Antisemitism in context
Antisemitism across the U.S. has skyrocketed following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in Israel and the Palestine-Israel conflict. According to a 2024 Anti-Defamation League study, Virginia is ranked fifth highest in the U.S. for the number of reported antisemitic incidents in a K-12 setting.
This growing trend is seen in Fairfax County. A letter from the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Workforce to FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid discussed several antisemitic incidents on FCPS campuses, including walkouts featuring posters with sayings such as “from the river to the sea,” a phrase commonly interpreted to promote the removal of the Jewish people from the area between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, though its antisemetic nature is still disputed.
“The phrase, ‘from the river to the sea’, [refers to the two areas] that are surrounding the land that is Israel,” said math teacher Adam Newburger, sponsor of the JSA. “[The phrase’s] original sentiment, as far as we’re aware, is that you want to cleanse or wipe out that area to restart and do something else.”
The Oct. 7 attack and the subsequent Israeli response, has also led to a recent increase in anti-Zionism, further fueling the rise in antisemitism.
“All Zionism means is the Jewish right to a homeland in the Middle East, where half the world’s Jewish population lives,” said Sara Winkleman, Director of the Education Program and Services of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington (JCRC). “So if you deny them to any part of the land, then that is anti-Zionist.”
While antisemitism and anti-Zionism are independent ideas, the two sentiments have become intertwined, with many anti-Zionist comments being used to promote antisemitism.
“I know there’s some people that want to separate the two. I think that’s not possible in a world where 80% of Jews in America feel a close connection to the land of Israel,” Winkleman said. “And where if you call for the destruction of Israel, that’s half the Jewish population in the world.”
The effect of increased antisemitic sentiments has rippled across communities.
“I work at a religious elementary school in the area, and since Oct. 7, the amount of security that we have had has increased at the temple,” Riley* said. “I think that other students who work there have also noticed this.”
The threat of violence against Jewish students has led certain institutions to implement various safety precautions.
“It’s really sad having to have safe rooms and procedures and all of us having to carry around walkie-talkies just in case someone comes into the building,” Riley* said. “We have a couple training sessions before the school year starts to make sure that all of the assistant teachers know what to do in case of an emergency.”
At McLean, this possible danger has caused many Jewish students to feel the need to hide their culture.
“I know a bunch of students who wear Jewish stars or other things, but they’ll always wear it underneath their shirts because they don’t want to get into a situation where there’s any kind of combativeness,” Newburger said.
Due to an elevated sense of insecurity among the student body, Winkleman provided training to McLean social studies teachers.
“The training came about because there was a teacher that created some unintentional harm in one of her classrooms, not understanding that the article she was sharing about the conflict in Gaza was problematic towards Jewish students,” Winkleman said. “The question is how in this world can we talk about [the conflict in Gaza] in a way that’s safe for all students, including Jewish students.”
There are several local organizations that support Jewish teens, fostering an inclusive and educational environment, such as Student to Student.
“Through Student to Student, we bring teens into schools to talk about what it means to be a Jewish teen today,” Winkleman said. “We talk about who Jewish people are, and some of the topics we cover are life cycles, the Sabbath, holidays and antisemitism.”
McLean Experiences
While McLean continues to take action, student cases of antisemitism often go under the radar.
“Freshman year, a group of four-five kids harassed me for being Jewish,” junior Gabe Agin said. “They did the Nazi salute towards me and forcefully tried to make me do it. They physically prodded me, and one drew a swastika on their leg and tried to get me to react.”
His parents reported those behaviors, and an investigation was launched. But the students never faced any disciplinary action because the vice principal who aided in the report left over the summer, and her files were removed.
“I felt betrayed,” Agin said. “I lost trust in the school system because it felt like I wasn’t heard and people didn’t listen. It felt like the school system took away some of the importance or the impact of the events, and that was the most hurtful.”
With the heightened Israel-Palestine conflict, Jewish students continue to be the victims of hate against the Israeli state.
“One of the most isolating experiences for Jewish students is being treated as a personal representative, or even a culpable party, for the actions of a foreign government they may have no connection to,” Winkleman said. “Many Jewish students hold genuinely complex, even critical, views of Israeli policy, and yet they are still targeted simply for being Jewish.”
On FCPS social media, sarcastic comments like “thank the Jews” and “insert: Tel Aviv impressed” have appeared in the comment sections of FCPS posts. the use of such phrases, even on posts not pertaining to Judaism, perpetuates antisemitic beliefs, creating an uncomfortable online environment for Jewish students. While FCPS has worked to combat this by removing certain comment abilities, such as the use of GIFs, antisemitic remarks continue to disrespect Jewish students.
“[Jewish students] have nothing to do with [the conflict],” Agin said. “Just because we’re Jewish does not mean we totally support Israel.”
Antisemitism also affects Jewish students in a less direct manner. Short-form videos and the fast algorithms of media platforms create and spread stereotypes that foster ignorance among the public relating to the Jewish population—an obstacle Jewish students often face.
“On Instagram, I’ve seen quite a few videos on stereotypes of Jews revolving around money and [being] cheap,” Agin said. “I think [those videos] normalize generalization and the stereotypes about Jewish people because you can just say it anywhere online.”
Nowadays, when students see the number of likes on a post, regardless if it promotes hate, they still interact with the content without understanding the message or context.
“We live in a world that increasingly avoids nuance, where a complex topic can be reduced to a meme or a 15-second video,” Winkleman said. “Most kids are not intentionally hateful, they’re just misinformed and easily influenced.”
Whether hate is intentional or not, it is clear that there is much room for reform. Many hope to have constructive conversations about the issue.
“People from both sides need to sit down and talk about what’s happening,” Riley* said. “There should be discussions that are held with the intention of creating a less hostile environment for Jewish students.”
*The name Riley is a pseudonym to protect the identity of a McLean student.
