As the Jewish community advocate for combating anti-Semitism and pursuing justice representing the Jewish communities in Kansas and Western Missouri, Jewish Community Relations Bureau|AJC knew that Jewish students in the region reported facing anti-Semitism in their schools. However, JCRB|AJC did not know how widespread this experience was, nor what anti-Semitism looked like day-to-day for students.
JCRB|AJC’s recent survey of 66 middle and high school students found that Jewish students in our region face anti-Semitism on a disturbingly regular basis in their schools.
When asked to select which types of anti-Semitism they had experienced or witnessed at school, nearly 75% of students reported experiencing or witnessing at least one type of anti-Semitism. The most common experiences were the telling of “jokes” relating to the Holocaust or the propagation of Jewish stereotypes and seeing anti-Semitic graffiti such as drawings of swastikas on desks and in textbooks.
Locally, Jewish students’ experiences seem to be similar to or even more frequent than the experiences of Jewish Americans over the age of 18 throughout the country, as revealed in AJC’s recently published “State of Anti-Semitism in America” report. In their national survey, AJC found that 37% of adults surveyed had been victims of anti-Semitism over the past five years. JCRB|AJC’s survey found that 75% of students have experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism, while 27% of students reported that they had been specifically targeted in person at school, and 11% had specifically experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism online from other students.
“Simultaneously alarming was JCRB|AJC’s finding that only 41% of respondents said they are ‘always’ comfortable expressing their Jewish identity publicly at school, while 42% said, ‘most of the time, but not always,’ and 5% indicated they are ‘rarely comfortable,’ ” JCRB|AJC Executive Director Gavriela Geller pointed out. “Any discomfort in expressing their Jewish identity publicly might suggest that those students fear becoming a target of anti-Semitism.”
Jewish adults also fear becoming targets of anti-Semitism, as AJC found that 24% of adult Jews avoided publicly wearing, carrying or displaying things that might help people identify them as a Jew.
AJC’s landmark report also included a survey of the U.S. general public’s perceptions and understanding of anti-Semitism — the first of its kind.
“The findings reveal a disturbing lack of awareness among the general public of the severity of anti-Semitism in the United States,” Geller said. “Nearly half of all Americans do not know what anti-Semitism is, with 25% of respondents saying they have heard of it but don’t know what it means and an astounding 21% saying they have never heard the word.”
Geller said this lack of awareness of anti-Semitism was already clear to our local students, some of whom recognized that their peers’ anti-Semitic comments might be the result of ignorance, not overt hatred. In JCRB|AJC’s survey, over two-thirds of respondents expressed that they would feel more confident confronting anti-Semitism if their non-Jewish peers learned about anti-Semitism.
“JCRB|AJC knows that combating anti-Semitism starts with understanding it, and that this is not something that the Jewish community can address alone,” Geller said. “JCRB|AJC is thankful that many schools in the region have already proven to be willing allies and partners in this endeavor.”
In light of these national and local survey results, Geller said JCRB|AJC’s commitment to combating anti-Semitism through building communal relationships and engaging in proactive education appears more imperative than ever before.
“Since today’s Jewish students are tomorrow’s Jewish leaders, and educators are the first line of defense in combating hate, countering contemporary anti-Semitism starts with them and in their schools,” she said.
Geller said the survey guided JCRB|AJC in the formation of its new education strategy, PREP (Prepare to Respond; Educate to Prevent), “which will help equip students and faculty with the tools they need to help reverse this troubling tide.”
JCRB|AJC recently hired Education and Program Associate Sarah Markowitz, who will oversee the PREP program. Markowitz is originally from Oakland, California, and has family from Kansas City. In May 2020, she earned her M.A. in war and society from Chapman University. Her masters’ thesis explored Jews’ reactions to the pogroms perpetrated by their Lithuanian neighbors in Kovno, Lithuania, in June 1941. She graduated from Loyola Marymount University in 2018 with a B.A. in political science and minors in Jewish studies, international relations, and classics & archaeology.
Throughout her college days, Markowitz gained a lot of experience working with Jewish organizations. While at LMU, Markowitz was a research assistant for the director of Jewish studies, a Jewish Studies/Hillel Engagement Fellow, and a founding member and president of Students Supporting Israel. In 2016 she was a Summer Goldman Fellow for AJC’s Los Angeles Regional Office. In summer 2017 she began to serve as a volunteer intern at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and ultimately volunteered 300 hours. She has also worked at Be’chol Lashon and the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.
“Sarah spearheaded our survey as well as our new PREP strategy, which we are very excited about,” Geller said. “Having her on board demonstrates the seriousness to which we are taking this issue. She has already greatly increased our capacity to work with students and schools.”
To learn more about the survey and how JCRB|AJC works with students and schools to combat anti-Semitism in Kansas City, visit www.jcrbajc.org.