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Looking to order Rosh Hashanah dinner in NYC? These 15 places can cater your holiday meal.

(New York Jewish Week) — Does Rosh Hashanah ever fall at the “right time”? This year the Jewish New Year falls on the weekend: The holiday begins on the evening of Friday, Sept. 15 and runs through Sunday, Sept. 17.
Some people are thrilled about this calendrical confluence — it takes over the weekend and does not interfere with school or work. Others don’t like it for the very same reasons.
For those who strictly observe Jewish laws, there’s the added element of figuring out how or when to cook holiday meals when using the stove or oven is not permitted from sundown Friday evening until Saturday night.
Fortunately, for those don’t have the bandwidth this year to cook a holiday meal — for whatever reason, we don’t judge! — there are several restaurants and caterers in New York City preparing Rosh Hashanah meals this year that are available for takeaway or delivery.
Whether one is looking for a multi-course kosher dinner for the entire extended family or a few unique side dishes to round out your holiday, below are 15 spots that are preparing Rosh Hashanah meals to go this year.
Locations in Bayside, Queens and on Long Island
Ben’s Deli has a classic Ashkenazi Rosh Hashanah menu that features oldies but goodies such as brisket, turkey, mushroom barley soup and kasha varnishkes. Their package deal for six runs $259.94 and includes appetizer, soup, main course, accompaniments and sides. Dessert is extra, and you can also add on items such as stuffed cabbage and stuffed derma (or kishke)… if you have room. Takeout orders must be placed at least 48 hours in advance; Ben’s closes for the duration of the holiday on Friday, Sept. 15, at 4 p.m. Kosher supervision by Conservative Rabbi Paul Plotkin.
525 Hudson Street, West Village
Bird Dog is a Southern restaurant in the West Village specializing in homemade pasta. This year they are also offering two complete Rosh Hashanah meals for preorder: One for $175 that includes braised brisket, “sweet tea brined” chicken and a variety of sides; the other, for $190, includes lamb shanks with pomegranate, chicken, and sides. Each package feeds 4-6 people. Many of the side dishes are listed as dairy free/pareve and items can also be ordered a la carte. Local delivery available for a fee. Not kosher.
Bird Dog’s Rosh Hashanah meals include a wide variety of side dishes. (Courtesy)
Four Manhattan locations: Chelsea, Kips Bay, Upper West Side, Upper East Side
“Like no other market,” Fairway has kosher and kosher-style menus for Rosh Hashanah, which must be ordered by Sept. 11, and are available for pickup between Sept. 13-16. The kosher-style menu ($319.99 for 10 people) features challah, gefilte fish, brisket, potato pancakes, vegetables and babka. The kosher package is priced at $349 for 8-10 people and gives you gefilte fish, chicken soup, roasted vegetables, rice and a choice of cinnamon or chocolate babka. An a la carte menu is available, too. Kosher supervision by KofK.
4. Good Shabbos by chichi eats
Award-winning chef Jasmine Einalhori and Rachel Fuchs, a hospitality professional, are the good friends and business partners behind kosher catering outfit Good Shabbos. For Rosh Hashanah, they are preparing an a la carte menu with dishes that feed 3-4 people, including honey cinnamon challah ($20); a simanim salad with apples, dates, pomegranate seeds and beets ($32); beef brisket flavored with caramelized onion, red wine, carrot and date syrup ($54); balsamic glazed chicken with pear and pink peppercorn ($36); and more. Click here to order or visit their Instagram page. Orders must be placed by Sept. 10; deliveries will be made only on Sept. 15 between noon to 5 p.m. for a fee. Kosher supervision under Rabbi Dov Yonah Korn of the Chabad House Bowery.
A Rosh Hashanah olive oil cake is one of the treats offered by kosher caterer Good Shabbos by Chichi Eats. (Courtesy)
150 West 46th Street, Midtown
Kosher French restaurant Le Marais is offering a family-style holiday menu with, oui, a French accent. You can choose from an array of dishes that feed four people, including an endive salad ($55) or tomato and onion tart ($55) for your first course. Entrees include slow-smoked fatty smoked brisket ($125) and chicken confit ($85), and there are half a dozen side dishes to choose from and dessert. Orders must be placed by Sept. 13 at 5 p.m. Pick-up or delivery available. Kosher supervision by the Orthodox Union.
552 West 235th Street, Bronx
Liebman’s, the last Jewish deli in the Bronx, assures its customers on its old-fashioned holiday flyer that you “don’t have to make a big tzimmes just because it’s Rosh Hashanah.” That’s because they will do the cooking for you. This year, Liebman’s is offering a holiday dinner for 10-12 that costs $369.95 and includes coleslaw and pickles to start, a choice of soups, entrees that include beef goulash or stuffed cabbage, plus side dishes. Appetizers such as gefilte fish ($6.79 per piece with carrots and horseradish) and chopped liver ($18.99 a pint) are extra, as is their homemade round challah ($12.95). Orders must be in by Sept. 12, and delivery is available for an additional charge. Call (718) 548-4534. Kosher supervision is self-certified by owner Yuval Dekel and certified kosher by Rabbi Aaron Metzger of the State of New York Department of Agriculture and Markets.
67-25 Main Street, Queens
Israeli eatery Mama Kitchen is an excellent option if you’re seeking something other than brisket and gefilte fish. Their Rosh Hashanah menu includes salmon filet in Moroccan sauce, salads like matbucha (a tomato and pepper stew), baba ganoush, Moroccan fried eggplant and more. Main courses run the gamut from meatballs in harissa to lamb with dried fruit and nuts or whole chicken stuffed with rice and raisins. A dinner for 6 ($850) includes a choice of six salads, one appetizer, two main courses and two side dishes; dinner for 10 ($1250) has choice of seven salads, three appetizers, three main courses and three side dishes. To place an order, text (347) 596-3702 by Sept. 10 for pickup on Sept. 14 or 15. (Note: Mama Kitchen also has a location in Brooklyn, but only the Queens location is selling the Rosh Hashanah package.) Kosher certification from Vaad HaRabonim of Queens.
97 Hoyt Street, Brooklyn
Brooklyn’s Mile End Deli features Montreal Jewish foods like smoked meat and poutine (french fries and cheese curd topped with brown gravy). For Rosh Hashanah, in true Canadian fashion, you can get food sweetened with maple syrup like maple roasted carrots ($22, feeds 4-6) and hot smoked maple salmon ($16 per filet), as well as grilled za’atar chicken thighs and butternut squash soup. Order by Wednesday, Sept. 13, for pickup or delivery on Sept. 15; order by Thursday, Sept. 14 for pickup on Sept. 16. Delivery to Manhattan or Brooklyn is available for $30. Not kosher.
Brisket is one of the Rosh Hashanah main courses available from Israeli restaurant and caterers Miriam. (Heather Willensky)
Two locations: Upper West Side and Park Slope, Brooklyn
Enjoy a holiday meal catered by Miriam, a “uniquely, distinctly Israeli” restaurant with locations in two boroughs. For Rosh Hashanah 2023, the eatery is offering a $340 catering package that feeds 4-5 people and includes various mezze, soup and salad, gefilte fish, a choice of brisket or striped bass, side dishes, pita and challah, plus two desserts. Whew! Dishes can also be purchased a la carte. Pickup or delivery available between Friday, Sept. 15 and Sunday, Sept. 17. Not kosher.
Two locations: Upper West Side and Chelsea
This gluten-free bakery and eatery — which serves brunch all day and a fish- and plant-based menu at night — will be preparing Rosh Hashanah specialities like honey cake ($35) and pomegranate cranberry rugelach ($18), plus savory, dairy main dishes like eggplant parmesan, baked ziti and macaroni and cheese — all are gluten-free and serves 6-8 ($59). Orders must be placed by Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 3 p.m. for pickup or delivery on Sept. 14 or 15. Kosher supervision by the International Kosher Council under Rabbi Zev Schwartz.
The Rosh Hashanah menu Upper East Side deli PJ Bernstein includes Ashkenazi classics like matzah ball soup. (Courtesy)
1215 Third Avenue, Upper East Side
Upper East Side family-owned delicatessen PJ Bernstein has all the Ashkenazi classics on its Rosh Hashanah menu: matzah ball soup, gefilte fish, noodle and potato kugel, brisket. For non-meat eaters, there’s nova and whitefish, plus a host of salads. Prices range from $29.99 for a single meal, which includes a choice of brisket or roasted chicken, tzimmes, vegetables and a challah roll, or you can order a la carte with items priced the pound, including brisket carrot tzimmes ($17/pound) and fruit rugelach ($19.98/pound). Orders must be placed at least 24 hours in advance; pickup and delivery is available during the restaurant’s operating hours (note that on Sept. 15 the restaurant will close at 4 p.m.). Not kosher.
Simply Divine is a NYC-based kosher catering company with elegant to-go meals for every major Jewish holiday. For Rosh Hashanah, their custom dinner package ($120 per person, two-person minimum) gives diners a choice of gefilte fish or salmon cakes for the fish course and Moroccan chicken, wine-braised brisket or roasted red snapper for the main. Soup is also included and there is a choice of desserts, all of which are homemade. A la carte options are also available. Order deadline is Thursday, Sept. 7. Delivery will be on Friday, Sept. 15. To place an order, contact owner Judy Marlow at (917) 553-5710 or by email at jmarlow@simplydivine.com. Kosher supervision by National Kosher Supervision.
13. Talia’s Steakhouse and Bar
668 Amsterdam Avenue, Upper West Side
You can prepay for your holiday meal and enjoy it in Talia’s restaurant on the Upper West Side. There are several lunch and dinner menus from which to choose, including a kids menu (chicken fingers anyone?). Dishes range from roasted Yemenite chicken to Moroccan salmon or a beef or vegetarian option; wine or liquor can also be pre-ordered. Or stay home and have all the food delivered. Prices range from $99 for lunch to a $110 or $140 per person dinner option. Kosher supervision by Avrohom Marmorstein of Mehadrin Kashrus.
Two locations on the Upper East Side
Yura is preparing a traditional Rosh Hashanah menu with a modern twist: first-cut brisket with a red onion brisket gravy, a cider-brined roast chicken with a “really good” hen-house gravy and jewel box rice with dried fruit and almonds. For dessert, there’s honey bundt cake and homemade apple pie. A meal-for-one is $27; al la carte items are also available, mostly sold by weight or piece. Orders must be placed by Monday, Sept. 11 at 4 p.m.. Call (212) 860-9872 to place your order. Pick up Friday, Sept. 15, between 12-4 p.m. at one of their two locations. Delivery is available to the Upper East or West Side for a fee. Not kosher.
2245 Broadway, Upper West Side
Sure, you can go to the iconic New York Jewish food store in person and get swept up in the cacophony of pre-Rosh Hashanah crowds and excitement. But if you don’t have the time or patience for that, Zabar’s can ship a complete holiday dinner for six for $398. It includes chicken soup and matzah balls, chopped liver, brisket, vegetable souffle, round challah and babka. A la carte items also available. All foods arrive via overnight shipping; order from Sept. 11 onwards. Not kosher.
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Union Antisemitism Running Rampant on College Campuses, Experts and Student Tell US Congress

Illustrative: Rutgers University students holding an anti-Zionist demonstration on March 19, 2024. Photo: USA Today Network via Reuters Connect
Experts told the US Congress on Tuesday that antisemitism runs rampant in campus labor unions, trapping Jews in exploitative and nonconsensual relationships with union bosses who spend their compulsory membership dues on political activities which promote hatred of their identity and the destruction of the Jewish homeland.
Testifying at a hearing titled “Unmasking Union Antisemitism” held by the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, the witnesses described a series of issues facing Jewish graduate students represented against their will by the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) union.
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTW), which was represented among the expert witnesses, has spoken publicly before about a litany of alleged injustices to which UE officials subject Jewish student-employees in the US’s most prestigious institutions of higher education, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to Cornell University.
At MIT, the group said in August, “union officers” aided a riotous mob which illegally occupied a section of campus with a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” participating in the demonstration and even denying access to campus buildings. UE members at Stanford University, meanwhile, allegedly denied religious accommodations to Jewish students who requested exemption from union dues over that branch’s supporting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. And Cornell University UE was accused of denying religious exemptions in several cases as well and followed up the rejection with an intrusive “questionnaire” which probed Jewish students for “legally-irrelevant information.”
During an interview with The Algemeiner after the hearing, Glenn Taubman, staff attorney for NRTW, said union antisemitism highlights the issues inherent in compulsory union representation, which he says quells freedom of speech and association. He pointed to the case of Cornell University PhD candidate David Rubinstein, who testified before the subcommittee on Tuesday about his own tribulations and a climate of hatred which evades being redressed because the ringleaders fostering it hold left-wing viewpoints.
“The only reason that David is forced to be represented by UE and is theoretically forced to pay them dues is because federal labor law allows that and in many cases requires it,” Taubman explained. “What I told the committee is that ending the union abuse of graduate students and people like David requires amending federal law so that unions are not the forced representatives of people who don’t want such representation.”
He added, “Unions have a special privilege that no other private organization in America has, and that is the power to impose their representation on people who don’t want it and then mandate that they pay dues because they quote-un-quote represent you. That is the most un-American thing that I can imagine.”
Rubinstein told The Algemeiner that he is a Democrat who supports many of the causes for which unions advocate but that what he described as UE’s support for Hamas leaves him no choice but to seek every avenue for disassociating with it.
“As a Jew, I cannot support an organization which spends its time not advocating for wages and health care but rather for ‘intifada revolution,’” he said. “The union antisemitism is empowered by the Cornell administration’s persistent weakness and consistent reneging on its promises to defend the rights of Jewish students.”
Rubinstein added that Cornell University president Michael Kotlikoff came close to exempting students from paying UE dues but abandoned the policy change after its members threatened to strike and thereby disrupt university operations.
“The threat of being terminated, the demands for money, and the constant harassment that others and I have experienced from UE would have never been possible had it not been for the weakness of Cornell leadership,” he added.
Campus antisemitism has drawn NRTW into an alliance with Jewish faculty and students across the US.
In 2024, it represented a group of six City University of New York (CUNY) professors, five of whom are Jewish, who sued to be “freed” from CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) over its passing a resolution during Israel’s May 2021 war with Hamas which declared solidarity with Palestinians and accused the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and crimes against humanity. The group contested New York State’s “Taylor Law,” which it said chained the professors to the union’s “bargaining unit” and denied their right to freedom of speech and association by forcing them to be represented in negotiations by an organization they claim holds antisemitic views.
That same year, NRTW prevailed in a discrimination suit filed to exempt another cohort of Jewish MIT students from paying dues to the Graduate Student Union (GSU). The students had attempted to resist financially supporting GSU’s anti-Zionism, but the union bosses attempted to coerce their compliance, telling them that “no principles, teachings, or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees” to the union.
“All Americans should have a right to protect their money from going to union bosses they don’t support, whether those objections are based on religion, politics, or any other reason,” NRTW said at the time.
Kyle Koeppel Mann, senior staff attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group, and Joseph McCartin, professor and executive director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University, also testified at Tuesday’s hearing.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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German Police Arrest 5 Anti-Israel Activists After Break-In, Vandalism Targeting Elbit Systems

Demonstrators attend the “Lift the Ban” rally organized by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, Sept. 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Jasso
Authorities in Germany on Monday arrested five activists linked to the anti-Israel network Palestine Action after the group broke into an Elbit Systems building in the southern city of Ulm, vandalizing the facility with red paint, smoke bombs, graffiti, and smashed windows before occupying an upper floor in an effort to oppose the Jewish state’s war to dismantle the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
The officers who responded surrounded the building and apprehended the suspects. The state’s Security and Counterterrorism Center then took over the investigation.
Video posted by Palestine Action showed masked figures hurling paint, breaking through doors, and damaging equipment inside the facility owned by the Israeli defense contractor, which the activist group and recently proscribed terrorist organization has regularly targeted. The vandals claimed they had sought “to dismantle the tools used to commit genocide in Gaza.”
Elbit released a statement condemning the crime.
“Elbit Systems Deutschland GmbH is a German company and has been a reliable partner of the Bundeswehr for many years in protecting democracy and freedom in the Federal Republic of Germany. In this regard, we condemn in the strongest possible terms the illegal acts of destruction and vandalism committed at our site over the weekend,” the defense firm stated. “It is unacceptable that violent groups, presumably under the influence of foreign agitators, are repeatedly attempting to disrupt production processes in Ulm, seeking to endanger employees and to instill fear.”
The company added that “we have been an attractive employer and a driver of technical innovation in the Ulm region for decades, and we trust in the support of the authorities in quickly solving the latest crimes and restoring the status quo. The company is working that production of systems for the German Armed Forces at the Ulm plant will resume shortly.”
Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, labeled the attack on Elbit an act of terrorism.
“In Ulm, the branch of an Israeli company was attacked by masked perpetrators — presumably motivated by left-extremist, Israel-hostile intent,” he wrote on X. “While Hamas supporters smash windows here, terrorists in Jerusalem murder 6 civilians in a brutal attack on a bus. Anyone who attacks Israel — whether with words, deeds, or weapons — simultaneously assaults our shared security and our values. Antisemitism and terror must have no place in Germany. These attacks are terrorist acts — they must be clearly named and harshly punished.”
Prosor was referring to a terrorist attack in Jerusalem on Monday in which Hamas terrorists opened fire on a bus, murdering six Israelis and injuring several more.
The break-in is the latest in a concerted campaign of vandalism and intimidation carried out by Palestine Action across Europe. Founded in the UK in 2020, the group has specialized in spectacular stunts and property destruction aimed at shutting down Elbit facilities and other companies the group regards as complicit in an alleged genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Its activists have smashed factory windows, chained themselves to gates, poured red paint over equipment, and even attacked military planes at a Royal Air Force base.
The UK regards Palestine Action as a terrorist organization. On Sunday, police announced the arrests of almost 900 at a demonstration organized in support of the group. Charges included 857 alleged to support a banned extremist entity and 17 alleged assaults.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Claire Smart said of the event that “the violence we encountered during the operation was coordinated and carried out by a group of people … intent on creating as much disorder as possible.”
James “Fergie” Chambers, an American heir to the Cox Enterprises fortune, pays the legal fees of arrested Palestine Action members. He once wrote online, “I chant death to America every day” and that “No faction of the Palestinian resistance, Hamas or other, has done *anything* wrong.”
Richard Barnard, a co-founder of the UK-designated terrorist group, is scheduled to face trial next year on “one count of inviting support for a proscribed organization, namely Hamas, under section 12(1A) of the Terrorism Act and two counts of encouraging ‘criminal damage’ against Israeli weapons factories under s44 of the Serious Crime Act.”
Barnard stated in a June 2024 interview that he had previously broken into US Air Force bases in Germany. In October 2023, he said that “when we hear the resistance, the Al-Aqsa flood [Hamas’s name for the Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel], we must turn that flood into a tsunami of the whole world.”
Huda Ammori, another co-founder of Palestine Action, also expressed her enthusiasm for the mass slaughter of Jews on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Zionists spend 75 years stealing Palestinian land but fails [sic] to take away the Palestinian determination for liberation. Palestine will be free!” Ammori wrote on the day of the attack. “If armed thugs stormed your home, forced you and your family to live in the garage, routinely beat you and starved you. Would you fight back? #FreePalestine.”
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‘End Hate’: Major New Campaign Targets Antisemitism in K-12 Schools

Pro-Hamas activists calling themselves the United Front for Liberation lead march through Valley Plaza Mall. The ‘Ceasefire’ rally began at Wilson Park in Bakersfield, California, on Dec. 16, 2023. Photo: Jacob Lee Green via REUTERS CONNECT
EndJewHatred (EJH), a Jewish civil rights nonprofit group based in New York City, declared war on K-12 antisemitism on Tuesday, launching its new “End Hate in Education” initiative in the US and beginning preparations for a push into the Canadian media market.
“For too long, classrooms have been used as platforms for pushing divisive ideologies that undermine our core values,” EJH founder Brooke Goldstein said in a statement on Tuesday. “Across the United States, K-12 schools and college campuses have become incubators of extremist ideology, including pro-terror and radical Islamist agendas. The End Hate in Education campaign is about reclaiming our schools, defending civil liberties, and ensuring that every child — regardless of background — can learn in an environment grounded in truth, respect, and constitutional values.”
In press materials, EJH outlined six objectives for the campaign — “curriculum transparency,” “rejecting political indoctrination,” “accountability through funding,” “examination of the rule of foreign funding,” “strategic legal action,” and “grassroots mobilization” — all of which serve its larger, ambitious goal of eradicating from public schools not just antisemitism but all forms of “hate and harassment.”
Creeping antisemitism in public education is a growing problem, as The Algemeiner has reported previously. In June, for example, the North American Values Institute (NAVI) raised alarms when the Wissahickon School District (WSD) in Ambler, Pennsylvania presented as fact an anti-Zionist account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to its K-12 students by using it as the basis for courses taken by honors students.
The material, provided by virtual learning platform Edgenuity, implied that Israel is a settler-colonial state — a false assertion promoted by neo-Nazis and jihadist terror groups — while referring to the founding of Israel as the “nakba,” the Arabic term for “catastrophe” used by Palestinians and anti-Israel activists. Based on documents obtained by The Algemeiner, the material does not seemingly detail the varied reasons for Palestinian Arabs leaving the nascent State of Israel at the time, including that they were encouraged by Arab leaders to flee their homes to make way for the invading Arab armies. Nor does it appear to explain that some 850,000 Jews were forced to flee or expelled from Middle Eastern and North African countries in the 20th century, especially in the aftermath of Israel’s declaring independence.
Another module reviewed by The Algemeiner contains a question based on a May 15, 1948, statement from The Arab League — a group of countries which adamantly opposed Jewish immigration to the region in the years leading up to the establishment of the State of Israel and refused to condemn antisemitic violence Arabs perpetrated against Jewish refugees — after Israel declared its independence. The passage denies that Jews faced antisemitic indignities when the land was administered by the Ottoman Empire, a notion that is inconsistent with the historical record, and asserts that “Arab inhabitants” are “the lawful owners of the country.”
Following the passage, students are asked to agree with its content as a prerequisite for proceeding to the next module. That means selecting as the correct answer the choice which says “the creation of Israel failed to consider Arab interests.”
Speaking to The Algemeiner during an interview on Tuesday, Gerard Filitti, senior counsel of EJH and The Lawfare Project, a partner organization, said the Wissahickon case highlights the degree to which antisemitism and anti-Israel bias has planted itself in public schools.
“What we’re seeing in colleges and universities is just the tip of the iceberg. The radicalization in schooling, in reality, starts much earlier,” Filitti said. “We’re seeing lesson plans which push the idea that Israel is a genocidal state, or that it is an illegitimate state. We see faculty and administrators who do not support Zionist identity and reject that it can be the basis of discriminatory hate.”
“College campus antisemitism has gotten a lot of attention because we see the effects, the protests, the barricades, and encampments,” he added. “In K-12, it’s not as flagrant. It’s educational material that’s talked about in the classroom and which parents may not be aware of unless they talk with their children about what’s happening in school. So this has essentially been a secret issue because the American people are not aware of what children are learning in schools or how schools have been handling antisemitism in school.”
Antisemitism in K-12 schools has increased every year of this decade, according to data compiled by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). In 2023, antisemitic incidents in US public schools increased 135 percent, a figure which included a rise in vandalism and assault.
The problem has led to civil rights complaints and lawsuits.
In September 2023, for example, some of America’s most prominent Jewish and civil rights groups sued the Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) in California for concealing from the public its adoption of ethnic studies curricula containing antisemitic and anti-Zionist themes. Then in February, the school district paused implementation of the program to settle the lawsuit.
One month later, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, StandWithUs, and the ADL filed a civil rights complaint accusing the Etiwanda School District in San Bernardino County, California, of doing nothing after a 12-year-old Jewish girl was assaulted, having been beaten with stick, on school grounds and teased with jokes about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
The problem has taken hold in private schools as well, according to a recent Anti-Defamation Leage (ADL) survey.
Among surveyed school parents, 25.2 percent said their children had experienced or witnessed antisemitic symbols in school since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, the data showed. Perhaps more striking, 45.3 percent of surveyed parents reported that their children had experienced or witnessed some form of antisemitism since the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, and 31.7 percent said their children had “experienced or witnessed problematic school curricula or classroom content related to Jews or Israel.”
Parents are displeased with schools’ handling of the issue, the ADL said. Focus groups told its experts that schools decline to denounce antisemitism or resort to denying altogether that it is fostering a negative learning environment which causes student discomfort and precipitous declines in academic performance. In a poll, over a third of parents have said their local school’s response “was either somewhat or very inadequate.”
Moreover, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, which were purportedly meant to improve race relations, abstain from recognizing antisemitism as a form of hatred meriting a focused response from administrators. The Algemeiner has previously reported that many of those programs also ignore antisemitism because they actively contribute to spreading it. Due to this, schools often lack authority figures who understand antisemitism, its subtle and overt variations, leaving Jewish students with no recourse when they become victims of hate.
“These independent schools are failing to support Jewish families. By tolerating — or in some cases, propagating — antisemitism in their classrooms, too many independent schools in cities across the country are sending a message that Jewish students are not welcome. It’s wrong. It’s hateful. And it must stop,” ADL chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement at the time. “ADL is partnering with parents to demand change.”
ADL vice president of advocacy, Shira Goodman, added: “School administrators and faculty have a duty to ensure safe, inclusive environments for all. ADL will fully invest in bolstering the families who are demanding that their schools meet this obligation.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.