September 2024
Wendy Schneider

The rise in antisemitic incidents on college campuses has received a lot of attention in recent months, but the last year has also been exceptionally challenging for Jewish public school students.  

After months of seeing their children increasingly targeted by antisemitic harassment, Jewish parents were given an opportunity to share their concerns at a meeting last April with representatives from the Hamilton Wentworth School Board (HWDSB), who followed up a month later with a hastily arranged meeting with Jewish students.   

Elliot Biro, who spent the last year meticulously documenting all the times (more than 13) his 13-year-old son was the target of bullying or antisemitic harassment, was present at both meetings. At the first meeting, parents recounted specific examples of antisemitism—such as a student’s threatening to beat up Biro’s son, (who is visibly Jewish) if he didn’t say he supported Palestine, teachers’ referring to Israel’s “committing genocide in Gaza” in the classroom, and a learning environment frequently disrupted by chants calling for Israel’s destruction during student walkouts. 

But it was the second meeting, attended by 30 Jewish students and a number of parent observers, that Biro said really drove the message home. “Kids opened up with both barrels,” he said, recalling how a number of students said something to the effect of, “How can we feel included in the discussion when teachers are leading anti-Israel discussions, everybody’s holidays are mentioned but ours, when other people are harassed they get punished, when we’re harassed, there’s nothing.” 

When, in answer to a student questioning how the board can allow walkouts to continue, it was suggested that Jewish students organize their own walkouts, students broke out into bitter laughter.  “If we do our own walk-out they’ll jump us.” As the meeting ended, another student told the director of education that the board should be ashamed of themselves. “This is May,” he said. “This has been going on since October.”

To fully understand the new reality for Jewish students in public schools, it’s helpful to look back to December 2023, when HWDSB trustees adopted a student-led motion calling for the inclusion of “anti-Palestinian racism” (APR) as a complement to the school board’s existing initiatives on preventing and rectifying incidents of racism and discrimination.  

The motion read as follows: “Therefore, be it further resolved that HWDSB provide training to all school staff on Islamophobia, Antisemitism, and anti-Palestinian racism, with the training to include a focus on how this racism informs disciplinary actions.”

Westdale resident, Elissa Press has sent multiple emails to trustees seeking clarification on how the board is defining the term “anti-Palestinian racism,” which, on some websites label Israel as a “racist endeavour.” Their lack of response suggests to her a vagueness that can leave proudly Zionist Jewish students vulnerable to accusations of anti-Palestinian racism. 

“To me that’s the crux of it,” Press told the HJN, “because if they don’t see Israel’s right to exist, they can’t protect Jewish students in the schools.”  Press said her two children, who attend Westdale Secondary School “are very well aware that if they don’t want to be singled out or attacked, they should not say anything about Israel ...  and that’s hard because I want them to be proudly and unapologetically Jews, which for me includes being Zionist.”

Dundas residents Zohar Abel Levy and Elena Niederman, both active participants in a local Jewish parents WhatsApp group, see the issue of growing antisemitism in the schools as something of a lost cause, given that Jewish students constitute such a small minority in Hamilton area public schools.

“I see a lot of lip service from the trustees, but I don’t see them moving on anywhere towards our direction,” said Levy, whose eldest daughter refused to return to her Dundas high school after being verbally assaulted on account of her family’s Israeli background. “At the end of the day, those are elected officials. We don’t have numbers to garner a lot of attention. They’re a much larger group and a lot more vocal.” 

Elena Niederman, who has two sons at Dundas Valley Secondary School, sounds similarly resigned. “As a parent I feel a little bit helpless and hopeless, because ... they seem to empathize with a lot of things that you say ... promise you that things are going to get better, but nothing changes. Then you go through the same cycle again.”

HWDSB director of education Sheryl Robinson Petrazzini declined to be interviewed for this article, but sent an email emphasizing that the motion in question “also includes training for staff relating to antisemitism.”  The email concluded with a list of new student dress guidelines currently in development, which “will use the principles of anti-oppression, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, equity and inclusion.” Among them are those that allow students to “wear dress or headwear ...  to support religious/creed accommodations and similar human rights accommodations” and prohibit anything “that incites violence or harassment ... or displays hate speech targeting groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, or any other protected groups.”

Hamilton Jewish Federation CEO Gustavo Rymberg has been at the forefront of bringing Jewish parents’ concerns to the attention of the HWDSB. In a letter he sent to HWDSB trustees on Aug. 26, Rymberg wrote that while Federation recognizes that the past year has been “extraordinarily challenging,” the Jewish community “cannot and will not accept another year in which our schools become a breeding ground for localizing geopolitical conflicts, fostering radicalization, or targeting Jewish students.”

The Jewish community, he went on to say is “calling on you, as leaders entrusted with the welfare of our children, to take decisive action against any form of hate or discrimination that may arise. This includes implementing robust policies, providing comprehensive education on antisemitism and other forms of bigotry, and fostering an inclusive environment where all students, regardless of their background, can thrive without fear of being targeted for their identity.”

Rymberg is also in regular contact with the director of education. “I always try to share information with her,” Rymberg told the HJN. 

During their conversations, Rymberg attempts to educate Petrazzini about the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which he’s urged the board to adopt as a counterbalance to the one-sided APR motion. “Do both,”  he told her.

But Rymberg also understands that the fight to have school boards take a more balanced approach to the Israel/Palestine conflict will require much greater Jewish participation on the board level. That’s why Federation is calling for members of the Jewish community to get involved in municipal and provincial politics and to run for trustee.

“We have to get involved and be part of the conversation, because it’s the only way to make change. We cannot trust that others will do the best on our behalf. We have to do it,” he said. 

A group of Jewish parents who met over the summer came to a similar conclusion when they resolved to be more proactive in their advocacy efforts with local, provincial and federal politicians and school board trustees, according to Zohar Abel Levy. “The problem is that this is a system that has been very slowly taken over by the other side over a length of time and we have hardly any representation there as Jews,” she said. “Nobody really noticed or thought that would be a problem until Oct. 7 happened and this great burst of antisemitism came out and suddenly, we were caught very off guard.”   

In the interest of more efficient communication with the HWDSB, Federation and Jewish parents have joined forces with the local BBYO chapter in establishing a task force whose mandate will be to collect data on antisemitic incidents in public schools. Rymberg will summarize their findings in monthly reports that will be sent to the HWDSB for consideration as agenda items in their board meetings.

If there’s a silver lining to be found amidst the dark cloud of antisemitism, it lies in the fact that Jewish students, faculty and parents are publicly and loudly standing up for Israel and the right to live as proud Jews.

“If I don’t do it, who will?” said Zohar Abel Levy, while Elena Niederman says that when she feels overwhelmed, she finds strength in the words of the late renowned British chief rabbi, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks who once said that, “despair is not a Jewish emotion.” 

“We’re going through this collective grieving and it’s hard to keep up,” she said, “but every time I really feel sad, I just say to those words to myself and I tell my kids the same thing.”

Elliot Biro says that while he’s not sure that any of his efforts will bring real change, he won’t stop advocating for Jewish children’s right to learn in peace. “I have to do something,” he said, “because Hillel was right. If not now, when?”

Lead photo: Elliot Biro and Elissa Press
Above: Zohar Abel Levy and Elena Niederman