LOS ANGELES — The superintendent of Berkeley Unified School District on Wednesday rejected accusations that the Northern California district’s K-12 classrooms have become breeding grounds for antisemitism during a congressional hearing where she and other school leaders were grilled about perceived bias against Jewish students.

Berkeley Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel joined Karla Silvestre, president of the Montgomery County Board of Education in Maryland, and David Banks, chancellor of New York City public schools — two other left-leaning jurisdictions — to field targeted questions from a Republican-led subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce. The hearing was titled “Confronting Pervasive Antisemitism in K-12 Schools.”

Ford Morthel said her district had received formal complaints of antisemitism stemming from nine incidents and stressed that district leaders have responded quickly to the accusations and launched investigations.

“Our babies sometimes say hurtful things. We are mindful that all kids make mistakes. We know that our staff are not immune to missteps either, and we don’t ignore them when they occur,” Ford Morthel said. “However, antisemitism is not pervasive in Berkeley Unified School District.”

The hearing follows seven months of emotional national division spawned by Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border towns and Israel’s war on Gaza that has followed. Pro-Palestinian protesters have roiled college campuses from Columbia to UCLA, shut down highways and bridges and launched campaigns calling on President Biden to halt financial and military aid for Israel.

But in K-12 public schools, where teachers are subject to stricter limits on free speech than college professors, disagreement over how — and whether — the conflict should be addressed in classrooms have progressed into searing claims from some Jewish parents that their children no longer feel safe in class.

A federal civil rights complaint filed in February by the Anti-Defamation League and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law allege students in Berkeley schools have faced “ severe and persistent harassment and discrimination.” The complaint accuses Berkeley leaders of failing to prevent “ viciously hostile environments for Jewish and Israeli students.”

The U.S. Department of Education has opened a federal investigation into the complaint.

“You’ve been accused of doing nothing and turning a blind eye,” Rep. Aaron Bean, a Florida Republican and chair of the subcommittee, told the three K-12 leaders in his opening statement.

Bean quickly fired off questions asking whether they believe Israel has a right to exist and that the Oct. 7 attacks were an act of terrorism. He asked if they believe the phrase “from the river to the sea,” a slogan widely chanted in pro-Palestinian protests that many Jewish people consider a call for the expulsion and genocide of Israeli Jews, is antisemitic.

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