A few years ago, an Alexandria-based vendor submitted a bid to supply brooms, safety vests and other miscellaneous products to the Islamic Saudi Academy, a private school headquartered in Alexandria not far from the vendor's business.

The vendor said in an interview that when he later inquired about his bid, he was told he had offered the lowest price and looked like a shoe-in to get the contract.

However, while he was chatting with the ISA representative -- a maintenance supervisor ----the vendor was asked if he is Jewish, and he said he was.

"I didn't think anything of it," the vendor said, noting that a few weeks after that exchange, he learned that the question was more than simply an innocent inquiry. He was informed at that point by the maintenance supervisor that the school could not do business with him because he is Jewish.

"I said, 'What the hell are you talking about?' " recalled the vendor, who asked that his name not be used for fear of retribution.

That episode was not the only instance of the ISA being involved in suspect activity regarding Jews, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, a government office that monitors human rights matters and issues policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state and Congress.

In a report issued earlier this month, the USCIRF concluded that the 900-student school -- which is funded by the Saudi government -- continues to use textbooks that vilify Jews, and in some cases "clearly exhort readers to commit acts of violence" against Jews and others.

In 2006, the Saudis pledged to remove such problematic references from its textbooks, according to the report, but "despite some improvements, these commitments, regrettably, remain largely unfulfilled."

Attempts to reach a spokesperson at the school, as well as at the Saudi embassy in Washington, were unsuccessful.

The suspect passages identitified in the current USCIRF report include one in a 12th-grade monotheism textbook that says Muslims are permitted to kill "major polytheists," such as Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists, as well as Shia Muslims and Sufi Muslims.

A koranic interpretation found in another 12th-grade textbook says it is permissible for Muslims to kill a convert from Islam, among others, according to the report.

"The overt exhortations to violence found in these passages make other statements that promote intolerance troubling even though they do not explicitly call for violent action," the report continues.

An example: The cause of discord in the Muslim world is Jews conspiring against "Islam and its people."

One interpretive passage calls for jihad, which can a mean a holy war or simply an internal struggle of the soul. However, that section does not discuss the more benign use of the term, according to the report. Instead, it emphasizes the "importance of power or force over one's enemies and discusses 'martyrdom' with approval."

In its report, the USCIRF recommends that the State Department create a "formal mechanism" to ensure that the Saudi government abides by commitments it made in 2006 to promote greater religious freedom and tolerance, including by revising its textbooks.

The ISA, which has campuses in Fairfax as well as Alexandria, is part of a network of 19 international schools operated by the Saudi government. The Northern Virginia campuses, which were founded in 1984, are the only branches located in the United States.

A spokesperson for the USCIRF said some of the school's students are the children of Saudi citizens, presumably Muslims. However, she added, the student body also includes non-Muslims whose parents approve of the rigorous discipline and other features of academy.

The ISA's Web site says the school "not only promotes respect and mutual understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims, Arabs and Americans while keeping within the Muslim faith, it strives for its staff and students to uphold tolerance, honesty, integrity and compassion, qualities that represent the best of both American and Arabic cultures."

Pro-Israel activist and Silver Spring resident Sarah Stern, founder and president of the think tank EMET: Endowment for Middle East Truth, said the presence of institutions such as ISA exemplifies "a huge infiltration" of Saudi influence in America. Many of these institutions, she added, regularly expose students to militant Islamist philosophy.

"They're hiding behind our constitutional protections, and we in the West who have a hands-off attitude are being seduced by our own naivete," she said. "It's happening right under our noses. We are asleep at the wheel of history and we've got to wake up and take the sand out of our eyes."

Rabbis in Northern Virginia who were contacted for this story said they have had little or no contact with ISA. That group includes Rabbi Jack Moline of Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria, who is a strong proponent of interfaith dialogue. He termed those connected with ISA "self-isolating," noting that "there has not been a tremendous amount of outreach" to that organization as a result.

Rabbi Brett Isserow of Beth El Hebrew Congregation in Alexandria said he only knows of ISA through news accounts, including those appearing last week that reported on a demonstration held outside the school. The protesters, who gathered shortly after the release of the USCIRF report, waved signs saying "Saudi School is Anti-Semitic" and "Terrorists Trained Here."

The protest was organized by the Traditional Values Coalition, a church lobbying group. Andrea Lafferty, executive director of TVC, who said in an interview, "we are very concerned about what is being taught at that school. We are very concerned about homegrown terrorism."

The ISA Fairfax campus is situated on property leased from Fairfax County. Lafferty said she testified in May before the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, asking that the county not renew its lease with the school, but that request was defeated unanimously.

In a related development, Fairfax County leaders have asked U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to determine whether the county should continue leasing the property to the school.

Isserow said that the USCIRF findings regarding the ISA "don't come as much of a surprise" in light of hateful depictions of Jews that are routinely found in the Arab media. But he said efforts to establish dialogue between Northern Virginia's Jews and Arabs must continue "so we can break down some of the stereotypes found in that curriculum."