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Alarming Levels of K-12 Antisemitism Demand Response

A classmate told a Jewish ninth grader at a California high school that he hopes the boy’s “entire family burns in hell” and that Hamas kills them all. Administrators dismissed the student’s complaint. At another high school in the same district, a teaching assistant advised a Jewish girl to conceal her Star of David necklace or she would “get what she deserved.”

Six families of students in the Sequoia Union High School District reported more than a dozen incidents through California’s formal complaint process. The district found nothing to correct. The families sued and won what attorneys call the most comprehensive set of reforms a public school district ever accepted. These include incorporating an antisemitism lesson in every world history class and annual staff training. An outside attorney must approve any lesson plan on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Both teachers named in the suit signed the settlement – and yet still work for the district.

While campus protests following Oct. 7, 2023, have largely abated, antisemitic incidents at K-12 schools continue to fester at an alarming rate – up 400% compared to 2020, according to a recent ADL report. A university student can file a complaint, hire a lawyer or call a reporter while a child is far more likely to be bullied into silence. They are often too young to fight back.

‘When the Teacher Sets the Tone’

The vast majority of teachers and administrators strive to make their students feel safe while also providing them with a quality education. At the same time, for an increasing number of Jewish students in K-12 schools, the adult in the room is often the source of the harassment – or permit it to continue.

Every school grade was included in multiple claims of a February lawsuit filed against the state of California, brought by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and StandWithUs:

• An elementary school teacher called a third grader “a racist” and barred her from the talent show unless she dropped a poster showing an Israeli flag.
• A middle school teacher repeatedly punished a seventh grader for wearing a Star of David necklace and Israel-related shirts.
• A high school teacher displayed antisemitic images in class and promoted a walkout with chants of, “F*ck the Jews.”

A parent who joined the lawsuit, Mike Rosenthal, described a teacher permitted to display anti-Jewish, anti-Israel and anti-American materials in class. “When the teacher sets that tone, it signaled to students that hostility toward Jewish identity was acceptable – and that is exactly what happened as other students joined in. No child should ever be put in a position where they feel they must hide who they are in order to feel safe.”

A Jewish student from Scarsdale High School in NY told the school board “I came here to learn. Adults, not students, need to recognize the warning signs before an incident becomes public.”

‘We Will Do Our Best’

A Jewish eighth grader in Boulder, Colorado was harassed mercilessly over two years. He was called antisemitic slurs, chased in a game by his classmates named “Jew touch tag” and even spat on. The district investigated and confirmed he was being bullied because he is Jewish. Eight months after that finding, a classmate tied a computer charging cable into a lasso, threw it around the boy’s neck and pulled him backward out of his chair while calling him an antisemitic slur. The teacher heard the slur but did not report the incident.

Police issued a juvenile summons for assault and the district suspended the attacker for the rest of the week. Throughout the two years of harassment, the Jewish boy’s parents included the superintendent on multiple urgent emails but received no reply. When they asked the principal to separate their son from two students with documented records of bullying him, she answered, “We will do our best.” The ADL filed a federal civil rights complaint on the boy’s behalf in June.

In August, the Boulder superintendent apologized publicly for failing to protect their Jewish students and proposed writing antisemitism explicitly into district policy and disciplining employees who fail to report incidents. He also proposed that the district remove the offender from the school, not the victim. The board has yet to vote on the proposals.

Jewish families elsewhere are no longer fighting alone. The ADL, Brandeis Center and StandWithUs run a legal helpline that connects parents to lawyers at no cost. A Massachusetts family called the helpline after their district offered to move their son into independent study while the students harassing him stayed in class. The three organizations filed a federal civil rights complaint on his behalf – and the district agreed to act.

‘My Union Has Made Me Feel Isolated’

For Jewish teachers, the hostility does not stop at the classroom door.

A Jewish teacher who attended multiple union events said his “union leadership actively works against Jews and Zionists, promoting extremely biased and nasty anti-Israel curriculum.” Organizers handed out flyers praising the Iran-backed Hamas massacres of Oct. 7 and honoring the terrorists who carried them out. His wife was physically intimidated at an event, and “she was also attacked publicly by union leadership online.” Their account is one of many shared by the ADL in a new report.

What a union tells its members, often shows up in the classroom. The Massachusetts Teachers Association included posters promoting terrorism against Israel among classroom visuals it offered teachers soon after Oct. 7 – and removed the material only after political and public criticism.

Some Jewish teachers have suffered backlash for raising objections. A teacher of 26 years said that for the first time in her career, she has been “acutely aware of my Jewish identity at work because my union has made me feel isolated, bothered and perpetuated a hostile environment where antisemitism has flourished.” About 74% of Jewish union members reported they self-censor in union spaces. Members reported hiding Star of David necklaces, skipping meetings and resigning union posts. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called the findings a structural and cultural failure.

At the NEA’s July meeting, its Jewish Affairs Caucus and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs negotiated new conduct rules with union leadership, including secret balloting on contentious resolutions and immediate removal for harassment or doxxing. Delegates also voted to protect members on the basis of religion and ethnicity

Alyson Brauning, who chairs the Jewish caucus, called the rules a step toward a safer and more inclusive meeting for all educators – but said far more work remains. Jewish members are not walking away – 85% of those surveyed said that they will remain in their union.

1. Fewer headlines do not mean fewer Jewish children are being harassed

Congressional hearings and campus encampments drew the country’s attention for two years – and reported incidents have fallen sharply. Harassment and even attacks on Jewish students in elementary, middle and high schools have remained under the radar. The problem dramatically increased in younger grades just with less public attention. These incidents continue to target children who are naturally more vulnerable and without resources to defend themselves.

2. No child should answer for a foreign government

Nine-year-olds do not conduct foreign policy in the Middle East. Whether a student is Jewish, Israeli, Zionist – no child should be blamed, judged and harassed for decisions made by adults in another country. When a student is targeted because of Israel, their classmates are being taught that it is acceptable to hate Jewish children. No grievance with any government justifies turning on a child who shares its faith, language or history. This principle is as true for Jewish students as it is for Muslims, Arabs and any other students.

3. Most educators have good intentions towards their students

The majority of teachers and administrators have no interest in making Jewish children uncomfortable – many simply have never been trained to recognize antisemitism when it appears in a hallway or a lesson plan. A small number of activist educators have had an outsized impact and they have not been held unaccountable.

4. Parents can help force school districts to act

Districts take action when a family refuses to remain silent about antisemitism and a Jewish organization provides the legal counsel. Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, described how enforcement is needed to prevent schools from being used “by those seeking to indoctrinate students into antisemitic hate.” School boards meet in public and their curriculum votes are posted in advance. All parents and community members who support accurate educational lessons free from bias need to show up and make their voices heard.

Actions for parents:

• Speak with your children: Talk with your child after school about their day. Listen for clues that could indicate incidents of bullying, hatred and discrimination. Take appropriate action and contact school administrators immediately if your child was the target of antisemitism and hatred.

• Access resources by leading Jewish organizations:

o  ADL Back to School Resources

o  AJC Education Resource Hub

o  IAC Back-to-School Guide for Jewish & Israeli Parents

• Legal Protection K-12 Helpline: The Brandeis Center, ADL and StandWithUs, together with law firm volunteers, offer assistance to parents of students.

• Ask your school to teach lessons that work: An ADL study across nine schools found that a single 45-minute lesson – taught by teachers with no prior training – significantly reduced students’ belief in antisemitic conspiracy theories. The Echoes & Reflections curriculum used in the study is free.

Actions for everyone:

• Show up at your local PTA and school board meetings: Attend PTA and local school board meetings to ensure your concerns are heard. Curriculum adoptions appear on published board agendas – that is where new materials are approved. Ask what the district’s antisemitism policy says and how many complaints it has received.

• Contact government officials: A complaint to the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office for Civil Rights must be filed within 180 days of the incident. Additional resources include federal (U.S. Representative and Senators), state and local officials. Politicians representing the school’s location and the student’s home address can be contacted.

• Ask your state to appoint a K-12 antisemitism coordinator: A recent California law requires the state to appoint an antisemitism prevention coordinator for public schools and gives districts a framework for identifying and responding to anti-Jewish harassment. Contact your state legislators and ask them to introduce similar legislation.

Stories of Resilience

• Mia Schem – survived 54 days in Hamas captivity – starts modeling career
• Former hostage Emily Damari marries her partner in Tel Aviv, a triumph of love over evil
• IDF Navy’s first female missile boat commander is set for further promotions
• California’s legislature passes bills on religious holidays and security funding for high-risk nonprofits
• Jewish aid groups mobilize to help survivors as Nepal’s flood toll climbs
• Germany will introduce Jewish religious textbooks in schools for first time since the Holocaust

Stories Impacting American Jews

• NY’s Metropolitan Museum of Art cancels exhibit to honor John Galliano – a fashion designer convicted of an antisemitic hate crime
• Michigan Democratic convention runs half empty as Jewish, Indian and Black members say they feel unwelcome
• Jewish scholar chosen to lead Catholic Biblical Association hit by antisemitic backlash
• Hasan Piker says Israel has no right to exist and likens it to Nazi Germany
• Christian politicians ask President Trump to open a pathway for Jewish Canadians facing antisemitism

Stories Impacting the U.S. and Israel

• Muslim charity CAIR-NJ’s back-to-school guide attributes 9/11 attacks to US support for Israel
• Iran’s Khamenei urges Gulf rulers to confront the U.S. and Israel as the real enemy
• Meta removes 35 accounts belonging to Iranian-linked network targeting U.S. users
• Footage shows food parcels sitting uncollected in Gaza City as residents report surplus
• Leading famine expert stays largely silent as his catastrophic predictions for Gaza fail to materialize
• NBC News crew attacked by masked Israeli extremists who live in the West Bank
• Netanyahu breaks his silence to decry criminal violence after Israeli extremists raid West Bank village
• UN Watch names UNRWA school principals who also served as Hamas commanders

Stories from Around the World

• Univ. of Toronto faces criticism for memorial paving stone honoring the murdered Bibas children
• Pro-Palestine charity is accused of promoting a shirt calling Israel a holocaust pedophile state
• Israel and Greece sign $3.5 billion air defense deal
• Finland and Israel quietly extend their defense agreement for another decade; Finland ends all UNRWA funding, redirects Palestinian aid to other agencies

The Focus Project develops and distributes news, background, history and weekly talking points on timely issues to inform individuals and organizations about issues affecting the American Jewish community and Israel, and help readers speak with more consistency and clarity. The editions also provide potential responses for addressing incidents of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. With input from a spectrum of major American Jewish organizations, we focus on that which unites us, rising above political and individual agendas.



Recognizing that hatred of Jews comes in many forms and directions, we strive to address all sources as they arise, and educate our growing audience on topics ranging from inter-religious relations to relevant international developments. From week to week, we may focus on issues arising from the political left, university campuses, from the political right and from institutions, government, and corporations. We don’t try to address all issues in each edition. We hope you will find this information useful in your writing and/or speaking. We are always open to your feedback: info@focus-project.org.

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