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Rising Antisemitism in K-12 Schools Demands National Attention
As I walked through the US Capitol on May 8th — the day of the Congressional hearings on Antisemitism in K-12 schools — I was imbued with a sense of hope. As the Director of K-12 Educator Outreach for StandWithUs — an international, nonpartisan organization dedicated to combating antisemitism — I had the unique opportunity to attend these hearings in person. It was a moment that many had been waiting for, a chance to bring the harassment and bullying that Jewish students and teachers endure to the forefront of national consciousness.
Since the appalling terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, reports of antisemitism in K-12 public and independent schools across the country have surged to shocking levels. Each week, I engage with teachers, administrators, students, and parents who reach out to StandWithUs for support. They share harrowing stories of discrimination and harassment rooted in their Jewish identity.
Reflecting on my days as a high school teacher and administrator, it’s disheartening to see how the landscape has changed. Disciplinary measures that were once seen as fair are now used selectively to target Jewish students, while their aggressors often face no consequences.
Educational materials, rather than being vetted for accuracy and educational value, are hurriedly pulled from the internet, including platforms like TikTok, which perpetuate misinformation about the October 7, the war against Hamas, and countless other issues.
Numerous teachers’ unions, whose mission is to improve working conditions for educators, have shifted their focus towards taking one-sided positions against Israel, or worse. My former union, the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), has been deeply mired in controversy over antisemitism for months.
The MTA recently held an “anti-racism” panel featuring speakers that Jewish groups decried as boosting “antisemitic and anti-Israel falsehoods.” Two Massachusetts legislators described the event as “two hours of anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda.” Some unions have also promoted curricula that border on or cross the line into indoctrination. This shift is not only damaging to the impartiality expected of educational institutions, but also undermines the professionalism of teachers.
During the Congressional hearings, some lawmakers displayed a deep understanding of the pervasive and enduring nature of antisemitism in educational settings. Representative Kathy Manning (D-NC) gave a strong overview of the problems that are reported to StandWithUs every day. She also raised critical concerns about the corrosive influence of propaganda on social media platforms such as TikTok.
Representative Kevin Kiley (R-CA) sharply questioned Berkeley School Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel about her district’s contract with the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (LESMCC), an organization condemned by many, including elected officials, for promoting antisemitic narratives.
He said, “[LESC] grew out of the initial working group to form California’s model ethnic studies curriculum [which] was universally condemned as antisemitic; fourteen members of the legislature, all Democrats, said it is difficult to fathom why the state of California would to actively promote a narrative about Jews that echoes the propaganda of the Nazi regime … so it was revised, but this liberated ethnic studies consortium offers the original version … they split off from the group and said we’re going to stick with the original antisemitic version and that’s the version that you went out and decided to have in your classrooms, is that right?”
Dr. Morthel smiled, thanked him for his question, and told him he was factually incorrect, because they didn’t purchase curriculum from the LESC, they designed it in-house: the money they paid LESC was simply for them to be a “thought partner.” This attempt to sidestep the issue only raises more disturbing questions. Why would any school district pay a group of extremists to be a “thought partner” for anything, let alone ethnic studies courses that are supposed to help fight racism?
However, other members of the committee seemed less prepared. Even worse, Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) tried to actively undermine the fight against hate by giving a representative from the ACLU a platform to promote misinformation about the widely adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism. He also seemed to whitewash the long history of systemic discrimination Jews faced across the Middle East, prior to the establishment of the State of Israel.
The hearing was a promising start, yet two hours is scarcely enough to tackle the widespread problem of antisemitism in schools. It is imperative that further investigations are conducted into the many different ways bias and bigotry are finding their way into our schools. Teachers’ unions must be held accountable when they encourage educators to sidestep state curriculum standards and district policies and promote misinformation into the classroom. Congress should increase funding to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to enable it to thoroughly investigate and address violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act in publicly funded schools.
The media, too, must play its part by treating antisemitic incidents in schools with the gravity and urgency they deserve. As it stands, Jewish students and teachers are suffering, students are being indoctrinated, and our educational system is woefully unequipped to address these issues. It is time for a systematic effort to ensure that schools remain places of learning and growth, not platforms for indoctrination or institutionalized antisemitism.
David Smokler is the director of K-12 Educator Outreach for StandWithUs, an international nonpartisan education organization that supports Israel and fights antisemitism.
The post Rising Antisemitism in K-12 Schools Demands National Attention first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai
Around 200 people gathered for a pro-Israel demonstration at University of Toronto’s downtown campus at King’s College Circle—which was the site of one of Canada’s largest pro-Palestinian encampments during May […]
The post A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters
A statue of George Washington tied with a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh inside a pro-Hamas encampment is pictured at George Washington University in Washington, DC, US, May 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Craig Hudson
The campus group National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is waging a campaign to gut Jewish life in academia, calling for the abolition of Hillel International campus chapters, the largest collegiate organization for Jewish students in the world.
“Over the past several decades, Hillel has monopolized for Jewish campus life into a pipeline for pro-Israel indoctrination, genocide-apologia, and material support to the Zionist project and its crimes,” a social media account operating the campaign, titled #DropHillel, said in a manifesto published last week. “Across the country, Hillel chapters have invited Israeli soldiers to their campuses; promoted propaganda trips such as birthright; and organized charity drives for the Israeli military.”
It continued, “Such actions reveal Hillel’s ideological and material investment in Zionism, despite the organization’s facade as being simply a ‘Jewish cultural space.’”
DropHillel claims to be “Jewish-led,” although only a small minority of Jews oppose Zionism, and the group has been linked to and promoted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters.
Hillel International has provided Jewish students a home away from home during the academic year. However, NSJP says it wants to “weaken” it and “dismantle oppression.”
The idea has already been picked up by pro-Hamas student groups at one college, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to The Daily Tar Heel, the school’s official student newspaper. On Oct. 9, it reported, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) unveiled the idea for “no more Hillel” during a rally which, among other things, demanded removing Israel from UNC’s study abroad program and adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Addressing the comments to the paper days later, SJP, which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, proclaimed that shuttering Hillel is a coveted goal of the anti-Zionist movement.
“Zionism is a racist supremacist ideology advocating for the creation and sustenance of an ethnostate through the expulsion and annihilation of native people,” the group told the paper. “Therefore, any group that advocates for a supremacist ideology — be it the KKK, the Proud Boys, Hillel, or Heels for Israel — should not be welcome on campus.”
The #DropHillel campaign came amid an unprecedented surge in anti-Israel incidents on college campuses, which, according to a report published last month by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), have reached crisis levels.
Revealing a “staggering” 477 percent increase in anti-Zionist activity involving assault, vandalism, and other phenomena, the report — titled “Anti-Israel Activism on US Campuses, 2023-2024” — painted a bleak picture of America’s higher education system poisoned by political extremism and hate.
“As the year progressed, Jewish students and Jewish groups on campus came under unrelenting scrutiny for any association, actual or perceived, with Israel or Zionism,” the report said. “This often led to the harassment of Jewish members of campus communities and vandalism of Jewish institutions. In some cases, it led to assault. These developments were underpinned by a steady stream of rhetoric from anti-Israel activists expressing explicit support for US-designated terrorists organizations, such as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others.”
The report added that 10 campuses accounted for 16 percent of all incidents tracked by ADL researchers, with Columbia University and the University of Michigan combining for 90 anti-Israel incidents — 52 and 38, respectively. Harvard University, the University of California – Los Angeles, Rutgers University New Brunswick, Stanford University, Cornell University, and others filled out the rest of the top 10. Violence, it continued, was most common at universities in the state of California, where anti-Zionist activists punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza
Former US President Donald Trump is seen at a campaign event in South Carolina. Photo: Reuters/Sam Wolfe
The “Muslims for Trump” organization has officially launched initiatives to help elect Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to the White House, arguing that he would be more likely to end the war in Gaza than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
In a statement released on Monday, the group said it will focus on recruiting Muslim voters in key battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. The organization both praised Trump for his supposed “peace-focused” approach to ending the war in Gaza and condemned Harris for helping facilitate a so-called “genocide.”
“After meeting with President Trump, it was clear to me he is the right leader for Muslims to get behind,” Rabiul Chowdhury, co-founder of Muslims for Trump and former co-chair of the “Abandon Harris Movement,” said in a statement.
Chowdhury added that during his discussions with Trump, the former president vowed to “ending the escalation of wars and bringing peace to war-torn regions.” In contrast to Trump’s promise to stop the “bloodshed” in Gaza, he claimed, Harris has “recklessly pushed us toward World War III.”
Chowdhury, a self-described “peace advocate,” urged the Muslim community not to fall victim to supposed “misinformation” campaigns by the media and Democrats that paint the former president as hostile to immigrants. He claimed that the former president’s focus is on “ending war, not dividing families through false immigration claims.”
Samra Luqman, chair of the Michigan chapter of Muslims for Trump, underscored the need to punish the Biden administration for what he described as supporting a “genocide” in Gaza.
“The goal of this election is to hold the Biden administration accountable for a genocide. No amount of fear mongering or scare tactics will persuade my community into forgiving the mutilation, live-burning, and genocide of over 200,000 people,” he said.
According to data produced by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, roughly 40,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began last October. Israel has said that its forces have killed about 20,000 Hamas terrorists during its military campaign.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
On the organization Muslims for Trump’s official website, it claims that the Abraham Accords, a series of historic, Trump administration-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several countries in the Arab world, helped stabilize the Middle East. It also says that had Trump not lost the 2020 presidential race, the so-called “genocide” could have been prevented.
“Under Trump’s leadership, the Abraham Accords were brokered, fostering peaceful relations between Israel and several Arab countries. Supporters might argue that Trump’s diplomacy prioritized peace and stability in the Middle East, reducing the likelihood of large-scale conflicts like genocide,” the group wrote.
Over the course of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly touted his support for the Jewish state during his singular term in office. Trump has boasted about his administration’s work in fostering the Abraham Accords, promising to resume efforts to strengthen them if he were to win November’s US presidential election.
Harsh US sanctions levied on Iran under Trump crippled the Iranian economy and led its foreign exchange reserves to plummet. Trump and his Republican supporters in the US Congress have criticized the Biden administration for renewing billions of dollars in US sanctions waivers, which had the effect of unlocking frozen funds and allowing the country to access previously inaccessible hard currency.
Trump also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and also moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.
Despite Harris’s repeated efforts to woo Muslim voters, polling data indicates that the demographic has made a dramatic swing away from the Democratic Party. Polling data from the Arab American Institute reveals that Trump slightly edges Harris among Muslim voters by a margin of 42 to 41 percent. A report from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) shows that Green Party candidate Jill Stein leads Harris and Trump with Muslim voters in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
The post ‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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