Alameda High School freshman Natasha Waldorf was sitting at the back of geometry class talking with a friend, killing time until the bell rang. A text message popped up from someone she didn’t know — a cartoon image of a Nazi officer and “Mr. Ethnic Cleansing” written in bright red letters. Assuming it was sent to her by mistake, Waldorf ignored it.
Things got worse.
She got another text from the same unfamiliar number the next period when she was in English class, and this time it included her name and the word “kike” with other anti-Semitic insults. “It became scary, because I was targeted for being Jewish, but also I was specifically targeted,” she said.
By the time Waldorf got to her grandmother’s house that evening she was shaken. “When I’m anxious I get bad stomach aches,” she said. “It was stressful.”
[Zoom in and explore the map above to see details on the incidents uncovered by J.’s investigation.]
Waldorf blocked the number before she went to sleep but didn’t tell her grandmother because she hadn’t wanted to upset her. When she showed her parents the texts the next day, they immediately headed to the police station to report the incident.
“It got really serious,” Waldorf said. “It was dark and raining, we had to wait half an hour because [the cops] were busy. I was still worried that someone would find out that I reported it.”
As it turned out, the boy who instigated the racist messages — he reportedly encouraged another boy to send them — was a friend of Waldorf’s, which made the incident all the more troubling for her. “I was so confused, I was disoriented.”
Ultimately, the student who sent the texts was made to apologize to Waldorf and received counseling from the high school. But the experience has had a lasting effect on Waldorf. “Why,” she wondered, “would anyone want to do that to me?”
Waldorf’s experience comes amid a national wave of anti-Jewish activity that has left many in the Bay Area and around the country feeling targeted. So far this year, 150 bomb threats have been leveled at Jewish institutions in North America and several Jewish cemeteries have been vandalized, among other hate-fueled incidents.
Schools appear to reflect the national tension; reports of anti-Semitic vandalism and bullying at nondenominational K-12 schools in California have doubled since November compared with the same period the previous year, according to Anti-Defamation League data — a phenomenon that some attribute to the heated tenor of the 2016 presidential campaign.
“One of the disturbing trends we have found was rhetoric from the campaign, or references to the campaign, finding its way onto middle school and high school campuses,” said ADL regional director Seth Brysk. “And again a sense of, as children will do, reflecting on things they are seeing and hearing elsewhere on campus.”
Though the ADL does not break down incidents beyond the state level, “I would say in the Bay Area we are not much different than what’s going on nationally,” Brysk said.
J. decided to take a closer look at what’s happening at Bay Area public schools, requesting records of reported anti-Semitic activity from approximately 40 districts in the region.
Those records showed a spike in incidents at schools in nearly every county, from Marin to the Peninsula to the East Bay and beyond.
So far this year, 29 anti-Semitic incidents have been reported by more than 25 schools — compared with 25 incidents reported by more than 16 schools in all of 2016.
Some schools have experienced multiple incidents, while others faced ongoing problems in the classroom. Many of the incidents have not been reported in the news media, and some parents of the affected students have complained about slow or lackluster responses from administrators and school districts.
Of the 40-some districts where J. sought records, 10 said they could not locate records related to anti-Semitic activity, and two asked for time to search more thoroughly.
Brysk noted that “typically one of the major problems is underreporting. People for a variety of reasons are afraid” to report anti-Semitism at schools, “so that is an enduring problem with this issue.”
Pedro Noguera, a professor in the Graduate School of Education at UCLA, called the Bay Area numbers “shocking.”
“We know there is evidence that this is happening throughout the country right now,” said Noguera. “One interpretation is that people who [have] intolerant, biased views feel emboldened and can now express them.”
While the Bay Area numbers have increased, they don’t tell the whole story. And, as experts point out, even one anti-Semitic incident at a public school is too many.
“Schools tend to be representative of the trends in our broader society,” Brysk said. “This is also true when it comes to the recent uptick in anti-Semitic incidents on campuses. Anti-Semitism must not be ignored or tolerated as it remains a serious concern in our society, including in our schools.”
The California Department of Education provides broad guidelines to school districts on how to maintain campuses that are free from harassment, intimidation and bullying based on ethnicity. But it gives each district latitude on how to deal with problematic behaviors. Because of the patchwork of expertise and understanding about often complex issues, not all schools are equally prepared to handle situations that arise.
While there is some agreement by experts on how to handle anti-Semitism or other racist activity at schools, the responses from schools vary widely — leaving some parents and students frustrated.
“There are some people who have experience, and they say ‘I’ve dealt with this,’ and they have a certain amount of experience and knowledge base to apply,” Brysk said. “But for some people, who have never dealt with it — they got into this business to teach math, not to necessarily understand those kinds of complex interactions, and the subject matter may be beyond the scope of their expertise.”
Following Waldorf’s troubling experience in January, her mother, Jessica Lindsey, said the school was slow to respond and that it took a letter from the ADL recommending possible actions for school officials to do anything.
“There really hasn’t been much of a response,” said Lindsey. “I’m not feeling at all very good about how the superintendent or school responded.”
For his part, Alameda Unified School District Superintendent Sean McPhetridge said the district immediately responded to the text incident, has been in touch with the Waldorfs and sought assistance from the ADL to improve teacher and administrative responses to such incidents.
“I don’t want to dismiss this at all,” McPhetridge said. “I spoke to the girl in question, I spoke about it at a board meeting, and this district has taken a pledge to be welcoming to people of all faiths.”
Because of privacy issues, McPhetridge would not comment on the specifics of disciplinary action taken by the school. But he said that he, too, has noticed an uptick in incidents that involve religion or ethnicity, and he has vowed to remain vigilant.
“The truth of the matter is that we can never rest,” he said. “We’re grappling with the question of how to do more, but we know we need to do more.”
Officials at one of the largest districts in the state, the San Francisco Unified School District, reported two anti-Semitic incidents in fall 2016, according to documents obtained via a public records request. But it’s unclear whether any corrective action took place beyond disciplining the students involved.
One incident involved a Nazi symbol drawn on a bulletin board at Lowell High School in October. The responsible student was directed to make amends through community service and restorative justice, a system of repairing harm through mediation, according to a memo obtained by J.
District staff also reported an incident at Washington High School around the same time. During a pep rally last fall, students allegedly raised their arms in a Nazi salute, while one addressed the crowd with “aggressive profanity that was extremely offensive toward women,” according to a Dec. 16 email message from a school official. That official — district lawyers redacted the name from documents — referred to a district investigation of the incident and asked for a status update. “Beyond this case, I urge you to establish and communicate clear policy about how hate speech and hate crimes are to be handled within SFUSD,” the official wrote.
The documents do not indicate the results of the investigation or say what measures the school took to prevent such incidents in the future.
SFUSD officials emailed J. after this story was initially published with a prepared statement about the district’s efforts to promote “community, tolerance, and equity.” Officials did not share specifics about the incidents revealed in school documents.
Chief communications officer Gentle Blythe wrote that both Washington and Lowell “have numerous practices in place to teach and reinforce expectations of treating all people with respect.” Blythe listed a number of community partnerships, curriculum initiatives that aim to, among other things, “maintain a bully-free environment.”
At Otis Elementary School in Alameda, the campus community was rocked in February by an anti-Semitic threat of violence from one student to another, according to documents obtained through a California Public Records Act request.
“Not much information has been released to affected parents regarding the incident this past week,” a concerned parent wrote to Principal Tonya Harris.
According to email exchanges among Otis staffers, it involved an anti-Semitic death threat as well as other racist and anti-Semitic material inside a Google document that was shared with students in a fourth-grade class. The student who produced the document was disciplined, and the school sent out a letter to parents.
At Novato High School in Marin County, anti-Semitic incidents occurred on a near daily basis in one class for “multiple weeks because they went unnoticed” by the teacher, according to an internal email message from Novato High Assistant Principal Tiffany Benson. The incidents took place in December and January.
After students reported what was happening, the administration launched an investigation and discovered that students had been drawing swastikas and Hitler characters on the classroom white board, as well as making racist slurs when testing audio equipment, such as “Testing, testing — dirty Jews,” according to documents.
Benson wrote in another email to Principal Matthew Baldwin and Assistant Superintendent Kris Cosca that the school would be documenting the findings in an official memo. In addition, the students who admitted their involvement were given detention and had to appear before peer court. Their parents also were contacted.
In a conference call with J., both Benson and Baldwin expressed shock that such activity had been going on in a classroom. “This kind of took us aback, that students would do this,” Baldwin said. “The teacher has never had anything like this happen, or even remotely like this.”
According to a memo, Benson instructed the teacher “to regain control of your classroom and create systems and consequences for inappropriate behavior that you will enforce consistently. Disrespectful, degrading or hateful speech, jokes or drawing must be addressed immediately and stopped.”
The district also called upon the National Equity Project, a nonprofit that aims to ensure equality in education. Lisa Lasky, a senior director with the project, conducted a workshop with all of the teachers at Novato High as well as the class where the incidents took place.
“I spent a period with the students,” said Lasky. “We helped them understand the responsibility of representing and respecting multiple stories and perspectives, connections and acceptance inside and outside the class. They had a thoughtful, honest conversation.”
At Willow Glen Middle School in San Jose, a February incident came to the administration’s attention after students reported a classmate in the school’s eating area “carrying several pictures of Adolf Hitler, goose-stepping yelling ‘Heil Hitler!’ and ‘knight, knight, knight.’ ” An investigation by school officials found that in addition to printing out a dozen pictures of Hitler, the student had approached a Jewish classmate and “harassed her with anti-Semitic remarks and comments” the day before the goose-stepping incident.
Dane Caldwell-Holden, director of student services at San Jose Unified School District, recommended that the Willow Glen student be expelled and prevented from returning to school grounds, according to documents.
In Walnut Creek, two anti-Semitic incidents were reported at Foothill Middle School. In a report filed on Jan. 17, an eighth-grade student said, “I really do not appreciate it when I turn around to my white board in math and see a swastica [sic] on it.” The student continued: “One other example is when lots of people always refer back to the gas chambers in whatever conversation I have. I’m not disrupting anybody in any way by ‘being Jewish,’ and I don’t know why people keep talking about it.”
At least one witness signed the incident report.
About a month later, also at Foothill, a student who was subjected to discipline wrote, “my friends told me to do a hale [sic] Hitler but we do that all the time in the past and now I just go into trouble … I don’t understand why I got into trouble now but not later in the past.”
In response to these incidents, according to a district record, Foothill “did participate in a tolerance lesson that lasted at least 20 minutes in each class to talk about bias, discrimination, etc. Hoping to get these solutions posted around the school and shift the focus on compassion and kindness as the norm. The messages will be reiterated throughout the school year.”
Inside the ADL’s Market Street offices, Seth Brysk speaks with the measured cadence of a man tackling a serious and growing problem facing the Jewish community.
On the wall, hanging near children’s artwork promoting messages of inclusion, is a copy of the ADL’s founding declaration from 1913. Brysk marveled that the document was created at a time when women could not vote, Jim Crow was the law, and open anti-Semitism was normal.
“It’s incredible to consider that all these people would put their names in public at that time,” he says about the signatories on the declaration. “There are so many from California, from the Bay Area.”
Obviously, things have changed considerably in the past century. But as J.’s investigation reveals, anti-Semitic attitudes and actions targeting Jewish students still occur. And experts concur that disciplining students is not a solution in and of itself, and that schools need to tailor their response to each incident since two are rarely alike.
“We want to see a series of activities that occur over the course of a school year,” Brysk said. “Sometimes these can be tied to events that occur during the school year, and like any other aspect of education, it’s worth repeating. For the lesson to really stick, you want to be able to have it approached from a variety of viewpoints and in a variety of ways and over time, so that those lessons are fully absorbed by the entire campus community.”
Some schools have opted to be proactive by using the ADL’s No Place for Hate program, designed to incorporate anti-bias and anti-bullying resources into a school’s existing resources. Twenty-three Bay Area schools have used the program in the current school year.
But as the problems at Novato High School illustrate, incidents can happen even at schools with no history of anti-Semitism or other hateful speech or activity.
Brysk pointed to the ADL’s “pyramid of hate,” which shows how anti-Semitic and racist activity can build up from relatively small acts to much more serious and violent ones, and cautioned educators against downplaying what might appear to be minor incidents.
“One of the pitfalls we find educators falling into is that the immediate assumption tends to be, ‘this is an isolated incident, this is a bad egg, this is a one-off thing. Let’s deal with this episode, let’s deal with this person who’s said these things, and then move on,’ ” he said.
“The problem is, typically it’s not an isolated incident. If someone is comfortable enough to act out or speak out in this way, there is an environment there that is fertile for this kind of activity.”
I thought JCRC was created to build relationships with all various communities to help prevent these things.
It is sad that we, the parents and the community at large, are failing our children on such massive level.
Both the ADL and the JCRC are supposed to protect, support and defend Jewish students. Supposed to, not pretend to. Both organizations are neglecting Jewish plight in their effort to be virulently Politically Correct. After wasting resources to champion for “anybody but the Jews”, both organizations are incapable of any serious intervention.
Sadly, I couldn’t agree more. I went to the JCRC and the ADL for help with this. The JCRC did not respond. I was in contact with Nancy, a very sympathetic and caring woman at the ADL, who did try try to help and wrote to the AUSD about my daughter’s situation on by behalf. Unfortunately, however, as you said, the ADL, as an organization, no longer focuses on combating anti-semitism. Instead, their mission has shifted to be vocally supporting everyone else – many times the very same groups who are perpetrating these attacks. Even their “Imagine a World Without Hate” program does not even mention any-semitism in their presentation! If the ADL won’t even support Jews it’s hopeless
What specifically would you like done to whoever upset your daughter?
I would like the same actions taken when other minority groups are targeted: acknowledgement from school administrators, a school assembly, letters to parents, coverage from mainstream media instead of generic “everyone belongs here” email responses. What about inclusion? Perhaps one of the people who “belong” should be a woman with a Star of David, along with the woman in hijab and the LGBTQI rainbow? It’s been my experience that Jews are often the hidden minority and are not represented as such. Is that unreasonable?
Why don’t you just send your kid to jewish school where you won’t have this problem? You are never going to end antisemitism so why bother. Just seems like a waste of time.
1. There are not Jewish Day Schools in every location. The assumption that all Jewish have access is a more than little chuzpahdik.
2. Jewish day schools, even where they exist, don’t meet every child’s needs.
3. Having Jewish students in secular schools is one way to educate the general public about minorities in general and Jewish in particular.
4. Anti-semitism may always exist, but the form it takes, who participates, and what the dominant culture does about it varies hugely.
Right now, we Jews are part of a larger problem that includes words and actions against ethnic, racial, religious, gender, and those perceived as immigrants (whether those people are citizens or immigrants of whatever status). Acting as though we are somehow different or special because “anti-semitism always exists” simply becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The better approach is to act together with these other groups.
Segregation is not the answer. It exacerbates the problem.
I am struggling with thinking of ways to handle this and who should be held responsible. Especially, the case that mentioned elementary school children in Alameda. Obviously, there are many things that should and can be done, but it makes me think parents should be held responsible and punished as they would be for other type of crimes committed by their children.
As a parent of the teenager featured in this article, I couldn’t agree more.
Yes punish the family! Do you people have any self-awareness?
“People dont like us and they say mean words about us.”
“What do we do about this?”
“Implement Stalinist collective punishment of course.”
And people wonder why upwards of 30,000,000 million people died under Bolshevism.
Seriously? That is quite a leap to Bolshevism and “Stalinist collective punishment” from a discussion about children and hate speech. And your opinion of how it could or should be handled is what exactly?
I believe the best way to handle it is for Jews to go live in Israel where there is no antisemitism.
No teacher can see everything. Especially on the blacktop. But no teacher should ignore any behavior like this. My experience is that schools have teacher cultures. Some schools work on this issue and address every incident they see or hear seriously. Others do not.
Don’t assume about the parents either, other than they are not monitoring their children’s online activities. Children are tremendously influenced by their peers and the media. Always have been.
Every school district should have programs in place for bullying which include addressing these issues. Now more than ever.
Yes, that way more articles, like this one, featuring my family, won’t have to be the norm.
If the teacher of the class would list Jews who contributed to science, medical cures, medications, music, agricultural products, Constitutional Ammendments, fashion, literature, thearter, architecture advances and design, education within schools, etc., indicating how much Jews have been so influential around the world and with so many things that help with many different life issues.
Meanwhile that same teacher is telling little white kids how their ancestors were bad and responsible for slavery and the holocaust.
Because those historical events WERE precipitated by white people. That’s a fact.
?? Are you sarcastic or what?
The Jewish Club was allowed to put posters up in the hallway during Jewish American Heritage Month that was not mentioned by admin, following Arab American Heritage Club daily announcements, the posters were of contributions made by Jews – Levi Strauss- Einstein-Nobel Prize winners, Israeli innovations etc. They were torn down. The others remained.
The curriculum can’t fit every minority ethnic, religious, gender, etc. group with ease. Besides, every kid gets taught about African-Americans every year and this does nothing to stem racist incidents. Every school must have a program in place to address bullying and discrimination.
“South Pacific”, the famous movie that stated, “You have to be taught before you are 6, 7, or 8, you have to be taught to hate!
This movie should be shown and discussed in First Grade of Elementary schools throughout the U.S. and discussed how respect for all our differences are a blessing! What a boring world it would be if we all looked alike!
Some of the commenters here might wish to view it too. It is a sad state when people turn upon each other like this.
The school district introduced a curriculum years ago but it was hung up for a long time by politicians who demanded that Lesson 9, the lgbt lesson, be rewritten. But it is in place now.
There is an ADL event at Edison School in Alameda 5/31: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0nOwAh9_aLyZEdkVTg5QXNmQ3c/view
Which is good, but remember the whole controversy about lesson 9? That was an unfortunate mirror into the faces of many Alamedans at the time. We continue to evolve.
I see two schools listed in Livermore. I am aware of incidents at another junior high school and one of the high schools. I also know that the ADL was called, responded, and worked with the high school–although ultimately the high school has not acted to implement change.
Thanks for letting us know. If you can, please email J. reporter Max Cherney at [email protected] with some details.
Then, sadly, nothing will change. One event does not create a school culture.
I think the best way to reduce antisemitism is for Jews to engage with their critics. Clearly people are unhappy with jewish behavior and need a way to express this. This kind of “shut it down” mentality is not winning you any friends.
I don’t think they should be shut down, just held accountable. I support free speech not safe spaces and think that real tolerance means listening to people and points of you that aren’t your own. Clearly what’s offensive to some people isn’t to others so where do you draw the line?
I agree with this. I would draw the line at threats.
I draw it at hate speech. Besides, we’re talking about children and children’s rights, especially at school, are limited as they should be. They can have free speech off of the campus or at a private school where they are not getting a free education from our tax dollars.
agreed
“Jewish” behaviour…now, what do you mean by that, you racist pig?
My son is being bullied at Monterra Middle School in Oakland. It’s been reported several times with no effective actions by the teacher, administrators and District representative. Sadly, this is not just a one time thing or limited to just one student.
OUSD clearly has double standards when it comes to tolerance and respecting diversity. If my son was African American and he was being bullied by white kids it would be front page news.
Yes. It’s the same everywhere. AUSD touts its “Everyone belongs here” campaign but Tolerance is a one way street. Had this graffiti said any other minority was evil you can be assured there would have been coverage by news sources all over. When racist graffiti was found on an elementary school wall the whole community organized solidarity holding hands creating FB group events to show their outrage. When this happens with real threats about Jewish extermination, Hitler admiration and other antisemitic displays there is complete silence
I’m not a parent or teacher but am aware of how this is being addressed by curriculum, PTA groups and a community meeting bein held May 31st at Edison.
Imagine a World Without Hate®
An Anti-Defamation League education and public awareness event
Join us for a thoughtful discussion on how to disrupt bigotry, bullying and hate crimes in our community, and how to help ourselves and our children be strong allies and stand up for others.
Participants will:
Learn easy strategies to respond to stereotypes and prejudice
Practice skills to confront bias and discrimination in themselves and others
Hear about current AUSD school programs promoting positive behavior
Facilitator: Jacqueline Regev, Education Director, Anti-Defamation League, Central Pacific Region. ADL is the nation’s premier civil rights/human relations agency, specializing in programs and services to fight all forms of bigotry, defend democratic ideals and protect civil rights for all.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
7 – 8:30 p.m.
Edison Elementary School | Multi-Purpose Room
2700 Buena Vista Ave, Alameda
Babysitting provided for ages 5+ | Free ($10 suggested donation)
Printable event flyer | RSVP: http://bit.ly/SpeakerSeriesRSVP
Even the ADL, formerly a champion of the Jewish community and defender of anti-Semitism, has re-branded itself. It now claims to fight “all forms of bigotry,” yet won’t even address Anti-Semitism by name. When Jewish organizations can’t even make Jews a priority, there’s really no hope.
Actually, that has always been their mission. Anti-defamation of all. By banding together people can accomplish more. Think about it.
And I hope they weren’t a defender of Anti-Semitism!
Dear Jessica, I think that the ADL and other such organizations are still doing a pretty good job and I feel that if they have expanded their remit against the increasing bigotry in American society , that is praiseworthy. Jews and Jewish anti-Semitism remains their definite priority but they rightly believe that all peoples and groups facing the majority White Supremacist and fascist expansion in the States , need to stand together to help and support each other.
I am yet to see CAIR to speak for Jews. CAIR sticks to its mission. I am yet to see NAACP abandon their core mission. The ADL? They abandoned their core mission with h abandon, no pun intended. Became useless and irrelevant
Yes. Of course. I agree. All forms of bigotry should be addressed and all organizations should be working together to help. What I was trying to convey is not that “Jewish” organizations shouldn’t be helping others, just that there aren’t any whose mission is to focus on combating hatred towards Jews, specifically. For example, the Southern Poverty Law Center is “dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society.” The ACLU works “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.” The NAACP focuses on racial discrimination for the black community and CAIR’s mission is to “enhance understanding of Islam.” Additionally, none of these organizations recognize that anti-Semitism does not only come from white supremacists and conservatives but from other minorities and groups who consider themselves to be “Progressive.”
It’s awful. My niece was victimized by a fellow who said she should be killed because she is Jewish. That was in Florida just a few years ago. The administration did something after a threat to go public, but it remains an unreported event at the niece’s request. The fellow ran for class president last year and might well have won, except that the administration blocked him.
The future looks very grim. Ours is the country most tolerant for Jewish people on earth.
A couple more thoughts..
There’s something troubling about the idea of having to teach about Jewish people (e.g Einstein) and their accomplishments. It’s as if there is some need to justify or legitimize the Jewish culture (or any culture, for that matter). Those days have long passed. We now have federal and state laws, policies and programs that prohibit discrimination. The schools need to be held accountable for creating a safe learning environment. And when students act innapriopriately they should be held accountable along with their parents.
How do we make the schools accountable?
Penalize the administrators for not reporting instead of for reporting.
Threaten to go public.
Nice writing and very good points all around but you missed a huge story that has been eerily quiet after it was uncovered. THE BOMB THREATS AGAINST JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTERS/SCHOOLS etc. AND MANY OTHER ,such as DELTA airlines etc, were traced to a JEWISH ISRAELI IN ASHKELON. with sophistaced voice masking equipment and IP hiding software. HIS NAME IS MICHAEL KAYDAR. OVER 2000 THREATS- I found this particularly disturbing because , his actions put the Blame on mostly “white Supremacists” or Muslims . WHICH WAS FALSE.
It created hate onto the whites or who ever .
PLEASE ADD THIS PART TO YOU STORY-!! IT confused everyone. SHALOM.
I don’t see my comment? I wrote about the dual citizen Jewish Israeli/American man that made over 2000 bomb threats world wide, most in the USA, to Jewish CCs and schools and even EL AL airplane , even grounding commercial Airplanes. WHAT HAPPENED to that CASE? I heard Israel has refused to extradite him. His name is Michael Kaydar. shalom
He is being tried here.
It is interesting to note that Alameda High was built on land taken from Temple Israel by eminent domain.
http://www.jweekly.com/1999/02/26/alameda-temple-marks-75-years-as-island-s-jewish-hub/
Very sad , and alarming, indeed. 🙁 The Jewish people have had a terrible experience of such behavior before , in the past, leading to ominous results and the memory lives on in their hearts along with the fear. What happened in the 1930s and 1940s should never ever happen again, to anyone, any race or group of people or followers of any particular religious belief/s. In the USA, and various parts of Europe, the Muslims, especially Arab Muslims are also experiencing this sort of terrible discrimination. Under this present/new US presidential dispensation, Latin/Hispanic people are also being targeted, in many parts , African Americans are the targets of fascists and , today, many LGBT people are also under fire. It is obvious that (a) fascism and anti-Semitism are generally growing in the USA (b) and are becoming more vocal and ‘open’ in their attacks against Jews and other peoples , under this Trump presidency because they have been led to believe that somehow it ‘supports’ their negative views , and (c) certain people within the US White supremacist, WASP and extremist Christian ‘establishment’ in the USA are today ‘coming out’ and encouraging others to also join them against anyone or anything that doesnt agree with their extremely narrow world views and attitudes and their hate-filled and violent philosophies. This regularly growing trend in the majority of the USA’s population , is manifesting itself more and more at various levels and manifesting itself more and more alarmingly and hurtfully. Can it be at all checked now at this point, under this present regime and in this present social/emotional climate ? Are there any simple solutions and answers? I doubt it. I think all our states and the Federal Government , and all the representative stakeholders , and the general masses of people in the US of A , have now to be involved to create a new model for the times, one which is broad, tolerant and strongly condemns and discourages any attack/s on any of the basic liberties of human beings under the Constitution.
If you looked at statistics provided in the article, anti Semitic incidents started long before latest elections.
Jews can blame for current antisemitism on campuses no one but themselves. After Holocaust it was actually impossible to be openly antisemitic. Unfortunately Jewish left idiots started, led, or joined anti-Israeli propaganda trying to support Arab exploited masses. I witnessed as in 1989 Joel Beinin did anti-Israel shows on SFSU campus. JCRC president Doug Cahn on my questions what he is planning to do about it, answered that they will go for lunches with those people.
Later in 2002 as a SFSU student I was arrested on campus, after group of Palestinian Arabs surrounded Pro-Israel Peace Rally chanting “Kill the Jews!” I answered, “Go f-ck your camels”. Later Arabs pushed the Jews to the corner, stomped on Israeli flag and police was summoned to rescue Jewish Students.
No one knew who I was. Seth Brisk then director of Hillel reported me to police and brought there my business card. I was arrested and charged with hate speech, because university did not want to blame only Arabs for pogrom, which became internationally known. They wanted to blame Jews as equally quilty.
I watched as on campus leftist Jewish professors like Debora Gerson, open communist, who called her friends “comrads” was organizing anti-Israeli shows like “Education under Occupation” where she was explaining to 300 17-18 year old student that IDF cut genitals of Palestinian prisoners with scissors. She organized anti-Israeli movie festival showing horrible behavior of IDF and Israelis on “occupied territories”.
Lefty Jews not only encouraged Pro-Palestinian anti-Israeli activities on campus, they incited shy in the beginning Arabs, trained them, and taught them how to use and create anti-Israeli propaganda, making of them seasoned fighters.
Horrific antisemitism on campuses today is a child of communist, hating Judaism and Israel Jews and inept leaders of Jewish organizations like JCRC and ADL. It is ridiculous to blame Trump who is just a few months president for terrible anti-Israeli antisemitic culture in American educational institutions, which was built in decades of pathetic inability of hired and well paid (doing nothing) Jewish leaders like Seth Brysk now of Pacific Brunch of ADL. They are distributing e-mails demanding us to support Muslim invasion into the US, which already ruined Europe. If in their ineptitude to fight antisemitism they are just dangerous shlemiels, in abetting to Muslim immigration – they are criminals who are pushing American Jewish community to collective suicide.
After the Holocaust open anti-Semitism was everywhere. Not even the gas chambers stopped it. To see that awful truth, all you need to do is read about the anti-Jewish riots in Britain in 1947 http://www.newstatesman.com/2012/05/britains-last-anti-jewish-riots ,
A am talking about the US. American Jews did pretty good job after the war DE-legitimizing antisemitism through education and Hollywood.
El Wrongo. Look at the law after the war that blocked the entry of displaced Jewish persons into the US
If you read Jewish Voice for Peace’s (JVP) new book on anti-Semitism, you’ll learn that white Jews of privilege can not be the object of bias, so this is all in your imagination.
They also have a definition of anti-semitism unlike definitions of other prejudices. When I wrote to them to see if they would discuss their definition online, no answer was received.
They just gave a talk on anti-Semitism in Berkeley that had nothing to do with anti-Semitism. It was all about how horrible the Jews are. They are truly a bizarre group
THe foulest part is their unwillingness to engage in discussion about their ideas online. That would seem a reasonable thing to do if one were interested in decreasing prejudice against Jews.
I went to Sheepshead Bay HS, same as Larry David. i was a Founding Father. (Which I am sure impresses Larry David.) But I was not Jewish. I belonged to the small minority “christians” who got along with the Jews (as opposed to those who made a formal rejection) but it was never very easy. I head formal declarations of superiority repeated by Jews pretty much to a man, woman or child. I generally greeted this with an attitude like it must be nice to have a healthy ego? Certainly I did not deny the Jewish culture, but in them days people too it with a little humor and balance. Many were un-placated, They don’t call it “hairy high school” for nothing. More recently I was gratified to get to see a kid flap a brace of school papers in his older sisters face.
As I assay it, remember that it is also the battle of the sexes. They may not validate her as sex object but nevertheless she is a woman and so any interaction whatsoever is thumbs up. And so, from this perspective she is just debbie downer to resort to authority for this. To be excessively frank, I have noticed that Jews on the West Coast seem less friendly that in the East, which is something i honestly don’t understand. As to my classmates back then, when I observe that it was only 12 years after the holocaust my Jewish classmates showed lots of tolerance and forbearance. But the bottom line is there was friction. I didn’t like either camp.
But my concern is that by forcing an apology–which is an indignity–you are taking ignorance and molding it into anti-semtism. An apology cannot be forced, so resentment is inevitable.
But a pedological viewpoint may be different. The teacher is there on the scene, hopefully, So the teacher calls the shots. But making it into a newspaper story is something else besides.
Stupid shit. But I deplore forcing an apology for what was probably just a way of engaging with her. Not Appropriate the school marm says. U know, I just realised, I am disbelieving that they are for real. I have seen school papers flapped irreverently in an older sisters face in a case of disagreement on the way home from school. . None of this means anything. So I hope for the guy they are involving in this newspaper story at least needs the photo ops.
I don’t think you can stomp it out. You might be able to rid the Bay Area of them, but I don’t approve of using the law that way. Anti-semitism belongs to the lower and lower middle class, so that is its own punishment & social limitation.
I don’t understand why bullying is coming on so strong or why they get away with it at all. Some kind of a macho head game. My high school had zero trouble policing the toughs. to the point that there were not any–at least not in contact. The christian component gravitated (or were guided) to the vocational program to a highly conspicuous extent. However, the community they drew had been a poor fishing village, with the Jews being middle and lower middle, but of course desirous of liberal education. .
I have no doubt that Trump lit the spark but that doesn’t explain the timber. OR, is it even a fact that these incIdents are on the rise historically? Maybe before nobody said anything. It certainly wasn’t a magical moment ( as I think the author said) for her to be treated to this ugly side of human nature. But I still suspect power play. Just a hunch.