Rabbis Nadav Caine (Beth Israel Congregation) and Josh Whinston (Temple Beth Emeth) have shared the message below with their congregations. The communication was precipitated by antisemitic incidences experienced by members of their congregations and by the Ann Arbor Public School statement distributed last Friday.
Federation is working closely with our congregations on this issue and is sharing their message as a service to the community.
If your child or anyone you know is need of mental health support due to experiencing antisemitism – or for any reason – Jewish Family Services (JFS) is a valuable communal resource. JFS provides mental health services and therapy through their Thrive Counseling Services. Their Lior Project webpage provides additional information about mental health support services in our community.
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Dear Members and Friends,
Last Friday, parents of students across the Ann Arbor Public School district received an email from Superintendent Swift acknowledging and condemning incidents of antisemitism. The email left many wondering what prompted it. We are writing to you to answer this question and to let you know what actions we are taking.
Two separate incidents involving antisemitic hate speech occurred at different AAPS schools within a short time frame, thus rising to the threshold of a district-wide statement. In one incident, a middle school student was the target of antisemitic texts from others in her friend group. In the other incident, a high school student was harassed using slurs about Jews and money, then subjected to online memes (short videos) popular in Nazi propaganda. Following the student’s bravery in reporting it, she became the target of a social media campaign among other students blaming her for the perpetrator’s suspension.
As rabbis who live in 2023, and as parents of school-age children in AAPS, we are not surprised. We have been involved in addressing other incidents both this year and in recent years at schools across AAPS and in private schools in Ann Arbor. Complicating matters, we live in a time in which attributions of Jewish privilege, criticism of the Israeli government, and ignorance of the history and roots of antisemitism, may leave teachers, bystander students, and administrators unsure how to react. We have noticed that such incidents are often addressed as interpersonal behavior issues that involve investigation and student penalty, while failing to address the social consequences of hate speech.
What concerns us is not just the many cases we are aware of, but the many cases in which students don’t even report their harassment to an adult, fearing social retribution and a lack of faith in how the situation will be handled.
We are grateful to Dr. Swift for naming the hate speech as such and for having the courage to send out a district-wide communication that properly understands hate speech as a violence that undermines the entire school community. Given that we are realistic in understanding that antisemitic incidents will continue, we are advising the AAPS school district to consider the following recommendations as they prepare their next-steps plan for the 2023-24 school year.
- Establish a hotline for reporting any hate-based incidents, including but not limited to those that are antisemitic, racist, ableist, anti-LGBTQ, etc.
- Develop and provide all administrators with guidance establishing that hate speech incidents go beyond individual interpersonal behavior because they cause harm to everyone in the school, from the bystander students who witnessed it to all students, their parents, and community members who learn of it.
- Acknowledge in public statements why the hate speech is wrong and name the harm it causes. In the specific case of antisemitism, public communications should state that antisemitic symbols and speech trigger the deepest vulnerabilities and traumas in a community that has too long suffered persecution, violence, scapegoating, and baseless conspiracy accusations. They send the message that Jews are neither welcome nor safe in our school communities.
- Require that hate speech incidents are followed by education in the classroom. All students are impacted: they are often led to “take sides” when they do not even understand the history, meaning and effect of the hate speech. Each incident is an opportunity to educate and heal. Knowing that many teachers themselves have not been educated about the history of antisemitism, we rabbis make ourselves available as an immediate resource, as well as effective materials from the ADL.
In addition to these recommendations to the school district, the Jewish Community Relations Committee (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor is mobilizing in the following ways:
- A parent advisory group is being formed to give Jewish parents a voice in school issues that impact their children as Jews, work with the school administration on these issues (particularly antisemitism), and ensure these issues will be included in district discussions about DEI, curriculum, and scheduling.
- A committee is being developed to provide opportunities for Jewish community members to learn about and respond to antisemitism. Programs may include bystander training, learning to identify antisemitic tropes, and the impact of social media on the perpetuation of hate speech. Programs for teens are a top priority of this committee.
- In collaboration with community rabbis, a clear process for addressing issues related to antisemitism in the schools will be developed.
All who are interested in being involved with these efforts may reach out to McKenzie Katz, Community Relations Manager, at mckenzie@jewishannarbor.org. We are grateful to McKenzie and to Federation Executive Director Eileen Freed for developing these resources, and we look forward to working actively with them to support these efforts.
We wish to make it clear that we as your rabbis are here for you. If incidents and concerns come up, we will listen, help heal, keep confidentiality when requested, and hearken to public action when permitted. If a teacher in any school is willing to have us come in to help educate about Judaism, the Holocaust, or antisemitism, proactively or following incidents, we welcome that opportunity. Our emails are below.
In the words of the sage Hillel: If I am not for me, who will be for me? But when I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, then when?
We stand together for ourselves, for all targets of hate, and we do so now.
Rabbi Nadav Caine – ravnadav@bethisrael-aa.org &
Rabbi Josh Whinston – rabbiwhinston@templebethemeth.org