ZIONIST American K-12 Educators. We help resolve problems with school-based antisemitism in public, charter, and private schools. ❤️ & R/T are not endorsement
United States
Joined November 2021
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“Work it out yourselves.”
Ah, yes. The self-service anti-bullying department.
Adults: intervene. Separate the kids. Investigate.
Jewish students came to school for an education, not an unpaid job in conflict resolution.
stopbullying.gov/prevention/…
Jewish teachers: qualified to teach math, science, history, and second grade. But recognizing Jew hate requires a second opinion from someone who just Googled “antisemitism.”
Interesting credentialing process.
If your school can name ten kinds of bias but needs a three-hour meeting to recognize Jew hate, the problem isn’t a lack of training.
It’s selective concern.
Jewish students belong in your inclusion policy without an asterisk.
A tween voluntarily choosing a book. Alert the faculty lounge.
PJ Our Way lets kids ages 9–12 in Jewish homes choose a free Jewish book each month. Pick by Nov. 10.
Jewish joy, delivered. No reading log required.
pjourway.org/
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School: “We want Jewish teachers to bring their whole selves to work.”
Jewish teacher: “Wonderful. Here are my concerns about anti-Jewish hatred.”
School: “Could you bring slightly less of yourself?”
Schools can track a missing library book through three classrooms and a parent portal.
Let’s bring that energy to antisemitism complaints.
Who is handling it? What happens next? When will the family hear back?
Jewish students deserve follow-through, not a vague forwarding address.
It’s 80oF and gorgeous in Los Angeles today. Israel doesn’t control the weather. But Jews in general? We do.
If your town has crappy weather today, ask yourself: How have we been treating our Jews?
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A hot take is not a teaching credential.
Orange County Educator Alliance’s Nov. 8 teacher training tackles the Arab-Israeli conflict. Its resources include primary sources and Jewish history.
More sources. Fewer slogans.
jewishorangecounty.org/ocedu…
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When I was in the IDF I was in Rooster Psychological Operations and my job was to sneak roosters under Hamas leaders' windows to crow at 3am. Every night. For six years. I am breaking the silence.
No joke, JewTLA members are all teachers in Los Angeles. But we’ve been asked if we report bigoted antisemites to the IDF.
Something has gone very wrong with religious hatred in America. But not in quite the way I expected. I started looking at ten years of FBI hate-crime data, comparing anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hatred. What I found surprised me.
But before the statistics, two children.
At Southern Hills Middle School in Boulder, Colorado, a Jewish eighth grader endured nearly two years of anti-Jewish harassment.
Classmates called Jews dirty and contaminated. They played a game called “Jew touch tag." Nazi salutes and Holocaust jokes were directed at him.
Then a classmate fashioned a Chromebook charging cord into a lasso, put it around the Jewish child's neck and dragged him backward from his chair while calling him a Jewish slur.
Police were called.
The harassment continued.
Eventually, the boy stopped wearing his Star of David and stopped telling people he was Jewish. His family ultimately removed him from Southern Hills because of concerns for his well-being.
Boulder Valley School District is now in pre-investigation mediation with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights and ADL. There has not yet been a final OCR finding or settlement.
Now the second child: At Mace's Lane Middle School in Cambridge, Maryland, fellow students repeatedly targeted a 12-year-old Muslim girl. During one incident, students threatened to remove her hijab. During another, a student punched her in the back of the head and attempted to forcibly remove her hijab while students called her a terrorist.
Her family filed a federal civil-rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. OCR took up the complaint, but there has not yet been a publicly reported final resolution, settlement or finding.
A student puts a cord around a Jewish boy's neck. A student punches a Muslim girl in the head, tries to tear off her hijab, while students call her a terrorist.
Two children. Two American public schools. Two unmistakable acts of religious hatred. Neither child's experience is less serious because another child somewhere experienced something worse.
This isn't an atrocity competition.
But these two children made me wonder about something larger:
Where have we succeeded in reducing religious hatred in America, and where have we failed?
So I went to the FBI data.
Because there are more Jews than Muslims in the United States, I adjusted the FBI hate-crime incident numbers for the estimated size of each population.
Here is what it looks like:
Antisemitism. Now with a fitness tracker.
A Nov. 8 Philadelphia bike protest targets six Jewish-owned eateries. Its flyer: “These Zionist establishments must go!”
Teachers: this is why history needs more than a worksheet.
inquirer.com/news/philadelph…
Jewish education: where arguing can mean the lesson is going beautifully.
Chavruta pairs learners to study a text, ask questions and challenge each other’s ideas.
A classroom tip from JewTLA: disagree all you like. Bring evidence.
Imagine that on the internet.
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Teacher attire is teacher speech:
At Orange County School of the Arts (CA) CDE found a teacher’s lessons and Israel-shaped watermelon shirt created a discriminatory environment for Jewish and Israeli students.
All teachers must get antisemitism training.
Class, meet consequences. standwithus.com/news/legal/c…
The election may not have gone your way.
We’re Jewish teachers. We’ve faced rooms where nobody did the reading and everyone had an opinion.
We’re qualified for this moment.
Have coffee. Find your people. Join JewTLA jewtla.jewishlausd.org
Despair is understandable. But it’s not a lesson plan.
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A swastika is not a “challenging perspective.” It’s a swastika.
After one was found at Sharon HS on Nov. 3, officials named the antisemitism, informed families, and offered student support.
Good. Protecting Jewish kids shouldn’t require a debate club.
sharonma.gov/m/newsflash/Hom…
Some Americans woke up celebrating. Others woke up Googling real estate in Israel.
Jewish educators woke up with the same job: protecting Jewish students and standing up to hate.
Elections change who's in charge. They don't change our homework.
Stop watching from the sidelines: Join JewTLA.
We've got work to do.
jewtla.jewishlausd.org
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Donate $180 to JewTLA.
That's ten times chai. 🕎
And it’s still cheaper than the therapy you’ll need after Election Day.
jewtla.jewishlausd.org/donat…
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Teachers spend 180 days a year telling kids their voice matters.
Today is the open-book test.
Go vote. 🗳️ #ElectionDay
Go to vote.israelusa.org for the best pro-USA pro-education choices.
1/2 Classmates told a Jewish 14 year old she should be gassed. Staff were too "busy" to call her parents. Later, kids shoved her into a cabinet.
The district DID find time to release a safety statement.
P erhaps she should have submitted a press inquiry?
adl.org/resources/press-rele…
According to ADL’s complaint, a 14-year-old Jewish girl at Desert Shadows Middle School in Arizona endured antisemitic harassment during April and May:
Students used anti-Jewish slurs, told her she should be sent to a concentration camp and “gassed,” and gave a Hitler salute.
After she reported it, she was threatened for “snitching.”
A student allegedly shoved her across a desk into a cabinet.
The alleged adult response is what prompted the post: a teacher said the slurs weren’t his problem; administrators reportedly said they were “too busy” to call her parents; and an assistant principal suggested a student giving a Hitler salute probably had a crush on her. The complaint says she was ultimately isolated in the principal’s office, accumulated more than 45 missing assignments, and later changed districts.
ADL and Reed Smith announced the federal civil-rights complaint on October 29, 2026. These remain allegations. The district says it investigates reports and condemns antisemitism, but declined to discuss the specific case, citing student privacy.
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