure campaigns from pro-Israel groups regarding content related to Israel and the Middle East.
This research reveals a systematic, well-funded effort to influence American educational materials regarding Israel and the Middle East. While the mechanism is primarily through advocacy and pressure rather than direct ownership of publishing companies, the documented success rate and scope of influence represents a significant manipulation of American educational content.
The operation demonstrates how foreign policy interests can systematically influence what American children learn about international conflicts, raising serious questions about educational independence and factual accuracy in American classrooms.
This research is based on the following verified sources and documentation:
Verification Standard: All major claims in this report are supported by multiple independent sources including official documents, correspondence obtained through public records requests, and verified organizational publications.