Ismael Jimenez, who oversees Philadelphia schools’ social studies curriculum, has discussed his adoration for Shakur for over a year
The man in charge of the social studies curriculum for Philadelphia public schools has posted several online tributes to the convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur, even using her photo as his profile picture on social media.
Ismael Jimenez, the director of social studies curriculum for the K-12 School District of Philadelphia, honored Shakur in several posts days after her death in September, but his public support for the woman who was once the FBI’s most-wanted terrorist dates back over a year.
“If we do not take ourselves seriously and we do not take our movement seriously then we’ll have to hang our heads in front of our ancestors,” Jimenez wrote on Facebook on Sept. 28, attributing the statement to Shakur.
Jimenez had also quoted Shakur two days earlier, writing on Sept. 26, “‘Schools in America are interested in brainwashing people with Americanism, giving them a little bit of education, and training them in skills needed to fill the positions the capitalist system requires. As long as we expect America’s schools to educate us, we will remain ignorant.’ – Assata Shakur.”
Jimenez has been the subject of controversy for extremist anti-American statements and for defending Hamas in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks.
A spokeswoman for the Philadelphia school district didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Shakur, a member of the Marxist-Leninist Black Liberation Army who died on Sept. 25, spent the last four decades of her life hiding out in Cuba after escaping from an American prison in 1979. She had been serving a life sentence for killing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster.
The comments aren’t the first time Jimenez has embraced the domestic terrorist. He posted a photo last year of his office door—plastered with a poster of Shakur—to a social media account.
The poster featured an image of Shakur and said, “ASSATA SHAKUR is welcome here.” Jimenez captioned the post: “My office door helps to repel the nonsense.”
Jimenez has a history of extremist anti-American statements and supporting terrorists, the Washington Free Beacon has reported.
He has called Israel a “terrorist state” and a “racist apartheid theocracy” in various social media posts. He also claimed that it has been “proven recently that Hamas had nothing to do with kidnapping that started current invasion of the Gaza strip.”
He was also involved in launching a “Racial Justice Organizing Committee” for educators, which earlier this year called for the release of another convicted cop-killer, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and demanded that people “Reject Amerikan Patriotism” on July 4. The post also featured a Hamas logo.
In 2024, Jimenez appeared to blame Israel for Hamas’s massacres during a podcast interview unearthed by the anti-Semitism watchdog group Canary Mission.
“When we look at October 7th, this didn’t happen out of the blue, right?” Jimenez asked. “This is generations, right, of folks who feel like their voice has been denied.”
His comments drew backlash from the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish community groups, which accused Jimenez of “rationaliz[ing]” Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks against Israel, and called on the Philadelphia school district to take action against him.
Philadelphia parents told the Free Beacon last summer that the Philadelphia school district has become an “absolute cesspool” of anti-Semitism and anti-American hatred. They said their complaints have been ignored by administrators.
The district settled a federal discrimination case with the Department of Education last year brought after students allegedly taunted their Jewish classmates with Nazi salutes, swastika graffiti on doors, and threats to “kill the Jews.”
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