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What Teens Really Think About Antisemitism

By Kara Baskin

In March 2023, I asked teen Jewish leaders to discuss antisemitism: how it affects them, how they address it and their hopes for the future. They were passionate, articulate—and hopeful.

Teddy Friedman attends Gann Academy in Waltham. He has been a Peer Engagement Fellow with the Jewish Teen Initiative, and now he’s a co-chair of the Lappin Foundation’s Teen Antisemitism Task Force and a junior intern at the USC Shoah Foundation.

Gabriella Lipsitch is a Diller Teen Fellow and attends the Cambridge School of Weston.

Talia Ofek goes to Lexington High School and is a StandWithUs Kenneth Leventhal High School Intern.

Arielle Mogolesko goes to Marblehead High School. She’s a co-chair of the Lappin Foundation’s Teen Antisemitism Task Force, a Jewish Teen Initiative Peer Leadership Fellow and a StandWithUs Kenneth Leventhal High School Intern.

Emma Shub and Ileana Tsatskis co-lead the Jewish Cultural Club at Beaver Country Day School in Chestnut Hill and are part of the JCRC Student to Student Program.

How have you seen antisemitism manifest in your teenage life? Do you have any personal experiences?

Arielle Mogolesko: Antisemitism is, unfortunately, very prevalent in our lives. Whether it be on TV, social media or even in front of our own eyes, it’s everywhere. Almost every time a video is posted online of people celebrating their Judaism, it’s commonly met with a barrage of antisemitic and anti-Zionist comments. An issue with social media is that it gives an open and anonymous platform for people to spread hateful rhetoric. I’ve had encounters with antisemitic rhetoric being posted online as well as friends making jokes about either the Jewish people, Israel or the Holocaust. It’s sickening to hear our heritage and story being made fun of and/or blatantly skewed.

Talia Ofek: The Chabad in the next town over from me was targeted by arson. Fortunately, they were able to stop the fire in time, so no one was hurt. There was minor damage. I’d been to that Chabad several times.

Ileana Tsatskis: I’ve seen hate symbols drawn in school bathrooms. That’s the only way that I’ve publicly seen it. But I’ve heard of many stories from friends and fellow Jewish teenagers in my community.

How do you urge your friends and peers to address antisemitism when they see or witness it?

Mogolesko: The first step in combating antisemitism is education. We’ll repeat that message time and time again, as it’s truly the basis for making any improvement in this time of increasing hate. When one is educated, one will not only be equipped with facts and possible statements to counter the rhetoric but also will be informed of the many resources out there to help. It doesn’t have to fall on one person to combat antisemitism, but rather the whole Jewish community and allies who are willing and able to support each other. Personally, Teddy [Friedman] and I urge our friends to call it out; to say the joke was not funny, to explain why it was not funny and to report it to a trusted adult who can then report it to organizations such as Lappin Foundation, StandWithUs and the Anti-Defamation League.

Ofek: Reporting it. If it’s online, taking pictures and notifying someone. But definitely I think education is the best way to change someone’s attitude or behavior.

Gabriella Lipsitch: I’ll repost something on my Instagram story if it says something that hasn’t been said before or made me think in a different way or if it could make someone else think in a different way. For example, when Kanye [West] said all of that stuff, everyone was posting: “This is bad. Kanye said this.” And it’s like, yes, that is very important for people to know. I don’t feel like I personally need to say the exact same thing. But if I see a different perspective, then I would repost it on my Instagram story or talk about it to my friends.

Tsatskis: Speak up as soon as you can. Talk to a trusted adult or anyone in your life who you feel comfortable talking about it with and address the situation right away. Also, I think it’s really important to speak to your friends and the people you surround yourself with on a day-to-day basis, not only to inform them about antisemitism. Speak to them on what to do if they hear it or how to stand up for a friend if it happens to them. I think it’s really important for everybody to know how to combat it and how to deal with it because it’s a very real thing.

What gives you hope in the face of growing antisemitism?

Teddy Friedman: I have hope that, through our and many others’ work, we will make a change in generations to come. I hope that living proudly and sharing our stories with others will encourage more people to become educated about the hatred faced by the Jewish people. I believe that getting involved and taking one step further toward personal growth will have lasting impact on the generations to come.

Ofek: Jewish communities are very strong, and there are many organizations out there like StandWithUs that are fighting against it and trying to educate. There’s a new law in Massachusetts making it a requirement to teach about genocide in schools, which is just crazy that it wasn’t even a law beforehand. But little things like that give me hope. I’m also bringing in a Holocaust survivor at the end of this month to speak to my entire school. My principal, the social studies department head and my teachers have been so supportive. Even though they don’t personally identify with the event, they still see the value in educating about it.

Lipsitch: I’m queer. There are so many attacks on Jews, and there are so many attacks on queer youth right now. In the legal and political sense, I’m more worried that I won’t be able to get married or that my friends won’t be able to get the health care they need. I’m looking for hope in policy and in public opinion around queer issues, and around feminism and things like that. I think there are a lot of people who hold unconsciously antisemitic views. What gives me hope is that a lot of the antisemitism we see is unconscious and is about something you were taught. I feel like there are a lot of people who would reconsider their beliefs or think harder about something they said or did if a Jew or a non-Jew also called them out and said, “Have you ever thought about why you think this?”

Tsatskis: Young kids like Emma [Shub] and me are starting clubs to raise awareness, and kids who are not even part of the Jewish community are joining. We’re finding allies. As more people start to be aware of the ongoing problems, and as teenagers are starting to take action, it gives me hope for the future.

How do you express your Jewish pride in your everyday life? Has that behavior changed because of rising antisemitism in your communities?

Friedman: I see the rising antisemitism as a call to action. It is more than ever important to embrace our Judaism and live as proud Jewish people. It’s of utmost importance that we show how proud we are to be Jewish at a time when people are trying to suppress our identity. I show Jewish pride by outwardly supporting Israel and other Jewish organizations. I use social media as a platform to post about exciting Jewish events happening as well as highlight Jewish athletes and their accomplishments.

Emma Shub: I’m a very vocal advocate for the Jewish community at my school. I don’t shy away from the opportunity to run Jewish initiatives. Within my own community, I take all opportunities before me to engage with others. When the Mapping Project came out last spring, and it directly affected my family, I made sure to educate my other Jewish and non-Jewish peers on the issue so everyone could remain alert and aware of what was going on. In my opinion, it’s crucial that all students continue to have conversations about antisemitism and understand that it’s not an issue of race. Rather, it’s an issue of preventing history from repeating itself.

Ofek: I wear Jewish jewelry. I don’t really shy away from talking about my Jewish faith at school around my friends. I go to a Reform synagogue in my town each week. I attend overnight camp. But it’s definitely something that I find myself being cautious about if I’m around new people.

Lipsitch: The fellowship I’m part of is a big part of it. If Jewish issues come up in conversation, or if it makes sense to say, “Oh, yes, this Jewish thing,” or, “I’m Jewish,” then I’ll say it and I’m not ashamed. I never was ashamed, but I never much paid attention until now.

Tsatskis: I express my Jewish pride by having a club at my school with Emma. It’s a huge leap of faith to start a club at a school and to share your voice as a group of people. Expressing that and providing a safe community to people has been a huge success of the club. It’s turned into a place where a lot of Jewish students from our community have been able to come and speak to each other and know that they’re accepted and that everything they’re going to say is valid.

Kara Baskin is the parenting writer for JewishBoston.com. She is also a regular contributor to The Boston Globe and a contributing editor at Boston Magazine. She has worked for New York Magazine and The New Republic, and helped to launch the now-defunct Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Email her at kara@jewishboston.com.

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What Should Kids Understand About Antisemitism?

By Kara Baskin

Antisemitism is on the rise nationwide: The ADL has reported Americans’ highest level of antisemitic attitudes in decades. According to its 2023 report, “Antisemitic Attitudes in America,” 20% of Americans believe six or more antisemitic tropes, significantly more than the 11% found in 2019.

How can we help kids understand antisemitism and racism when the horror is so unthinkable? Dr. Rachel Fish, an academic with deep expertise in Israeli history, calls herself a “scholar-warrior” in the fight against antisemitism. Previously, she was the founding executive director of the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism. She talked with CJP about the roots of hatred and ways for kids to combat harassment.

Could you explain the root of antisemitism? How would you define this for a younger child in terms they might be able to understand?

Antisemitism is like a virus. It mutates and changes over time. It started off as a way to focus on a hatred specifically toward those who believe in Judaism and who practice the Jewish tradition. That then transformed over time to focus on hating Jews because of their identity as a people and the way they are understood to be different from other groups, particularly in Europe at the time. Then we saw it mutate again, where those other two forms continue to exist, but we also see that there’s a hatred toward the Jewish state, Israel, and people feel uncomfortable with Jews holding real power and having the ability to have decision-making influence in the world.

We also know that it can be a form of hatred that is used by different political movements across political positions, from a hard-right position, which says that Jews are never going to be white, Jews are always “the other.” Jews are always different and no matter what, there’s a fear of Jews having influence within a community or within a society. Then we also see on the hard left of politics this idea that Jews are part of a society that is white and have privilege because they have been influential, particularly in America—and so therefore they cannot be a vulnerable minority and they are part of the white majority, which is part of the problem because it continues to promote discrimination toward other marginalized communities, and Jews are not considered to be a marginalized community.

In both of these forms, politically, Jews are constantly having to pay attention to how certain language is used by different individuals to understand if there are feelings or sentiments that are trying to target Jews for a political purpose.

What are ways that kids can empower themselves, and what should they do if they feel scared?

If someone feels uncomfortable, and as if they’re in a situation that’s unsafe because of their identity as a Jew, they need to tell a grownup. They can tell their parents, they can tell teachers, they can tell a coach or another family member—but they need to tell a grownup who can help them feel safe and make sure no one is hurt or harmed. Their parents then also need to be able to have a conversation, depending upon the context of what has happened, with other responsible individuals and potentially organizations like the Anti-Defamation League or other organizations that report incidents of antisemitism to law enforcement. It’s very important. If anyone feels unsafe, see something and say something.

If you feel like something was said that was hurtful about Jews, again, it’s important to tell a grownup so that the child can appropriately, with the grownup, decide how to engage in an opportunity to address that particular situation. Obviously, this is very context-specific. But most individuals in the world are part of the “don’t know” audience. I put that in quotes. They really don’t know what antisemitism is. They don’t even understand the term, because it sounds very fancy and scientific. Even when we did research and learned about what 13- to 35-year-olds in America thought about antisemitism, the majority said, “I don’t know.” Those who did try to answer the question said, “Well, what’s a semite?” Because it doesn’t sound like a term we use today. Then other people said, “Well, I’m antiracist or I’m anti-homophobic on anti-Islamophobic, so I’m probably an antisemite.”

And you’re saying, “No, no, no. You’re an anti-antisemite!” So the word doesn’t make sense to a lot of people. Part of it is helping people understand what the term means, and sometimes it’s easier to label hatred toward Jews specifically, like “Jew hatred,” or saying “hatred toward Jews or the Jewish religion, the Jewish people or the Jewish state.” Because then it becomes very clear to individuals what’s happening instead of using this term called “antisemitism” that can feel complicated or unclear.

If you have a relationship with the individual who may have said something that was hurtful about Jews or Judaism or Israel—and I don’t mean criticizing, I mean really hurtful and trying to suggest something very negative targeting Jews—then you could actually call them into a conversation. You can begin to help people understand and educate themselves, and you can help educate them about why Jews do have this as part of their history. Even a young child is capable of doing that.

How could that happen?

Here’s a story: I grew up in a small town in northeast Tennessee. There were very few Jews. When I was in middle school, a student etched a swastika onto my locker. I caught him etching the swastika with his little pocket knife. I shared what happened with the teachers, and the teachers brought it to the principal. The principal spoke with me and also called my parents that evening because they decided that they were going to have this student removed from the school for suspension. This was not a student who really knew what he was doing. He had not passed a couple of grades; he was not a good student.

So I suggested to the teacher and to the principal that I meet with the student in school every day in order to read “The Diary of Anne Frank,” and that way he could become more sensitive to understanding why Jews had a history of being persecuted. That was a very important moment because, for me, I became the educator. I became the teacher, and I called someone into a relationship and into a conversation so that they could be more sensitive and learn more. Kids have that ability, young people have that ability, teens have that ability to help other individuals learn and grow, and that’s very powerful. It can feel very empowering.

That’s a helpful anecdote because it makes it feel real. It was real. So thank you for sharing that. What would you say is behind the recent rise in antisemitic attacks?

Jew hatred has been on the rise in America for the past five years. It doesn’t mean that Jew hatred didn’t exist five years ago. It did exist, but it wasn’t as obvious all the time. Now it’s becoming more obvious, partly because we see politicians using language, imagery, stereotypes and ideas about Jews that are not real but are perceived as being characteristics of Jews. We see this from politicians, again, who are Republican, and we see it from politicians who are Democrats. So we see that happening by decision-makers. Jews are usually the first people targeted in a society when there are tensions.

We also see that there is an idea that exists around, if you care about a lot of the movements that many of us care about, like fighting racism and being good allies to other marginalized communities, like LGBTQ+, that part of what is expected is that you are also labeled anti-Zionist and that you push away your relationship with Israel, because Israel is thought to be a country that is privileging or only cares about Jews. That’s not true, because Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. Twenty percent of its population is not Jewish. It’s Palestinian. That’s over 1.2 million people. But what happens is, when you start to see all of these pressures emerge, then Jews can be targeted by different groups because of fear.

We’re living at a time in America in which a lot of different communities are trying to push their own ideas, and they need someone to blame and very often Jews are part of the blame. So this will result in real pressures that Jews face and can be targeted by all different types of communities, by people who hold ideas around white supremacy and also by more marginalized communities who are minorities themselves but who feel like Jews are part of the problem for the systems that are in place. This puts Jews in a challenging situation.

What would you like families to know that isn’t getting covered enough or conveyed enough?

It’s not unique for Jews to be targeted. We have a long history within Jewish life of being targeted, but Jews are very resilient as a people, and it’s important to have knowledge about your traditions and your history. It’s important as you engage in the world and do important work on behalf of other communities who aren’t Jewish as well. That pride will help young people navigate and understand who they are and from where they come.

Kara Baskin is the parenting writer for JewishBoston.com. She is also a regular contributor to The Boston Globe and a contributing editor at Boston Magazine. She has worked for New York Magazine and The New Republic, and helped to launch the now-defunct Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Email her at kara@jewishboston.com.

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Dismantling Antisemitic Beliefs About the U.S., Israel and Zionism

By Rich Tenorio

Walter Russell Mead (Courtesy photo)

When academic and author Walter Russell Mead gave lectures as a guest speaker for the State Department to audiences around the world, he was surprised by recurring misperceptions about American Jews, the U.S. government and Israel. 

“People were constantly arguing that somehow American policy toward Israel was radically different than policies toward other countries and the only possible explanation was that the American Jewish community—maybe with some help from the evangelical Christians—was influencing the American policy discussion,” Mead said. “It just did not make sense to me, I have to say.” 

Mead has written a new book in response—“The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People.” At over 600 pages, the book is a comprehensive examination of American policy toward Israel and Zionism, as well as a rebuttal of antisemitic beliefs about the perceived influence of the American Jewish community. 

A professor of foreign affairs and humanities at Bard College and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Mead wrote the book over the course of a decade, changing focus midway through the project. 

Along the way, he helped shatter some myths. Politically, Israel and America have not always been closely aligned, and when they have drawn closer, it was often through presidents who were unpopular among American Jews, such as the trio of Richard Nixon, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, who acted more out of what they saw as the national interest and less about how they perceived American Jews would respond. When the American Jewish community did call upon the government to intervene on behalf of coreligionists abroad, they got nowhere—most infamously during the Holocaust. Conversely, some of Israel’s most important supporters throughout history were neither Jewish nor evangelical. In the 1940s, Israel got crucial backing from pro-U.N. progressives such as Eleanor Roosevelt, while today, Republicans who embrace the philosophy of Andrew Jackson represent an equally important constituency. 

“Over 50% of Americans are supportive of Israel,” Mead said, noting that this far exceeds the number of evangelicals and Jews in the country, while the idea that “one or both of these groups is driving the whole train struck me as just very improbable.” 

One creative motif that characterizes the book is the author’s references to Planet Vulcan—not Mr. Spock’s birthplace, but rather a purported scientific discovery from the 19th century. The French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier claimed he had found a new planet around Mercury. This “discovery” was accepted by many before it was disproved by Albert Einstein several decades later. Le Verrier’s belief in a planet that didn’t actually exist, the author posits, is similar to the way people across the world view U.S. policy on Israel. 

“I had talks with cabinet ministers and policymakers in countries around the world,” Mead reflected. “I heard them coming up with conspiracy theories that were almost something you’d expect from ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.’ This was not simply popular prejudice rooted in ignorance. These were actually intelligent, well-informed people, generally speaking, who just could not see something clearly.” 

Noting that even Thomas Edison claimed he could see Planet Vulcan, Mead said, “People following logic and reason, as they understood it, were seeing something that wasn’t there, for 30 years. I think it’s a useful analogy for people coming to the conclusion that Jews are responsible for America’s Israel policy.” 

To help readers understand the real sources of U.S. support for Israel, the author explores the history of American attitudes toward Jews and Israel, which he describes as overall friendlier than in Europe and warmly disposed toward a particular Protestant reading of the Bible. 

(Courtesy image)

“American Protestants have been teaching since before the American Revolution, going back to the 1600s in New England,” he said, “about the ritual prophecies in Isaiah and other places [in the Bible] as well, about the return of the Jews to the land of the Bible.” 

According to Mead, starting early on in American history, “we see the idea of supporting a restoration of the Jews to their historic homeland.” 

The nation’s second president, John Adams of Massachusetts, once wrote to a Jewish friend, “I hope someday to see you at the head of an army returning to the land of your faith.” America’s 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, traveled to Ottoman Palestine as a young boy with his parents. In 1917, following his two terms as chief executive, he embraced the Balfour Declaration, Great Britain’s statement of support for a Jewish national home in Palestine. 

Mead acknowledged that America has hardly been free of antisemitism during its history, and that in addition to philo-semitism and geopolitics, American Zionists have also included antisemites who wanted to get Jews out of the U.S. 

He added, “A critical mass of non-Jewish support was available for the Zionist project. It was not available for other things Jews wanted to do.” 

Poignantly, he said, “If you look at the record of Jewish lobbying in America in the 1930s, what the Jews wanted was two things: Tell Hitler and other countries in Europe to stop persecuting Jews, and allow greater numbers of Jews to come to America from where they were being persecuted. They got nowhere; they got nothing.” He further noted that following World War II and President Harry S. Truman’s recognition of Israel in 1948, “Immediately afterward, Dwight Eisenhower came to power. Eisenhower actually sided with Egypt against Israel at the time of the Suez Crisis. 

“The idea that somehow Jews are in control, Jews are telling everybody what to do, explains our Israel policy, to me it’s a crazy idea with no serious foundation in history or logic,” Mead said. 

Rich Tenorio covers antisemitism news for JewishBoston.com. His work has appeared in international, national, regional and local media outlets. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a cartoonist. Email him at rich@jewishboston.com. 

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Books on Antisemitism for Teens and Young Adults

By Rich Tenorio 

As Chicago prepares to celebrate the 1893 World’s Fair, a young Jewish boy named Alter Rosen suffers the loss of his best friend, Yakov. It turns out that Yakov is the latest victim of a killer targeting Jewish boys. Alter becomes possessed by his friend’s dybbuk, which threatens to take over his body completely. He reconnects with a dangerous boy from his past and together they work to find the killer. This is the plot of “The City Beautiful,” a 2021 young adult novel by Aden Polydoros that earned multiple recommendations for placement on JewishBoston’s summer reading list of books that tackle antisemitism and/or racism. (Find the full list at the end of this post!) 

Robin Brenner, the young adult librarian at the Public Library of Brookline, calls “The City Beautiful” “one I really love,” a work of historical fiction that is “particularly well done,” including in its exploration of how “the World’s Fair was presented to the public and who it was presented for.” 

Among library patrons, she said: “‘The City Beautiful’ has been certainly noticed. [It’s] one of those that has gone out consistently. It tells a story that people are very interested in learning more [about].” 

Last year, Polydoros’s “The City Beautiful” was named a “Best Book for Teens” by the New York Public Library and got a favorable review in School Library Journal. “Featuring a queer protagonist, it is deeply layered with Jewish myth, immigration, racism and anti-Semitism,” Alicia Kalan wrote for School Library Journal, noting that “some readers may find the descriptions” of certain parts of the plot “too intense.” 

Sara Waltuck, the children’s bookseller at Brookline Booksmith, also gave the book a recommendation and praised a more recent novel—“From Dust, a Flame” by Rebecca Podos. The book, published in March, tells the story of a family of three: teenage Hannah, her brother and their mother. The siblings live a nomadic life marked by rental homes and their mother’s broken relationships before Hannah begins to experience a series of unusual mutations when she turns 17. Her mother vows to find someone who can help, then disappears. Ultimately, it’s up to Hannah to connect with her Jewish family history and learn about her grandmother growing up in the Nazi-occupied Czech capital of Prague. 

Multiple other recent books made local experts’ list of recommendations, from fiction to nonfiction. 

Brenner mentioned “The Assignment,” a 2020 novel by Liza Wiemer based on actual events. A popular high school teacher gives a controversial assignment, asking a group of students to make a case for the Holocaust. Classmates Logan and Cade view this assignment as wrong and speak out against it, yet not everyone agrees with them. 

David Sandberg, a co-owner of Porter Square Books, listed the 2019 historical graphic novel “White Bird: A Wonder Story” by R.J. Palacio among his recommendations. “White Bird” continues the narrative of Grand-mère, a character introduced in Palacio’s previous work, “Auggie & Me.” In “White Bird,” the reader meets Grand-mère—French for “grandmother”—as a Jewish youngster in occupied France during World War II. It’s a story of the French family who shelters her, and a boy she and her classmates ostracized who ends up playing a critical role in her rescue. “White Bird” will be released as a film this fall, featuring Helen Mirren as Grand-mère. 

Sandberg also recommended Jane Yolen’s 2019 Holocaust novel “Mapping the Bones,” about young Jewish twins Chaim and Gittel fleeing from the Nazis in Poland. Another one of his picks was “Color Me In” by Natasha Diaz. This 2020 novel tells the story of a girl whose father is white and Jewish and whose mother is Black. After her parents’ marriage ends, she navigates her diverse family background while living with her mother in Harlem and going to an exclusive private school. 

Brenner noted that there’s even a groundbreaking Jewish comic book character, ”Whistle,” the heroine of a new DC Comics series of the same name. “One thing that’s really nice,” Brenner said, “is that more and more books are featuring Jewish main characters, [including] Jewish main characters who express this part of their life…it’s not a passing reference. It’s really nice. There are a lot more titles that are beginning to be offered to teens. Teens need a real reflection of the world, books that inspire them, teach them. It’s nice to have a range.” 

Reading List for Teens and Young Adults
FICTION
NONFICTION

Rich Tenorio covers antisemitism news for JewishBoston.com. His work has appeared in international, national, regional and local media outlets. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a cartoonist. Email him at rich@jewishboston.com. 

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The Top 10 Films Tackling Antisemitism

By Rich Tenorio

At a hotel in the White Mountains, a man arrives to check in for his honeymoon stay. When he identifies as Jewish and asks if there is a policy against Jewish guests, he is told there is suddenly no vacancy, recommended to go to another hotel and ushered out the door. This is a scene from “Gentleman’s Agreement,” a 1947 Gregory Peck feature film about antisemitism that marks its 75th anniversary this year. It’s also one of 10 films spotlighted by experts as among the most significant to address antisemitism. Here’s the list—watch one, or more!

“Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947)
Dorothy McGuire and Gregory Peck in “Gentleman’s Agreement” (Promotional still)

This film won the Academy Award for best picture. Peck stars as Schuyler Green, a journalist whose first assignment for a magazine is to write an exposé on antisemitism. Green, who is Christian, makes a daring decision: He will assume the identity of a Jew. Peck’s character makes a series of shattering discoveries about antisemitism in America—including “gentleman’s agreements” prohibiting Jews at hotels.

“[The film] reinforces the idea that antisemitism is un-American—good Americans, real Americans, nice people are not meant to have that sort of [antisemitic] viewpoint,” said Samantha Pickette, assistant director of the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, who received her Ph.D. from Boston University. 

Overall, “‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ really reflects this moment in American culture in the immediate post-war years,” she said. “This kind of reckoning with the fact that antisemitism had been and was still rampant within the U.S. There was a cognitive dissonance around the fact that the antisemitism that existed in American society was essentially the same kind of antisemitism at the root of what had just happened in Nazi Germany. It was difficult for post-war Americans to accept that they could be anything like Nazis.” 

“Crossfire” (1947)
Robert Ryan and William Phipps in “Crossfire” (Promotional still)

Centering on a murder case with antisemitism as a motive, this film features Robert Young and Robert Mitchum. Like “Gentleman’s Agreement,” “Crossfire” marks its 75th anniversary this year. Pickette describes both as “probably the most well-known” films about antisemitism. 

“When you look back at films that have come out either addressing antisemitism or at least including scenes related to antisemitism, they should be included,” she said. 

“School Ties” (1992)
Matt Damon and Brendan Fraser in “School Ties” (Promotional still)

Set in a fictitious, upper-crust New England prep school during the 1950s, this film stars Brendan Fraser as David, a working-class Jewish student-athlete who conceals his faith. He excels on the football team and dates a debutante, but things worsen dramatically after his identity is revealed. 

Noted Pickette: “There’s a bit of a triumph in encouraging audiences to put themselves in the shoes of somebody who’s Jewish and experiencing these things. It sort of encourages audiences to be a little bit more empathic.” 

The actors portraying David’s tormentors include two men from Cambridge who went on to Hollywood stardom—Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. CJP president Rabbi Marc Baker had a bit role, and last year appeared on a panel when the Boston Jewish Film Festival screened it. Joey Katz, director of special programming for Boston Jewish Film, said they discussed how the film, specifically antisemitism in schools, is still relevant today. 

“Denial” (2016)
Actor Rachel Weisz and author Deborah Lipstadt on the set of their film “Denial,” a Bleecker Street release. (Photo credit: Liam Daniel/Bleecker Street)

Rachel Weisz stars as Deborah Lipstadt, current U.S. special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism. The film centers on an earlier moment from Lipstadt’s career—the 1996 trial that ensued when Holocaust denier David Irving sued her for libel in the U.K. 

John Michalczyk, director of the film studies program at Boston College and a documentarian with extensive experience in making films about the Holocaust, described “Denial” as “a very popular film, very well-acted.” 

“Mr. Skeffington” (1944) 
Bette Davis and Claude Rains in “Mr. Skeffington” (Promotional still)

Leslie Epstein, former head of the creative writing program at Boston University, has a family connection to this film: Its co-writers and co-producers were Philip and Julius Epstein—his father and uncle, respectively. (Bostonians celebrate another member of the family—her son Theo, who in 2004 was the general manager of the Red Sox when they won the World Series for the first time in 86 years.) 

Back in 1942, Philip and Julius Epstein won the Academy Award for best screenplay for “Casablanca.” Two years later, they courageously made a film that addressed antisemitism, starring Bette Davis and Claude Rains. According to Leslie Epstein, his father and uncle not only tackled the issue at a time when Hollywood was reluctant to do so, they actually used the word “Jewish” in the film—a rarity during those years. “There was tremendous cowardice in the American and Jewish film community shown all through World War II, before and after—‘Don’t make waves, don’t make it a Jewish war.’”  

Asked how his father and uncle were able to defy this, he replied: “They were able to do ‘Mr. Skeffington’ because they were the producers. They were not just schmucks with typewriters, and because they were the producers, they had some leeway.” 

“Jojo Rabbit” (2019)
Thomasin McKenzie, Roman Griffin Davis and Taika Waititi in “Jojo Rabbit” (Courtesy photo: Kimberley French/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation)

Taika Waititi not only directed this film, he won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay and appeared as Adolf Hitler. Waititi’s Hitler is the imaginary friend of a young boy named Jojo growing up in Nazi Germany. Initially a proud member of the Hitler Youth, Jojo becomes more sensitive to the plight of the Jews—first through his mother, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson), and then from Elsa, the Jewish girl Rosie hides in their home. 

At Boston College, Michalczyk includes “Jojo Rabbit” in a course he teaches on film and art in the Third Reich.  

“Chariots of Fire” (1981)
Nigel Havers and Ben Cross in “Chariots of Fire” (Promotional still)

Known for its stirring instrumental theme, this British film won the Oscar for best picture, best screenplay, best costume design and best original score. It dramatizes the real-life friendship between two U.K. track and field stars—Harold Abrahams, a Jew, and Eric Liddell, a Protestant missionary—and their memorable performances in the 1924 Summer Olympics. Played by Ben Cross, Abrahams is a student at Cambridge University, where his faith is the subject of some questionable comments from administrators. Overall, Michalczyk finds the film both powerful and positive. 

“Isaac” (2019)
Dainius Kazlauskas in “Isaac” (Promotional still)

This Lithuanian film addresses the massacres of Jews in World War II in what was then a Soviet socialist republic—and to what extent the local population was involved. Katz, of Boston Jewish Film, said “Isaac” has “kind of a different angle on antisemitism.” 

“Basically, it’s about this person who took part in a pogrom in Lithuania in the early 1940s, and then it’s kind of him coming to terms with what he’s done. He becomes a film director in the Soviet Union and guilt starts to take over. He incorporates it into his films and he writes his films about it.”  

“Witness Theater” (2018)
“Witness Theater: The Film” by Oren Rudavsky (Promotional still: Menemsha Films)

This documentary by Oren Rudavsky takes its name from a program in which Holocaust survivors create dramatic productions about their lives, in partnership with high school students. 

“I think it’s a fantastic documentary,” Katz said, noting that the survivors are “telling the stories of antisemitism, their experiences [and] making those connections to students, informing them.” 

“American History X” (1998)
Edward Norton in “American History X” (Promotional still)

Edward Norton and Edward Furlong take top billing as a pair of neo-Nazi, white-supremacist skinhead brothers from Los Angeles. 

“It’s a very disturbing film,” Pickette said. “Also, it’s an important film to watch. It really makes you uncomfortable. It’s supposed to make you uncomfortable. It confronts the fact that this kind of bigotry exists in our society. It’s the same thing in today’s day and age, when antisemitism is on the rise with all sorts of different kinds of bigotry and racism.”  

Other films about antisemitism to add to your watch list:

Rich Tenorio covers antisemitism news for JewishBoston.com. His work has appeared in international, national, regional and local media outlets. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a cartoonist. Email him at rich@jewishboston.com. 

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Stay Informed On Antisemitism With These 12 Twitter Accounts

By JewishBoston.com 

When it comes to antisemitism, the internet is full of inaccurate and dangerous misinformation. It can be hard to find trusted voices and resources, so we compiled this list of Twitter accounts that are sharing news, context and a diversity of thoughtful perspectives on rising antisemitism in America and around the world. 

Yair Rosenberg, journalist: 
Jeremy Burton, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston: 
Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston (JCRC), a coalition of organizations and individuals that represents and advances the values, interests and priorities of the organized Jewish community in Greater Boston: 
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) New England, working to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment to all. Serving Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont: 
Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO: 
American Jewish Committee (AJC), the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people: 
Facing History & Ourselves, which uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate: 
The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, whose mission is to win the hearts and minds of non-Jews and Jews through powerful positive messaging and partnerships, motivating and equipping them to be defenders of and upstanders for Jews: 
Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn, professor, author and policy consultant: 
U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, the official Twitter account of the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism: 
James Loeffler, historian, Jewish studies program director and author writing about U.S. antisemitism: 
Aviva Klompas, author, public speaker and co-founder of Boundless, a nonprofit think-action tank: 
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How Do We Want To Educate Our Children?

By Ziva Hassenfeld

When my best friend from college came to visit me for a weekend, she began to cry as we walked up to my synagogue with our kids. I asked her why and she said, “Don’t you see how sad it is that there have to be all the police around just so you can go to synagogue and not be shot?” Of course, I had noticed the uptick in police presence since the 2016 election, the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. My colleague, professor Jonathan Sarna, has done detailed work on the antisemitism that pulsed quite explicitly through the Jan. 6 riot at the capital. But through it all, it didn’t ever strike me as tragic.  

Seeing my friend’s tears made me question the lack of my own, especially given the relative differences in our lives. My friend loves her Jewish identity but doesn’t live an active Jewish life, whereas I’m immersed in Judaism both personally and professionally. Seeing her tear up at the entrance of my synagogue raised a fundamental question for me: Why was I uncomfortable with her tears?  

After giving it a lot of thought, I realized that I came at the question both personally and professionally—as a parent and as a professor of education. On the one hand, there’s no question that antisemitism is terrifying and its uptick in America alarming. We should do all we can to quell its upsurge; we all support the fight against it—politically, financially and socially. But the question I always return to is how do we want to educate our children? In no uncertain terms, I am sure that the right approach to Judaism presents it as a wealth of resources, a textual tradition that delights and a toolbox for a life of intentionality. There’s no room for centering a reaction to antisemitism in such an approach. I am convinced we must avoid inducting our children into a stance of defensiveness and instead show them a Judaism that we offer as a gift. The gift, as I see it, is particularly compelling ways of reading, organizing the rhythm of our lives and finding meaning. 

A colleague of mine is currently working on a study of Jewish children reading and interpreting the story of the Hebrew midwives from Exodus 1. It is remarkable the difference in meaning the students take from this story. Some understood it as a tale of moral conviction—about being an upstander and not a bystander and the moral compass in each of us as individuals. Others understood it as the first historical account in the endless history of persecution of the Jewish people. In these students’ reading, the story of the Hebrew midwives and the infanticide they were tasked with stresses the need for Jewish sovereignty. Of course, as researchers we withhold judgment, but I must admit how striking I found the data in the context of thinking about antisemitism and education. I not only want a generation of kids who are taught a story of being moral upstanders instead of a story of the lachrymose narrative of Jewish history, but also I believe it will be kids raised in this first educational milieu who will emerge most resilient in the face of antisemitism. 

My children will grow up at least aware that they are living through a particularly vivid era of antisemitism in this country. Nothing I can do can change that; the only question that is left to answer is how we should educate and orientate our children in such a world. For me, the answer is clear: The strength of Jewish life is found first and foremost in a constructive outlook. 

When approached in this way, being Jewish becomes reading the text of the world a certain way. Through these ways of reading, our children develop the capacity to find meaning and to stay resilient in the face of the inevitable challenges. 

Ziva R. Hassenfeld is the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Assistant Professor in Jewish Education at Brandeis University. She lives in the Boston area with her husband, Jonah Hassenfeld, director of learning and teaching at Schechter Boston, and their three children. 

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New Book Tracks the History of Antisemitism

By Judy Bolton-Fasman 

By the late 1980s, historical antisemitism seemed to be fading. The domestic far-right at the time mainly consisted of a ragtag group of cranky white supremacists whose dog whistles were essentially mute, and the far-left’s stridency had been tamped down. The founding of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), true to its name in promoting boycotting, divesting and imposing economic sanctions on Israel, was almost 20 years away from its 2005 founding. This is not to say that antisemitism was not lurking, but it was more confined to dark corners. However, its new and worrisome resurgence inspires the question of whether the old antisemitism was waiting to resurface, or had it come roaring back attaching itself to new life forms? 

The well-written, carefully researched essays in “Looking for an Enemy: Eight Essays on Antisemitism,” edited by Jo Glanville, ask those questions and address them in the context of history, analysis and insightful observations. Six essays deal with antisemitism in Europe, including tracking its virulency in Poland, France and Germany. 

The first essay in the book is by Mikołaj Grynberg, a photographer and writer whose work addresses the fraught history of 20th-century Polish Jewry. His work is often personal: Most of his family survived Auschwitz, and his essay “Family Stories,” lucidly translated by Sean Gasper, is a collage-like rendering of his life in Poland told through the antisemitism he has experienced. 

At 56, Grynberg is old enough to remember the 1968 pogroms in Poland set off by Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Grynberg comments that Polish communists jumpstarted a concerted effort to erase the country’s Holocaust history and its Jewish victims. In 2018, Poland’s authoritarian government passed what is popularly known as the “Polish Holocaust Amendment,” which outlaws any mention of Polish participation in the Holocaust. He writes, “The Polish version of ‘Make America Great Again’ is ‘Poland Rising From Its Knees.’ In reality, it was Polish antisemitism that rose from its knees.” 

Glanville, the book’s editor and a British journalist, writes in her introduction to the book that antisemitism is “in the DNA of western culture.” Glanville contributes an essay identifying one of antisemitism’s more enduring canards, the “blood libel.” She contends that antisemitism became embedded in Europe’s cultural life with the first blood libel accusation in the 12th century. A forester found a young boy’s body in the woods and Jews were allegedly accused of murdering the child as part of a ritual “blood sacrifice.” The murder was evidence of a global Jewish conspiracy to undermine Christendom and has since been an enduring antisemitic falsehood. 

(Courtesy image)

Daniel Trilling is a London-based journalist, and his essay gives this collection its evocative title. In his piece, Trilling explores how “far-right politics is structurally incapable of cutting its links with antisemitism.” He further asserts that “across a turbulent world today, the far-right is once again looking for an enemy to name…and antisemitic theory provides it.” 

Philip Spencer, a British academic who has taught Holocaust history and genocide studies, brings to light an antisemitic trope popular with the British left that sees Jews as an obstacle to progress. The malicious lie asserts that Jews self-segregate, and their unwavering support of Israel causes them to associate with an occupation perpetuated by capitalism. Spencer’s essay begs the question explicitly addressed by Rabbi Jill Jacobs and Tom Segev of whether anti-Zionism is also antisemitism. 

Jacobs, the executive director of T’ruah, a nonprofit organization that mobilizes rabbis and cantors to advance human rights in North America, Israel and the Palestinian territories, addresses separating antisemitism from legitimate criticism of Israel and its supporters. Her essay, “License to Hate,” tracks the rise of the spate of American anti-Jewish prejudice that prominently drove the Trump presidency’s agenda. Trump-endorsed far-right groups include evangelicals who support Israel’s far-right politicians while simultaneously working toward the mass conversion of Jews. She shows how the evangelical agenda is linked to the conspiratorial group QAnon. In this pandemic age, the alliance lends itself to describing this version of antisemitism as a new variant. 

Additionally, traditional political barriers have been irrevocably penetrated. “It is no coincidence,” writes Jacobs, “that antisemitic incidents, including violent ones, rose during Trump’s term in office…Trump’s campaign advertisement [implying that Jews pull the levers of power in Washington] has its roots in longstanding antisemitic conspiracy theories depicting Jews as a secret global power structure attempting to undermine the world.” Think of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” recycled for the 21st century. 

Segev, an Israeli historian and journalist, presents anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism, a contention he notes with which not everyone agrees. In his astute essay, “Living with the Holocaust,” Segev writes: “Some racists have in fact chosen to disguise their antisemitism as criticism of Israel and Zionism…[The BDS movement is] an amalgamation of groups with varying agendas, sizes, and means of operation…Unlike the anti-Israel boycott in the 1950s, organizations such as BDS have been incapable of causing real harm to the country. Still, [former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu greatly inflated the organization’s potential danger and ordered a grandiose counter-offensive.” 

Boston recently encountered the BDS movement through its targeted promotion of the “Mapping Project.” The innocuous-sounding project lists Massachusetts Jewish communal groups that BDS says are “responsible for the colonization of Palestine or other harms such as policing, U.S. imperialism and displacement.” Almost every Jewish communal organization in Massachusetts and its leadership are listed on the interactive map. 

A joint statement from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, CJP and ADL New England reads, in part: “The underlying messages are clear: Jews are responsible for the ills of our community, and if you maintain your relationship with Jewish organizations, you will share that responsibility…At a time when antisemitism, including antisemitic attacks on the legitimacy of the Jewish state of Israel intensify, we in Boston will stand together and continue our work building bridges, supporting our allies and each other, and confronting antisemitism where we see it and when we experience it—as we do today.” 

Although a slim book, “Looking for an Enemy” is a tour de force. However, a minor criticism is the absence of an expansive analysis of Jeremy Corbyn’s role in perpetuating antisemitism. Accusations of antisemitism marred Corbyn’s term as England’s liberal Labour Party leader. A human rights watchdog group found the Labour Party responsible for “unlawful” harassment and discrimination during Corbyn’s four-and-a-half-year tenure. 

Nevertheless, taken as a whole, these essays present a comprehensive assessment of antisemitism’s history—past and present. Their storytelling components create a portrait of antisemitism underscored with intelligence and wit. “Looking for an Enemy” is an important entry among books on antisemitism. However, as this collection makes clear, eradicating the noxious, ongoing presence of this age-old hatred will not happen anytime soon. 

Judy Bolton-Fasman is the arts and culture writer for JewishBoston.com. Her essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Forward, Tablet Magazine, Cognoscenti and other venues. Her memoir, “Asylum: A Memoir of Family Secrets,” is out now. Email her at judy@jewishboston.com. 

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Combating Rising Jew Hatred With Dr. Rachel Fish

By JewishBoston.com

JewishBoston.com · Combating Rising Jew Hatred With Dr. Rachel Fish
Dr. Rachel Fish (Courtesy photo)

Antisemitism: What’s new with the oldest hatred? It’s a difficult question to ask, but we did it anyway. Dr. Rachel Fish, a nationally recognized expert on how to confront Jew hate, joins The Vibe of the Tribe as Greater Boston and the rest of the country have experienced a surge in anti-Israel actions and hate crimes against Jews.

Dr. Fish discusses tips for students of all ages returning to school amid the ongoing rise in anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist sentiment, navigating hate on social media, how to channel anger into productive action, the cyclical nature of hatred toward Jews and why “antisemitism” should be retired as a term. Join us for this can’t-miss conversation. 

Watch this episode as a video below.

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Keeping Campuses Safe for Jewish Students

By Rich Tenorio​​ 

​​In 2021​, when Hillel International learned that Jewish college students were becoming concerned about publicly displaying their identity, the organization led a campaign to help them do so. #OwnYourStar encouraged participants to wear a Star of David and post their photo on social media. Over 2,000 students joined the campaign, which drew 5 million viewers. This initiative reflects Hillel’s goal of keeping campuses a safe space for Jewish students. 

“Participation in Jewish life on campus is definitely correlated to Jewish students reporting that they feel safe,” said Jennifer Zwilling, Hillel’s chief strategy and campus success officer. “It’s one big part of making sure there’s a robust Jewish life on campus.” 

In ​the 2021 ​#OwnYour Star campaign, Jewish students and allies around the world posted photos and videos of their Jewish star necklaces, family Judaica and other beloved Jewish items “to express Jewish pride in the wake of antisemitism,” Zwilling said. “They had been scared to wear Jewish T-shirts. [The campaign] made them feel confident [and] proud to be Jewish.” 

Hillel’s overall approach to countering antisemitism, she said, is “education and training for students, staff and university administrators, calling out antisemitism when it occurs and supporting Hillel’s security, a multifaceted way of being there to support students and Hillel professionals, no matter what.” 

​​In 2021​, the organization continued making outreach efforts to students on and off campus, including through trips to Israel. Hillel conducted several marketing campaigns to gauge student needs. 

“One of the things we see is more open expressions of Jewish pride and students standing up to antisemitism,” Zwilling said. “There’s power in numbers,” she explained. “Seeing an opportunity to do something, you can add your own [voice] and connect to other people expressing pride in their Jewish identity.” 

A ​relatively more recent ​trend is outreach to university presidents and administrators. ​In February 2022​, Hillel convened a two-day summit on antisemitism for 44 university presidents in New York City, including the heads of two New England institutions—Tufts University and the University of Vermont. ​In the fall of 2022​, the Campus Climate Initiative (CCI), another Hillel initiative addressing antisemitism, ​aimed to ​reach 40 campuses. 

“CCI is an intensive, cohort-based program for university administrators,” Zwilling said. “It provides an assessment of the climate for Jewish students and training for administrators, and supports for them to create an action plan to improve the climate on campus for Jewish students. Tufts was part of it this past year. They’ve taken it very seriously.” 

Asked about the increased outreach to university presidents, Zwilling said: “We want to make sure there’s engagement at the senior level. They set the tone and think about policy.” And “university presidents have been incredibly receptive,” she added. “To have 44 presidents for two days in New York City, hosted by the president of NYU, it’s a big deal.” 

​​In 2022​, the Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU also hosted a security training for Hillel professionals from the tri-state area of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. Jon Zeftel, manager of operations at the Bronfman Center, wrote an opinion piece for eJewish Philanthropy explaining concerns over security in the wake of violent events, such as the hostage-taking at a Colleyville, Texas, synagogue in January​ of that year​ and the mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket ​that​ May. 

Zeftel wrote that Hillel professionals and other leaders in Jewish communities have a responsibility to participate in situational awareness training, but beyond that, they also have a responsibility to address the sources of the violence currently gripping the nation—in his words, “the root causes.” 

On situational awareness training, Hillel partners with the Secure Community Network (SCN). 

“Hillel has an SCN liaison deployed specifically to support the Hillel network, helping them while applying for and receiving nonprofit security grants, providing training and consultation on security issues,” Zwilling said. “A number of [colleges and universities] in the Boston area in the past year have undergone security training both by CJP and SCN.” 

​​Security-related concerns in the Boston area last year included the tearing down of a mezuzah at Northeastern University and graffiti at several campuses. ​In 2021​, Hillel partnered with six campuses in New England on security assessments, with CJP also joining this initiative.​​​ 

Another area of concern is when criticism of Israel on campus morphs into antisemitism. 

“There is valid criticism of any state or government, and their policies,” Zwilling wrote in a follow-up email. “But all too often and with increasing frequency, anti-Israel rhetoric and actions cross the line into antisemitism. That includes demonization and delegitimization of Israel, its government and its people; as well as Jewish students being singled out, held to a double-standard, ostracized or in some cases barred from participating in groups and causes on campus simply for being Jewish or identifying as Zionist.” 

​​In the​ spring​ of 2022​, an “apartheid wall” was set up in Harvard Yard, with one panel bearing the words: “Zionism is racism/settler colonialism/white supremacy/apartheid.” 

“It does not make for a comfortable environment for students on campus. The intent has a chilling effect on Jewish students,” said Zwilling, about the wall. “It does not make Jewish students feel comfortable or safe.” 

Overall, Zwilling said: “We found in a 2021 survey that more than 80% of Jewish students say they are proud to be Jewish, but only about 60% are comfortable or safe expressing that pride. We want to help close that gap. Fewer students, I think, are saying publicly, ‘I’m Jewish.’ We hear sometimes that it hurts their social standing with peers to do so. What we try to do is counter that [and] show expressions of pride in public ways. 

“Hillel’s core mission is to help Jewish students connect to Jewish life, learning [and] Israel, and be a safe home for the community where you can come to Hillel to be yourself. I think it’s also important, too, that if the larger environment is one where you don’t always feel safe, you can feel safe to be yourself at Hillel. That’s a pretty powerful thing.” 

Rich Tenorio covers antisemitism news for JewishBoston.com. His work has appeared in international, national, regional and local media outlets. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a cartoonist. Email him at rich@jewishboston.com.