Jew-Hate Cancer in U.S. Schools

By Larry Sand(Front Page Magazine)

When Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists attacked Israel through air, land, and sea, killing over 1,200 people on October 7, 2023, it was the largest murder of Jews since the Holocaust. There were also countless numbers of gang-rapes, and 251 Israelis were taken hostage. Sadly, the attack revealed an antisemitic cancer in many of the nation’s schools, which I wrote about at the time. And, sadly, it is still with us. To wit….

The Sequoia Union High School District in California’s Silicon Valley is being sued over rampant antisemitism their kids experienced in high school as administrators stood by and allowed it to fester. “When SUHSD parents and students raised concerns—through emails, petitions, and formal complaints—the District responded with bureaucratic obfuscation and outright denial, demonstrating a deliberate indifference to SUHSD’s Jewish students. Emails were ignored, and meetings were canceled without explanation,” the lawsuit says.

“The District’s administrators and trustees have consistently and deliberately refused to take concrete action to stem the scourge of antisemitism on their campuses, to the detriment of Jewish SUHSD students who, subjected to harassment and ridicule from both peers and teachers, have been forced to endure an increasingly hostile learning environment.”

In New York City, there are myriad examples. One concerns the mother of a Manhattan public school student who is outraged. “On Monday, Oct. 9, my child came to school and found their teacher chanting, ‘Palestine all the way!’ Israel is going to get what they (sic) deserve!’” In Harlem, a swastika was drawn on a wall immediately following Oct. 7, and another was carved into a desk at the beginning of this academic year. The principal sent out an email encouraging everyone to be tolerant of different points of view and said that the “person who drew the symbol probably didn’t know what it meant.”

Not surprisingly, the teachers’ unions are fully on board with unabashed Jew-hatred. For example, in Oregon, the Portland Association of Teachers suggests that kindergarteners be gathered into a circle and taught the history of Palestine: “Seventy-five years ago, a lot of decision-makers around the world decided to take away Palestinian land to make a country called Israel. Israel would be a country where rules were mostly fair for Jewish people with white skin. There’s a BIG word for when indigenous land gets taken away to make a country; that’s called settler colonialism.”

The United Teachers of Los Angeles is particularly egregious. UTLA leadership is pro-Palestinian, and the union is being sued by teachers who don’t want to be represented by them  because it supports calls for the destruction of the plaintiff’s religious homeland and “promotes animosity and violence towards people of Jewish descent.”

Amazingly, the UTLA sees itself as a foreign policy authority. In October, its governing body voted to support a congressional effort to block the sale of more than $20 billion in U.S. weaponry to Israel on the grounds that American-supplied arms were being used against civilians.

The nation’s colleges are hotbeds of Jew-hatred. StopAntiSemitism, an advocacy group, issued a report card that details how 25 schools nationwide treat Jewish students.

In the introduction to its report, the group states, “Since last year’s staggering 1,500% increase in antisemitic submissions, StopAntisemitism has been forced to triple the size of our team just to manage the deluge of reports. This year alone, we’ve seen a jaw-dropping 3,000% rise in antisemitic tips and submissions, as universities across the country fail to protect their Jewish students in the wake of violent antisemitic uprisings.”

The findings are nothing short of alarming:

• 55% of Jewish students have personally been victims of antisemitism at their schools.
• 43% did not feel safe enough to report the incidents.
• Of those who did report, 87% believe their school failed to investigate properly.
• 43% hide their Jewish identity from their classmates out of fear.
• 72% feel unwelcome in certain spaces on campus simply for being Jewish.
• 67% say Jews are completely excluded from their school’s DEI initiatives.
• 69% are blamed for the actions of Israel—actions they have no control over.
• 67% feel their university did not take sufficient action to protect Jewish students in the wake of the 10/7 massacre.
• 43% would not recommend their school to fellow Jewish students.

At the University of California at Davis, which was number 17 on the list of 25, 81% of students have experienced antisemitism, 93% do not feel safe expressing Jewish identity, 93% do not feel welcome in many spaces on campus, 100% of students feel they are blamed for Israel’s actions, and 87% said they do not feel safeguarded by the school.

At UCLA, Zionism is taboo. It is included on a list of qualities that are an impediment to hiring, and personnel can be removed from their position if they support it. The school lumps Zionism in with racism, white supremacy, homophobia, misogyny, and “all other hateful/bigoted ideologies.”

There is some pushback, however. In Virginia, after a group of students defaced George Mason University’s student center in August, spray painting messages that warned of a “student intifada,” GMU suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and pursued a criminal investigation of two female members who are suspected of being involved in the incident.

Also, on a positive note, Tufts University in Massachusetts recently extended a suspension of its SJP chapter until January 2027 after first deactivating the group in October, a school spokesman confirmed last month.

Additionally, the University of Michigan has initiated disciplinary proceedings against one of its most outspoken and controversial anti-Israel groups, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE)—an SJP spinoff—the result of which may be a suspension of up to four years.

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities has reportedly suspended and demanded financial restitution from seven pro-Hamas activists who were arrested for commandeering an administrative building on Oct. 21, an action which aimed to pressure school officials into enacting a boycott of Israel. According to a statement from SJP and other anti-Israel campus groups that was posted on social media, “seven of eight students charged with misconducting themselves on that day have been ‘found guilty’ by a university disciplinary tribunal. Each has been fined about $5,500, the statement further alleged, and suspended for periods ranging from one to five semesters.”

On another optimistic note, in November, President-elect Donald Trump announced measures “to defeat antisemitism and defend our Jewish citizens in America. My first week back in the Oval Office, my administration will inform every college president that if you do not end antisemitic propaganda, they will lose their accreditation and federal taxpayer support. I will inform every educational institution in our land that if they permit violence, harassment, or threats against Jewish students, the schools will be held accountable for violations of the civil rights laws.”

Trump emphasized that “Jewish Americans must have equal protection under the law.” And he promised that “[m]y administration will move swiftly to restore safety for Jewish students and Jewish people on American streets.”

What else can be done?

We must end taxpayer funding of private colleges. Currently, there are about 4,000 for-profit colleges in the U.S., and they receive the great majority of federal tax dollars for higher education—which is about $201 billion. In fact, there are only 22 colleges in the country that refuse any public funds. It is disgraceful that as a taxpayer and a Jew, my tax dollars go to schools that foster antisemitism.

Lastly, Jews and, in fact, any right-thinking teacher who belongs to a union like UTLA that is hostile to Jews should opt out and stop supporting them. Immediately!

Larry Sand, a retired 28-year classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers and the general public with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues. The views presented here are strictly his own.