Antisemitism in public K-12 schools spotlights activist teachers and radicalized students
May 10, 2024
Prominent acts of antisemitism at K-12 schools nationwide since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel are raising questions about what students may have been learning before the Hamas attack that could have sparked such a quick radicalization.
School “walkouts” with praises of Hamas, student shouts of “F*** the Jews,” and teacher-led bullying of Jewish students have been reported at Berkeley Unified School District in California. On the other side of the country, the New York City Education Department has also been hit with massive walkouts and is facing a lawsuit from Jewish teachers who say they were subjected to severe, repetitive acts of antisemitism that were perpetrated by students and ignored by other faculty members. Meanwhile, Maryland’s Montgomery County School District, which borders Washington, D.C., has been accused of repeatedly failing to punish antisemitic student behavior.
The Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights opened investigations into the three school districts, all of which have large Jewish populations. School administrators from the districts spoke before the House Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee on Wednesday for a hearing titled, “Confronting Pervasive Antisemitism in K-12 Schools.”
“It is impossibly hard to grasp how antisemitism has become such a dominant force in our K-12 schools. Some kids as young as second grade are spewing Nazi propaganda, which begs the question, who has positioned these young minds to attack the Jewish people?” Subcommittee Chair Aaron Bean, R-Fla., said in pre-prepared opening statements for the hearing.