"A certain people... their faith is different..."
- Purim USA 2017
... in a Jewish school - teaching about anti-Semitism
- Overnight, swastikas and the slogans "Jews go home' appear on the doors of the school. A JCC in a nearby community has received bomb threats.
- In your neighborhood, Jews walking home from synagogue on Friday night are verbally harassed.
- A teacher tells a class of middle-school children that "another Holocaust is coming in America". A High School teacher tells students that Jews are a "white, affluent, over-privileged class."
- The staff room is in uproar as every Jewish angle of the new Presidential Administration - and there are many! - is endlessly and acrimoniously debated. This seems to reflect what is happening at many Friday night tables in the community. Is the new Government "good for the Jews" - or is it deeply anti-Semitic?
As Purim approaches, we can expect to see many costumes themed around the Trump family. I think Ivanka will be flattered to see how many little Jewish girls cast her as Queen Esther. How will her dad be cast? Well, not quite as clear.
Some in the Jewish community see the Trump Administration as the most favorable in history to Jews and Israel. Others have a far less optimistic view.
But in language and content, some policies and actions of the new Administration have been fierce and challenging.
Discrimination, including anti-Semitism, has been a major public talking point.
Whatever the cause, the last few weeks have also seen a whole range of anti-Semitic acts - vandalism, bomb threats, and verbal harassment. Leading politicians of both parties are shown to have had disturbing connections.
All our students have seen this. Courtesy of Mr.Turx, that includes Yeshivah and Sem students.
How do you deal with this in school?
- It is irresponsible to ignore the issue. It is all over the media and the internet, every day, and your students are very aware of it.
- It is irresponsible to underestimate the current level of anti-Semitism your students may encounter.
- It is irresponsible to overestimate the current level of anti-Semitism your students may encounter.
- Dealing with anti-Semitism in the context of a Jewish school is difficult. With rare exceptions, the students' experience is wholly external to the school.
- Student and faculty perceptions are also colored by other background factors -- including family history and religious traditions.
Where do you begin?
The responsibility of the Principal - as always - is to lead the formation of policy.
Clearly, all programs have to be age-appropriate.
A round-table of school Administrators, faculty, perhaps parents and perhaps students, should consider:
- Short-term reactive strategies - how do you react to local community incidents, or incidents involving the school, its students, or other personnel?
There is a discussion to be had somewhere about dealing with students who encounter antisemitism (whether in person, in print, on the web etc.) for the first time.
- Strategies to deal with news events - how do you react to widely-publicised anti-Semitic incidents which are clearly worrying to young Jewish people?
- Longer-term curriculum issues - how is the topic of anti-Semitism dealt with in the classroom/curriculum? Where does it appear? Who teaches it?
-- and, importantly:
- How does the school react to other, related issues also featuring in the news? Refugees worldwide, the status of undocumented immigrants, the restrictions on immigrants to the USA, Syrian and other refugees in Israel - are all topics which will surface very quickly in class discussions in Middle School and above.
- How do you deal with prejudice shown by your students to others?
Resources
Dealing with this issue will involve investment of thought, time and expense.
Your team should ensure all material presented:
- Is relevant to your students' immediate experiences
- Reflects factually correct, balanced information (and not rumor)
- Gives guidance to students and staff who want to research further
Local community professionals from different organizations can be very helpful.
Your school may consult with -
- Your local police force
- The local Jewish Federation / JCRC
- Online resources provide tested educational materials. Many of them are aimed at non-Jewish schools. The material is adaptable without too much trouble.
They include:
o The ADL - includes links to lesson plans and materials, and many other links.
[
www.adl.org]
o The US Holocaust Museum - comprehensive educational resources
[
www.ushmm.org]?
o Yad Vashem - material concentrates on the Shoah
[
www.yadvashem.org]?
The Jewish Education Project (formerly the NY Board of Jewish Ed) ran a webinar called "Jewish Education in a Scary World" [
www.jewishedproject.org] in January 2015. They discuss the issue of teaching students in Jewish Day Schools about antisemitism. There are links to age-differentiated resources. The Q & A transcript has some thoughtful insights.
Dangers
Dealing with this emotionally- and politically-charged subject demands a very cool head.
Some advice:
- Convene your working group and formulate some general lines of approach, if necessary with external help. Put guidelines in writing.
- Have a briefing session for all faculty, and review the guidelines. Explain why it is important for the school to have a generally unified message. If there is a local or national incident, the topic may come up in almost any class. (Every school knows that it inevitably arises in Eng Lit.)
- The teachers who are going to deal with this at length must be knowledgable and sensible. They must not alarm the students (especially younger ones); nor dismiss the whole subject; nor give eccentric or offensive views
- Do not allow individual teachers (or local rabbis), to "hijack" this topic and deliver their own agendas.
- Faculty have a duty to uphold school values and school policy. Should any teacher give views that are way outside school consensus - in any direction - deal with it swiftly and clearly. It sometimes happens that you discover an employee who identifies with an extremist group. That, too, needs attention. Before acting in either case, take legal advice. Be prepared for media attention.
- Information is critical. Encourage students, faculty and parents to come forward and inform the school of all incidents. Some may need action; some not. But the patterns are important. Liaise with local community and police sources.
If faced with a major local incident which is impacting the school - Paul Shaviv Consulting [
paulshavivconsulting.com] will give expert Crisis Support, guiding you and the school through the 5 stages of our unique SCADR process -
o SECURITY
o COMMUNICATION
o ACTION
o DOCUMENT / Record
o REVIEW
Email:
paul@joelpaul.com or call 646-581-0890
TAKEAWAY THOUGHTS
Anti-Semitism is ugly, painful and upsetting
- Anti-Semitism in America has recently become a high-profile issue
- Schools must deal with it
- Paradoxically, students at Jewish schools often have little or no experience of it
- It arises in different ways
- It attracts instant, and sometimes disproportional publicity
- Dealing with this is linked to other important issues, including:
School security
Israel
Community relations
Cyber security / online activity
You can subscribe to Paul Shaviv's newsletter by sending an email to him with the subject line "Newsletter" -
paul@joelpaul.com
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2017 07:51PM by mlb.
