10.38 The Rise of Antisemitism in American Schools
Today in 2024, Jews are being oppressed in many High Schools and Colleges across the United States. Brainwashing of students in colleges and in schools to view Israelis and Zionists as evil oppressors of innocent Palestinians, has led to massive demonstrations against Israel on university campuses throughout the United States and intimidation of Jews. Adam Milstein reported in The Jerusalem Post reported that:
Activist teachers and administrators have increasingly injected antisemitism into American public and private high schools through expanded Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) departments and policies and by promoting radical curricula steeped in Critical Race Theory (CRT), such as the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (LESMC) which is taught in California schools and other curricula . Through this ideology, American Jews are implicitly and sometimes, explicitly, portrayed as privileged white oppressors. By extension, the Jewish State, Israel, is described as an oppressive ethno-state engaged in apartheid, colonialism, and ethnic cleansing.
We are starting to see the consequences of this campaign. High school students, both in public and private schools around the nation are engaging in antisemitic bullying and harassment toward their Jewish peers. Amplified through social media and group chats, the phenomenon has become increasingly frequent in high schools. Antisemitism also rears its head in high school sports and a there’s a spike in antisemitic graffiti, like swastikas. Physical violence rooted in antisemitism has become increasingly common in the U.S. and worldwide, from Los Angeles to Atlanta, Palm Beach, New York, and even in Australia.
Although Jews are being portrayed as oppressors it really is Jewish students who are being oppressed by other students. In Israel Jews and Arabs have equal rights, it is the opposite of an apartheid state unlike Palestinian and most Arab controlled areas where it is too dangerous for a Jew to live, let alone have equal rights. There is a whole lesson on this site addressing the accusation that Israel is an apartheid state. It is the Muslims who engage in ethnic cleansing not the Israelis. Israel is not a colony, it's history goes back 3000 years ago as a Jewish state that was occupied by foreign powers including Muslims. The accusations made against Israelis are a reversal of the truth.
There is a nice peaceful loving Jewish school in Hartsdale called the Leffel school. You can see a video of the school here. A recent example of antisemitism rearing its head in high school sports was in a basketball game between Roosevelt High School, a public school in Yonkers and the Leffel school. “I support Hamas, you f–king Jew,” a Roosevelt player snarled at a Leffell opponent. At the end of the third quarter, Roosevelt players were injuring Leffel players and shouting ‘Free Palestine’ and other antisemitic phrases.
Parents Defending Education along with 35 other parent organizations wrote a letter to the Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona about the promotion of antisemitism in schools. Here is an excerpt:
Over the last two years, we’ve identified curriculum, lesson plans, and entire coursework that applauds anti-Israel and anti-Jewish content in the name of “social justice.”...Here are a few concerning examples that we included in the letter: School districts using “ethnic studies” courses as a cover for anti-Jewish and anti-Israel content. Class lessons accusing Israelis of war crimes including “ethnic cleansing.” Curriculum and syllabi that champion anti-Israel groups like “Black Lives Matter at School.”
Army of Parents sent out an email on Jan 29, 2024 that said:
In a shocking development at PS 705 in Prospect Heights, third-grade teachers Giuseppe Rebaudengo and Anna Battaglia are using public funds to promote an anti-Israel narrative, violating the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act. Their lessons, under the guise of "Woke Kindergarten," have distorted a beloved children's song into a disturbing narrative promoting hate and violence.
"The Wheels on the Tank" book, courtesy of "@WokeKindergarten," includes lyrics encouraging defiance and resistance against Israel. That's really sick. That's a corruption of a cute children's song called The Wheels on the Bus. That's a way of turning children into future terrorists.The words are: “The wheels on the tanks go round and round, all through the town. The people in the town they hold their ground, and never back down.” The rhyme continued: “Free Palestine till the wheels on the tanks fall off.” The book was illustrated with Palestinian kids hurling rocks at Israeli tanks. Palestinian Arabs often hurl rocks at Jews in cars not in tanks and have killed people that way.
The New York Post reported that:
The Community Education Council for District 14, which covers ultra-liberal Williamsburg and Greenpoint, used its platform to encourage the 700-student protest involving 100 schools — and even shared resources including antisemitic signs proclaiming, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Recommended chants included, “Resistance is justified when people are occupied” and “Say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want Zionists here!” Students protesting on Thursday near Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, were captured on video yelling, “F–k the Jews!” Jewish students were horrified.
All of present day Israel is between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea. The chant "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" implies that all of Israel is Palestine. Arabs who live in Israel area lot freer than anywhere else in the Middle East, the chant means free of Israelis. The chant "Resistance is justified when people are occupied" means that violent resistance is justified when Jewish people live in Israel. Jewish people living in Israel is considered occupation of Palestinian land that has to end. In Israel Jews and Arabs live, unlike in areas controlled by the Palestinian Arabs such as Gaza in which it is too dangerous for Jews to live. Zionists are simply people who believe Jews have a right to a state in which they can defend themselves in their ancient homeland of Israel. It doesn't mean that people of other ethnic backgrounds can't live there and many non-Jews are Israeli. Being a Zionist is a good thing not something to be hated for.
Here is a video about antisemitism in American schools.
This anti-Israel propaganda as well as the antisemitism of many of the increasing Muslim population of the United States, has consequences. On November 25, 2023 the New York Post reported that:
Students at Hillcrest high school (in Jamaica Queens) found out that one of their teachers had attended a pro-Israel rally. Hundreds of kids flooded into hallways in protest, running amok, chanting, jumping, shouting, vandalizing the school and waving Palestinian flags or banners. Many tried to barge into the teacher’s classroom despite school staffers blocking their entry. “Everyone was yelling ‘Free Palestine!’” a senior said. “Everyone was screaming ‘(The teacher) needs to go!’” a ninth-grader said... They found where she lives — her address, her phone number, her family and everything — her personal information,” a senior said.
Emilie Baser, a Jewish English teacher at Harry S. Truman High School in the Bronx, filed an incident report when Free Palestine stickers were put all over her desk. On Feb. 6, 2024 Baser went to the administrative office to pick up a copy of the incident report about the stickers. “When she walked in, Eiron Diaz, a member of the staff, school aides, and secretaries in the guidance department, shouted ‘Heil Hitler’ at [her] and other staff members in attendance laughed,” The school refused her requests to work remotely, take a sabbatical and for a line of duty injury leave as a result of the discrimination.
Dancers at Truman High School
A mother in New York City in 2024 told how:
“On Monday, Oct. 9, my child came to school and found their teacher chanting, ‘Palestine all the way!’ Israel is going to get what they (sic) deserve!’”
In Harlem, a swastika was drawn on a wall immediately following the massacre of Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023 and another was carved into a desk at the beginning of 2024.
Shayna, a Jewish high school senior said “There were swastikas drawn on my notebook, death threats made, and vows to finish Hitler’s job were said on the school bus,” Shayna said she’s been subjected to antisemitic attacks so often, she’s had to switch schools four times. She said:
“I was giving a presentation and people were throwing coins at me, calling me a dirty Jew... The administration – which is supposed to be protecting us – is doing nothing about it.”
Lana, Jewish mom and her husband Johan, were attacked and beaten at a Brooklyn elementary school graduation by an Arabic-speaking family — who taunted them with shouts of “Free Palestine!” “Gaza is Ours!” and “Death to Israel!” The Jewish woman’s husband was thrown to the ground by members of the other family. One man put him in a chokehold, he said. Others grabbed his legs as they kicked and punched him. One woman repeatedly whacked him with the sharp heel of a black stiletto. Lana walked toward her son and managed to record a glimpse of the scene with her cell phone — capturing a group holding her husband down, jostling and loud shrieks — before she, too, was assaulted. A woman from the group came up from behind Lana, pulled me by the hair, and knocked me down on the ground, shouting, ‘I will kill you,’”.
The Sequoia Union High School District in California’s Silicon Valley is being sued (December 2024) over rampant antisemitism their kids experienced in high school as administrators stood by, ignored complaints, cancelled meetings with concerned parents and allowed it to fester.
Abigail Shrier wrote an article called The Kinderfada Revolution about indoctrination in American schools. She wrote that activist-led organizations readily supply instructional materials. Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA; creators of the Teach Palestine Project), Teaching While Muslim, Jewish Voice for Peace, Unión del Barrio, and the Zinn Education Project regularly furnish distorted histories with eliminationist rhetoric against Israel. There is a very good interview with her about it in the video below.
In Oregon, the Portland Association of Teachers suggests that kindergarteners be gathered into a circle and taught the history of Palestine: “Seventy-five years ago, a lot of decision-makers around the world decided to take away Palestinian land to make a country called Israel. Israel would be a country where rules were mostly fair for Jewish people with white skin. There’s a BIG word for when indigenous land gets taken away to make a country; that’s called settler colonialism.”
This paragraph makes it sound like Israel was created 75 years ago by racist white Europeans and taken away from the native colored Palestinian people and that it discriminates against colored people. It ignores that Israel existed 3000 years ago and that it was conquered by colonialist Arabs who declared themselves Palestinians to gain world sympathy. It's much easier to get sympathy if you identify as a small group than if you admit your identity as part of the enormous Arab world. This paragraph also portrays all Israelis as white when Jews are of all colors and many Arabs are white. Most Israelis are Mizrahi. Mizrahi Jews are of Middle Eastern and North African descent. Only about 30% of Israeli Jews are Ashkenazi, or the descendants of European Jews. Almost all Jews whether European or African or Middle Eastern have ancestors from ancient Israel. Those that don't converted to Judaism. A Mizrahi Jew wrote:
Without a doubt, the creation of Israel provided a haven for Jews who survived the Holocaust and extreme oppression in Europe. However, we cannot acknowledge that history at the expense of Mizrahi Jews, who with so many others, regardless of skin color, shared the desire for a Jewish state long before the establishment of Israel.
Melanie Phillips wrote an article called The Manipulation of Innocence which gives more information about how students are being manipulated into hating Jews.
When students disrupt school and go after teachers because they have been radicalized by lies there is a pressing need for them to be educated with the truth. This is why lessons about Israel and Islam have been included on this web site.
Click Here to Take Quiz and Earn Points
This page describes some of the antisemitism that is happening in our schools. What about our colleges and universities?
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