Jew-hatred is a "pervasive and escalating problem" at elementary and secondary schools in Massachusetts, according to a legislative task force.
The commonwealth's Special Commission for Combating Antisemitism, which met at the State House in Boston last week, approved a 25-page report unanimously after 10 hearings. Families and teachers have reported experiencing a "large number" of incidents of "hate, bullying, harassment and discrimination," particularly after Oct. 7, according to the report.
"This is something that needs to be addressed head-on," commission co-chair Simon Cataldo, a Democratic state representative who is Jewish, told JNS. "It's not going to get better on its own."
"There are a lot of levers we are able to push that are shown to reduce antisemitism in many different aspects and areas of our society," Cataldo said.
The commission recommended that the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education create an advisory council to ensure students at every grade level, including younger ones, receive age-appropriate curricula and resources about Judaism and antisemitism.
The panel also called for programs on Jewish American Heritage Month and lessons on the Middle East conflict. Teachers and administrators should receive an antibias education, including about antisemitism, the panel said.
"There is now a playbook on how to do this properly," Cataldo told JNS. "The next time an incident occurs, the public, Jewish communities and their allies can ask, 'Did you do these things? Are you responding in the proper way? Is this a transparent process? Is your staff properly trained? And if not, what are you going to do to fix this?'"
"We are taking the guesswork out of this process," Cataldo said.
The commission is also investigating Jew-hatred on college campuses and plans to issue a final report by the end of November. The group decided to release the K-12 findings now, as the school year is about to begin in the state.
"We thought focusing on kids is going to have the highest impact," Cataldo told JNS. "We know there are a lot of minds that can be changed."
Jewish organizations praised the commission's recommendations. The American Jewish Committee's New England office called them "groundbreaking," and Samantha Joseph, Anti-Defamation League regional director, said it is "important work."
Elected officials also praised the effort. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., applauded the commission's "critical work to develop tangible, actionable recommendations to increase awareness of and confront antisemitism in schools across the commonwealth."
Anti-Jewish hate crimes increased by 20.5% in Massachusetts in 2024, passing anti-Black incidents for the first time since the state began tracking such statistics in 1991, JNS reported last month.
"As antisemitic and religious-based hate crimes rise here in Massachusetts and across the country, we are reminded that each of us has an obligation to protect one another — and especially our children — from hate, ignorance and violence," Trahan stated. "Education is one of our most powerful tools to fight bigotry. I'm grateful to the commission for ensuring our classrooms remain places of safety, inclusion and truth."
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and Kimberly Driscoll, the lieutenant governor, stated that the commonwealth is "committed to doing everything we can to address antisemitism."
"That starts in our schools. If we want to combat antisemitism and protect the members of our Jewish community, it starts with educating our children, building a better understanding of the Jewish experience, and making it clear that antisemitism has no place in Massachusetts," stated the two, both Democrats.
Andrea Campbell, the state attorney general and a Democrat, stated that "every child deserves to learn in an environment where they feel safe and accepted for who they are."
"We have a zero-tolerance policy for hate, and my office remains committed to confronting antisemitism and bigotry in all forms," she stated.
Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., the House minority whip, stated that the commission's report will "strengthen our efforts to combat antisemitism in schools and help us build a safer future for our children."
Despite all that praise from state leaders, John Velis, a Massachusetts state senator and the other co-chair of the commission, said there was opposition from some quarters to the efforts to quantify and fight Jew-hatred in the commonwealth.
"The one thing that has surprised me over and over again is the amount of pushback to what we are trying to do in terms of ridding the world or pushing back against a form of hatred," Velis told JNS. "This is us trying to lift up a group that has been the victim of such vitriolic hate for several millennia."
Both co-chairs said they are prepared to move legislatively if the report's recommendations are not followed. Velis said the report must be "more than words on a paper."
The impetus for forming the commission came from Velis, who told JNS that he acted after a constituent told him that her 8-year-old was afraid of saying that she is Jewish.
"I'm absolutely devastated," Velis told JNS. "I'm saying, 'What in God's name could make a young child say that she's afraid to say she's Jewish?'"
Cataldo's district includes Concord, where there is an "alarming pattern of antisemitic bullying, slurs, threats and retaliation," according to a civil rights complaint that the Anti-Defamation League and Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed with the U.S. Department of Education last month.
The commission's report warned of students being "increasingly exposed to neo-Nazi, pro-Hamas, and other extreme right- and left-wing ideologies through social media and other online platforms, often without critical context."
"This exposure fosters the spread of hateful conspiracy theories and antisemitic beliefs," according to the report, and it could be "causally linked" to an increase in graffiti, gestures and speech that is Nazi-related and sympathetic to terror by students in primary and secondary schools, per the report.
Jewish students were left out when districts sought to fight bullying or invest resources in efforts to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in the study body, Cataldo told JNS.
The ADL's annual audit found 438 antisemitic incidents in Massachusetts last year — the fifth-highest in the country and more than double the 152 recorded in 2022. The nonprofit also named the Bay State as one of the 29 making progress toward combating antisemitism. Nine other states were classified as taking stronger steps.
"Many school districts and schools do not provide teachers and staff with clear instructions as to when and how they should report potential hate or bias incidents of all types, including antisemitic incidents," the commission stated.
"The commonwealth lacks a centralized mechanism for compiling and tracking such incidents," it added. "Many victims of antisemitic incidents do not report cases due to fear of retaliation and harassment or the sense that reporting an incident will not lead to any response by the school."
The commission called for a statewide bias reporting program that "explicitly includes antisemitism as a form of bias," starting in some districts and expanding statewide within 18 months.
Schools should make it clear how to report such incidents, and school counselors should improve their understanding of the impacts of antisemitism on the mental health of Jewish students.
In addition, school officials need to "make strong, clear statements that antisemitism is unacceptable and will not be tolerated" and need to respond to incidents of Jew-hatred "clearly, forcefully, and with specificity as to the type of hate, rather than using vague language around all forms of hate," the report said.
While approving the K-12 findings, the commission heard testimony about antisemitism at college campuses.
Rabbi Aaron Fine, executive director of the Hillel at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, stated that "far too many Jewish students have experienced antisemitism or suffered unacceptable experiences for being Jewish."
The rabbi said he doesn't expect the problem to go away. "With online hate being mainstreamed, we can only assume these instances of antisemitism will continue," he said.
Most of the antisemitism on campuses now is related to Oct. 7, and anti-Israel protests glorified violence and "created an environment that was far too toxic for many Jewish students."
Schools need to teach students how to have civil differences of opinion, according to Fine. "Universities need to do a better job of what they're there for — educate," he said. "We need to invest significantly to make that happen."
Leonard Saxe, Klutznick professor of contemporary Jewish studies and social policy at Brandeis University and director of its Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, offered a similar sentiment.
"Antisemitism is an educational problem," he said. "Let's treat it as such. Let's marshal our best educators."
Velis agreed with the prescription and said people need to do a much better job of talking with those with whom they disagree.
"We view everyone as the 'other.' If you do not agree with my politics, you are the 'other,'" he told JNS. "There has been a fraying of our community ties. It is much more difficult to hate someone you are sitting across the table from, breaking bread with."
This JNS.org report was republished with permission from Jewish News Syndicate.