adfasdfasf

Tag: School

a111111

Navigating Antisemitism in K-12 Schools: Essential Resources for the Academic Year

As we enter the 2024-2025 academic year, the rise in antisemitic incidents highlights the urgent need for effective strategies and support. In 2023, Massachusetts saw a dramatic 189 percent increase in antisemitic incidents, with a significant number occurring in K-12 schools. This rise underscores the importance of having comprehensive resources to address and prevent antisemitism in educational settings.

This guide is designed to support students, parents, educators, and administrators by providing valuable tools and strategies for managing antisemitic incidents and fostering a deeper understanding of antisemitism. Here, you will find a range of resources, from practical response guides to educational materials aimed at promoting inclusivity and awareness. By leveraging these resources, we can work together to ensure that our schools remain safe, supportive, and respectful environments for all students.

Students raising hands at a Jewish Day School while teacher asking them questions in classroom
(photo: iStock/Nikada)

Immediate Actions: Responding to Incidents

The ADL offers two free online guides for administrators: “Responding to Bias Incidents in Middle and High Schools” and “A Guide for Responding to School Sports-Related Bias Incidents.” In an article for CommonWealth Beacon, Sara Colb, deputy director of ADL New England, mentioned both guides as part of her recommendations for preparing to face antisemitism in the coming school year. ADL also offers a mini-course for educators and administrators on responding to bias incidents, along with resources on incident response for schools.

The ADL has an online form to report an antisemitic incident.

Echoes and Reflections has a one-day lesson plan for middle and high school students on how to respond to an antisemitic incident.

More broadly, check out the US Department of Justice toolkit for administrators and community leaders called “Preventing and Responding to Bias and Hate Incidents in K-12 Educational Settings.”

Eliott Reyna, Unsplash, Teens, Students
(Photo: Eliott Reyna/Unsplash)

Educational Resources: Understanding and Preventing Antisemitism

The FY25 Massachusetts state budget requests schools to provide resources addressing both antisemitism and societal bias, while step four in CJP’s 5-point plan for fighting antisemitism is to “Inform and educate the next generation.”

Project Shema offers up-to-date Campus & K-12 Resources as well as a variety of programs countering antisemitism in the K-12 sphere.

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston (JCRC) has a resources page for its K-12 Education Initiative. The page features a blog as well as webinars, along with referrals to other organizations.

Facing History & Ourselves is offering a mini-course, “Brave Classrooms,” in the fall of 2024 that includes an examination of the history of antisemitism along with ideas for how students can stand up to it.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) staff member Aaron Bregman, the organization’s director of high school affairs, made numerous recommendations on how K-12 schools can fight antisemitism.

Websites that cover education have spotlighted the issue of antisemitism in the K-12 space. Chalkbeat reported on a school district in Maryland with a diverse student body – a diversity that was reflected in its Jewish population, which included both Zionists and anti-Zionists. K-12 Dive focused on how a Washington State school district addressedproblems of antisemitism and Islamophobia in the wake of Oct. 7.

For students in Jewish day schools and their parents, the Prizmah Center for Jewish Day Schools has an extensive list of resources geared toward administrators.

Locally, the North Shore-based Lappin Foundation has programs for teens and tweens, including a Teen Antisemitism Task Force.

Student friends talking on the stairs outdoors
(Photo: Frazao Studio Latino)

For personalized assistance or to discuss further ways to enhance inclusivity and safety in your educational environment, please reach out to CJP’s Center for Combating Antisemitism. Together, we can work towards creating a more understanding and respectful school community for all students.

a111111

The Education Our Children Deserve 

By Rabbi Marc Baker

As a lifelong educator, high school teacher, Jewish communal leader, and the parent of four high school and college students, I feel acutely attuned to both the rhythm of the school year and to the sacred responsibility of schools, universities, and the teachers and leaders who populate them.  

This year feels different.  

For many Jewish students and educators who left classes in the spring after what can only be called a perilous time, the normal anxieties and anticipation associated with going back to school are heightened. The stakes feel higher.  

Since the horrific attacks on Israel by Hamas, many in the Jewish community and our allies have witnessed more antisemitism and demonization of Israel than we imagined we would see in our lifetimes. One Brookline public school teacher wrote recently about walking into school “with trepidation” as vicious anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli rhetoric became commonplace. Jewish student and faculty experiences of the changing school climate were downplayed or outright ignored. I have heard similar stories from countless other students, parents, and faculty members, including my own child’s experience on a college campus. This moment offers an opportunity for educators and administrators to ask themselves: What are our moral obligations to our students, their families, and the society of which we are a part?  What must we do differently this year in order to do our jobs? 

What we’ve seen playing out on college campuses and in K–12 schools is a dangerous combination of ignorance about Jewish history and the history of Israel and the contemporary Middle East and purist ideology that vilifies those perceived as powerful and conversely glorifies the powerless. This manufactured binary is what enables otherwise intelligent people to turn what should be diverse and complex learning communities into ideologically homogeneous communities of activists. This is how students can come to denigrate critical inquiry and political moderation as morally weak and privileged. 

These trends come from a minority that consists of radical student activists, outside groups and bad actors, and yes, teachers and professors. 

As a member of the Jewish community, I am obviously concerned about the experience of Jewish students and faculty and believe that it is the responsibility of schools to ensure that they are safe and able to learn. But, as an American, especially as this school year contains a presidential election rife with toxic polarization, ideological extremism, and culture wars, I see antisemitism and Israel as case studies — or proof points — of the broader and deeper reckoning in education right now. 

In his book Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker Palmer writes about the role of schools in reweaving our social fabric and strengthening American democracy.  

In too many settings, instead of teaching our young people to embrace complexity and what Palmer calls “tension-inducing questions” that have no easy answers, educators have embraced scholar-activism, infusing their lesson plans, research, and teaching with political agendas. They transmit unexamined dogmas about the world that foster moral self-righteousness and justify excluding and discriminating against others, including but not limited to those who believe that the State of Israel has a right to exist. We see this in the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association’s endorsed curriculum and professional development about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it is egregious educational malpractice. 

In and out of classrooms, it is the job of school and university administrators to demand more of their teachers and to build learning communities that are hospitable to the humble pursuit of truth and wrestling with the messiness of value conflicts. 

Recently, several national organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International, published a comprehensive set of recommendations for universities to ensure the safety and thriving of Jewish students — and all students — this coming school year. They focus on clear communication of rules and regulations regarding protests, supporting Jewish students, mandating antisemitism training, guaranteeing physical safety, and reaffirming the professional responsibilities of their faculty. These recommendations are a good start, and they are relevant for other educational settings as well. 

At the most basic level, institutions can begin by enforcing rules to ensure that all students are included on campus, not merely certain groups, and to ensure no students or faculty are permitted to violate the safety and dignity of others, even in the name of their own notions of justice and morality. Allowing Jewish or Israeli students to be silenced in and out of the classroom — including by protesters who call for their total removal from campus — can no longer be the standard in academic institutions.  

While education in America is in many ways at a crossroads and there is much work to do, it is also the case that schools and universities offer the greatest hope for the future of our country and our civilization. But it is essential that educators and administrators recommit themselves to the essential principles of liberal education and expect their students and faculty to practice curiosity, critical thinking, reflection, and dialogue, especially with different perspectives and people with whom they disagree. At a time when social media and its inherent disinformation has replaced the methodical processes of knowledge acquisition and skill building, these “traditional” hallmarks of great education have never been more essential.  

If our educators and administrators return to the fundamentals of teaching, learning, and leadership, they can create the learning environments that their students deserve, and that prepare a new next generation of caring and compassionate, knowledgeable and sophisticated, values-driven and morally purposeful citizens and leaders. Our country and our world need them now.  

To learn more about the work of CJP’s Center for Combating Antisemitism in K–12 schools and on campuses throughout Greater Boston, visit our webpage.   

Rabbi Marc Baker
As President and CEO of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston (CJP), Marc leads the organization in its mission to inspire Jewish life and ignite positive change in Greater Boston, in Israel, and across the globe. He champions CJP’s efforts to build partnerships, develop resources, mobilize volunteers, and put innovative philanthropy into practice. Marc regularly writes, speaks, and teaches about leadership, community, and civic life, bringing the voice of Jewish tradition to contemporary issues.

Marc graduated from Yale University in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies and received his Master’s in Jewish education from The Hebrew University in 2002. Before coming to CJP, Marc served as Head of School at Gann Academy in Waltham. Born in Lynnfield, Marc currently resides in Brookline with his wife, Jill, and they have four children.

a111111

Empowered to Act: CJP’s Center for Combating Antisemitism’s Handbook on Effective Community Mobilization for Confronting and Preventing Antisemitism 

One of the key advantages of CJP’s CCA is our ability to leverage national and local best practices and bring them to Greater Boston. We’re seeing it all: Our partnership network is made up of colleagues from every corner of the country and, like us, they are developing immediate interventions and testing strategic plans over time. 

A key driver in our ability to be effective in advancing and scaling CJP’s CCA work and slow the spread of antisemitism is grassroots action, and community members are critical to this movement. Through five recommendations, this handbook provides a set of actions you can take; these recommendations are intended to uplift and amplify the grassroots efforts of our volunteers and wider Jewish community in their day-to-day efforts.   

Some recommendations are focused on short-term, urgent tactics, and others we know will yield powerful long-term results. In all cases, it is critical to highlight that you are the heartbeat of our movement—our children, young adults, and neighbors depend on our cohesive efforts. It is not always easy to build strategic alignment when the subject matter is difficult and rife with our individual experience of pain. But in each difficult time for our people, we survive and flourish when we stand together.   

We are committed to keeping Greater Boston updated on the daily activities and progress on our strategies to prevent, combat, and address antisemitism. Join CJP’s Center for Combating Antisemitism’s Community Network WhatsApp Group for regular updates today.

Continue to read each recommendation, or jump to a specific section using the links below:

Confronting and preventing antisemitism in the workplace

Jewish leaders across various Boston workplaces gathering to learn best practices on Jewish Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) from Oren Jacobson, Executive Director at Project Shema, May 2024
Jewish leaders across various Boston workplaces gathering to learn best practices on Jewish employee resource groups (ERGs) from Oren Jacobson, executive director at Project Shema, in May 2024 (Photo: Molly Kazan)

For most adult Jews in Greater Boston, the largest time spent in social interaction is at work, and therefore CJP’s CCA is aligning with partners to foster safe environments for Jewish employees across Greater Boston’s workplaces. Many local companies and organizations have launched diversity and inclusion programs to support their most vulnerable populations, but these structures have too often left Jewish experiences outside of these conversations and without access to necessary support.  

CJP’s CCA has launched a strategic, coordinated effort to create a support network within Boston-based companies by funding intracompany trainings on the dangers of antisemitism and fostering safe environments for Jewish employees, and by connecting networks of companies dedicated to workplace support of Jews.  

Where your advocacy in the workplace can start

Jewish employee resource groups (ERGs) are an excellent workplace vehicle to begin to create, or grow, your company’s support for Jewish employees. If you are involved in your company’s Jewish ERG or are considering creating one, we can help you implement best-in-class antisemitism workplace trainings and connect you to a growing network (30 companies across Greater Boston thus far!) of groups that are exchanging ideas and interventions to make their workplace experience safer. 

Key action

Bring CJP’s CCA-sponsored trainings and resources to your workplace by filling out this form. Delivered by expert facilitators at Project Shema, the trainings for workplace leaders, DEI professionals, and ERGs at your company can be transformational to Jewish and non-Jewish colleagues and prepare them for solidarity and allyship when it’s needed the most. If you don’t already have a Jewish ERG at your place of work, learn how to advocate for one.  

Confronting and preventing antisemitism through productive engagement with government leaders 

Massachusetts State House in Boston

CJP’s CCA vision of making antisemitism socially and politically unacceptable in Greater Boston will rely on our ability to engage productively with government leaders. Their voices can amplify ours and help prevent future acts and manifestations of antisemitism in our community. Our expectation is that our elected leaders listen to our worries, hear our stories with care, and are motivated to speak loudly in our support—especially in crisis—without being asked.  

This ideal outcome, however, does not happen on its own; it’s the result of individual and collective strategic actions.  

Where your advocacy with government leadership can start

Know who your local, state and federal representatives are; familiarize yourself with your local council structure, local school board, and key stakeholders in the Massachusetts legislature. You’ll find that your representatives are meeting with the public often about communal priorities; by becoming engaged civically, you’ll create opportunities for positive relationship-building with local leadership.   

Key resource

We partner with the excellent leadership of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston (JCRC), who are professional advocates in the local, state, and federal government. The JCRC senior staff work daily to keep a drumbeat of important conversations live with our key stakeholders. They keep our volunteers engaged and informed about political and policy priorities. JCRC also connects our community to mobilize in support of our combating and preventing antisemitism priorities. If you and your community have identified a gap of support and believe that your representative needs additional education and training about our priorities, CJP’s CCA and JCRC staff can guide toward the right conversations, and we encourage you to let us know.  

Read more about this leadership model in action. 

Empowered conversations with K-12 administrators and educators  

(Photo courtesy of Combined Jewish Philanthropies)

Your advocacy on behalf of your children—and all our children in Greater Boston—is crucial. ADL’s 2023 report on antisemitism in Greater Boston documented 600 instances of antisemitism (including a massive surge after Oct. 7), and our school settings are not immune to this trend. We know that anti-Jewish bias exists in educational entities across this community, and we’ve sourced best practices from across the country to help our Jewish parents be well-positioned for successful conversations.  

Where your advocacy can start

CJP’s CCA aims to empower community members with the knowledge, tools, and resources they need to effectively engage with school administrators and educators when antisemitic incidents happen in the classroom. Alongside our strategic partners, we also invest in relationships with key stakeholders in the local education ecosystem to promote safe and inclusive classroom climates where Jewish students are valued and embraced.  

Key resource

We are strong believers in preventing antisemitism through thoughtful engagement with educators and administrators. This primer is essential reading for successful dialogues in school settings, and trainings for parents and for educators and administrators are available through CJP’s CCA. 

Additional K-12 Resources:
  • K-12 Jewish Parents Resource Guide from Project Shema: A comprehensive guide to support Jewish parents in fostering a safe and inclusive environment for their children.
  • K-12 Admin & Staff Resource Guide from Project Shema: A resource aimed at helping school administrators and staff create a supportive atmosphere for Jewish students.

Confronting and preventing antisemitism on Greater Boston’s college campuses

Julia Freedman, a student at Boston College, speaks at CJP’s Stand up for Jewish Students rally in April 2024 (Photo: Collin Howell)

Since launching this April at the height of campus tensions related to the Hamas attacks and ensuing wars, our Center for Combating Antisemitism has regularly convened a roundtable of Greater Boston Hillel, Chabads, and our key campus organizers, bringing national partners and resources to these local conversations. Through these roundtables, we align on strategy, tactics, and execution of proactive and responsive initiatives to uplift our Jewish students and enable them to engage with their campus community and their studies without fear. We closely and regularly interact with students and Jewish organizations on campus to understand their needs, understand opportunities, and coordinate action.  

In this space, we not only lean into our role of convener, but also that of innovative funder. CJP’s CCA has placed hundreds of thousands of dollars in surge funding of pilot programs on Greater Boston campuses in response to the dangerous rise of antisemitism in our community, alongside funding for long-term partners who are the foundational infrastructure for joyful Jewish student life on campuses. 

Where your advocacy for Jewish students on campus can start

We are committed to uplifting our local Jewish students; sometimes that means showing up in huge swaths of support, like our community rally for students this past April, which drew over 1,500 attendees. Subscribe to CJP’s CCA Newsletter and CJP’s CCA WhatsApp Group to be regularly invited to opportunities like these.  

Key resource

Learn more about what actions we’re asking colleges and universities to take during the coming school year so you can effectively echo these recommendations. Locally, learn about innovative programs that CJP is supporting on several campuses to increase education on antisemitism and allyship with other communities.

Additional Campus Resources

Responding to community-based incidents

(Courtesy photo)

Your family’s safety and well-being are the central priorities for all communal work confronting antisemitism. We encourage every community member to report an incident of antisemitism as soon as it takes place. This allows our local key partners and resources to be coordinated and help you in the immediate aftermath and in recovery.  

Key resource

Know how to report and respond to an antisemitic incident.  

We are committed to keeping Greater Boston updated on the daily activities and progress on our strategies to prevent, combat, and address antisemitism. Join CJP’s Center for Combating Antisemitism’s Community Network WhatsApp Group for regular updates today.

a111111

“Don’t Bring Hate to the Protest” Debuts During NBA Playoffs

By Foundation to Combat Antisemitism

In case you missed it, we debuted our newest commercial, “Don’t Bring Hate to the Protest,” during last night’s Celtics vs. Cavaliers NBA playoff game on TNT.

The commercial’s core message is that while political issues should be debated, hate speech and intimidation simply can’t be tolerated. In the face of the hatred and violence that have taken over college campuses across the country, this campaign reminds us all to stand up to Jewish hate and all hate.

At FCAS (Foundation to Combat Antisemitism), we are dedicated to combating antisemitism through positive messaging and partnerships. Our initiative, Stand Up to Jewish Hate, is designed to empower both non-Jews and Jews to become defenders and upstanders for the Jewish community. We are passionate about promoting understanding, empathy, and tolerance among different groups, and our ultimate goal is to create a more inclusive and accepting world for all.

Together with its community partners, CJP’s Center for Combating Antisemitism is here to meet this moment with resources, tools and opportunities to foster action against antisemitism. Learn more at cjp.org/CCA.