Jewish students and educators in K-12 schools across the country are experiencing a surge of antisemitism, often in proudly “progressive” communities.
In those environments, antisemitism is often perceived as a solely right-wing phenomenon that conjures up images of Groyper bros hoisting tiki torches and chanting “Jews will not replace us.”
There is little to no awareness of how progressive movements have become fertile ground for a hypocritical form of the world’s oldest hatred.
Far-left groups like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which have gained influence in teachers unions, are rooted in anti-Westernism, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Zionism – all of which often lead to antisemitism.
They seek to tear down the meritocratic and pluralistic values that have empowered Jews and other minorities to achieve safety and prosperity.
And since the vast majority of Jewish Americans support and feel connected to Israel, Jewish identity itself has become suspect in many progressive circles. Jewish students often report hiding their identity and connection to Israel to avoid being branded “colonizers,” “oppressors,” or “genocide supporters.”
The problem has gotten so bad that StandWithUs joined the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law in a lawsuit against the state of California, the California State Board of Education, the state Department of Education, and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond “on behalf of Jewish parents whose children have been, and continue to be, the subjects of cruel, persistent, and pervasive antisemitism in their California public schools.”
We had hoped that when a 2023 lawsuit against the Santa Ana School District succeeded in prohibiting the district from pushing antisemitic materials in class, the rest of the state would have heard the message, but it clearly has not.
Over and over, complaints of antisemitism have been denied, ignored, and covered up, and it’s time for California to honor its obligation to protect all students.
By repeating a set of big lies about Jews and Israel, the supposed defenders of the downtrodden have rebranded antisemitism as “punching up,” routinely painting the world’s only Jewish state as a uniquely violent, racist pariah born of European colonialism.
The charge that Jews are foreign colonizers in Israel is particularly absurd to anyone with even a superficial understanding of history. When archaeologists dig in Israel, they find Hebrew-language artifacts corresponding to Jewish traditions that have barely changed for 3,000 years.
Today’s Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque are comparatively modern buildings built by Muslim colonists atop the Temple Mount, where the Jewish Temple stood until the Romans destroyed it nearly 2,000 years ago.
In lessons about the 1948 War, anti-Zionists weaponize the suffering of Palestinian Arab refugees to give Arab leaders a free pass for the genocidal war they launched following the 1947 UN peace plan and Israel’s declaration of independence. As documented by numerous historians, that conflict drove the Palestinian refugee crisis –– not arbitrary expulsions on the part of Israelis.
Exploiting the suffering caused by apartheid in South Africa, anti-Zonists have used that term to slander Israel’s diverse democracy. The goal of the “apartheid” lie is to dehumanize a society where citizens of all ethnicities and faiths –– including Arab Muslims and Christians –– vote, form political parties, serve in the judiciary, and freely participate in public life, and where a majority of Jews would qualify as “people of color.”
It also distorts the causes of Palestinian suffering in the West Bank and Gaza, where civilians have been caught in a tragic conflict between Israel and terrorist groups like Hamas.
The libels have reached a crescendo with false genocide allegations, which have become an obscene way to virtue signal and weaponize Holocaust education against the Jewish community.
The word “genocide,” coined to describe the Nazis’ mass slaughter of 6 million Jews, is now used to attack Israel.
These narratives turn a complicated conflict into a simplistic morality tale in which Jews are cast as villains. Their harmful impact in K-12 schools is evident, with a StandWithUs study finding that over 60% of Jewish K-12 educators have been exposed to antisemitism in professional environments. Jewish students and parents have reported facing similar hostility in schools.
Stopping all forms of antisemitism –– not just swastikas and classic slurs –– starts in K-12 schools. Antisemitism is ultimately a conspiracy theory, and when conspiracism takes hold, societies lose the capacity to address their largest challenges.
The best education teaches students language, math, science, history, and civics without superimposing ideological narratives. It addresses controversies with facts and context, presenting students with differing perspectives and the ability to evaluate them.
Societies that impose ideology, like the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and Cambodia, destroy themselves from the inside.
Emphasizing critical thinking and combating ideology in our schools is the only way to shape our children into responsible and tolerant citizens.
Mitch Siegler is founder and CEO of THINC Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates for constructive ethnic studies in K-12 schools. David Smokler is executive director of the K-12 Fairness Center at StandWithUs, a nonpartisan international nonprofit that fights antisemitism, educates about Israel, and has joined litigation against California over antisemitism in public schools.
