The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust released on Tuesday an Antisemitism FAQ Educator Resource in the wake of ongoing and increasing antisemitism throughout the city and in NYC public schools.
The resource, according to the museum, is an “easy-to-use, accessible” guide designed to help teachers and educators develop and increase their understanding of antisemitism, specifically how it has played out in the past and what it looks like today.
Why was the resource created?
Halfway around the world, Hamas’ terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, led to the ongoing war in Gaza, reignited a wave of anti-Jewish ideologies and antisemitic attacks throughout the Big Apple. Schools have not been immune to the violence and harassment, with many students and teachers feeling the wrath of antisemitism within the public school system.
Just this week, Jewish advocates held a press conference accusing Origins High School in Brooklyn of being riddled with antisemitic behavior. The allegations include death threats against Jewish teachers, swastika drawings and other forms of harassment.
Though city officials and the Department of Education denied that these incidents occurred at Origins, both have nonetheless acknowledged the rise of antisemitism in public schools around the city since the Oct. 7 attacks. In January, the DOE rolled out a new education program designed to help educators combat antisemitism in the classroom.
About the new resource
The museum’s new educator resource features a series of questions commonly asked about antisemitism, accompanied by answers and background information for educators to use in the classroom or any educational setting.
Topics include the roots of antisemitism, why Jews were targeted during the Holocaust, how the Holocaust ties into current events and how to identify antisemitic tropes.
Jack Kliger, president and CEO of the museum, said the staff and educators have worked together for more than 20 years to educate children about antisemitism, and the new resource is an “extension” of that work.
“With antisemitism at a terrifying high and the unfettered spread of misinformation in the age of social media, the museum felt a responsibility to develop an easy-to-use, accessible and practical resource to help teachers and students understand what is happening right now,” Kliger said. “We have been and will continue to be a trusted source of accurate information for thousands of students and their teachers each year. Dangerous myths and stereotypes are what started the Holocaust, and our commitment is to ensure that will never happen again,”
The resource will be used as part of the DOE’s new program that addresses antisemitism in city schools.
“In my announcement in January about the New York City public schools’ plan to meet this challenging moment, we committed to expanding instructional resources for schools, and to that end, we will be sharing the museum’s new antisemitism resources with our school communities,” Schools Chancellor David Banks said. “The need to educate the next generation about antisemitism feels more urgent now than ever.”
Antisemitism has skyrocketed since the war: the Anti-Defamation League
Antisemitism has proliferated in city schools since the recent conflict in the Middle East started, but it has been increasing nationwide.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), antisemitism has increased dramatically in the three months since Oct. 7, 2023, reaching 3,291 incidents compared with 712 incidents the previous year.
“The American Jewish community is facing a threat level that’s now unprecedented in modern history,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said. “It’s shocking that we’ve recorded more antisemitic acts in three months than we usually would in an entire year.”
The ADL Center on Extremism, which gathers reports and tracks antisemitic incident data, many of the 3,291 incidents were acts of physical assault, harassment and expressions of support for terrorism against Israel.
“In this difficult moment, antisemitism is spreading and mutating in alarming ways,” Greenblatt said. “This onslaught of hate includes a dramatic increase in fake bomb threats that disrupt services at synagogues and put communities on edge across the country.”
