By Larry Goldman, JCRC Education committee co-chair
Our K-12 students in both public and private schools have seen a rise of antisemitic encounters in the last six months.
A few of these encounters have directly violated school policies.
Working quickly and through proper channels, the Jewish Community Relations Committee (JCRC) of the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond (JCFR), addressed these situations to have the actions stopped and the perpetrators of the actions disciplined.
Many antisemitic acts fall into a gray area that may not individually violate a school’s policies but are no less damaging to our students.
Some examples include “jokes” that go too far, social media posts that include antisemitic phrasing or imagery, or friendships that end because a student decides they cannot be friends with someone who is Jewish because of the war in Israel.
The JCRC is currently coordinating with community organizations to support our students who are experiencing antisemitism.
April 18 Workshop
On April 18, the JCRC and ADL are sponsoring a Parent/Student Workshop: Tools for Talking About Antisemitism from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
To register, visit:
https://jewishrichmond.regfox.com/workshop-tools-for-talking-antisemitism
We strongly encourage parents and students to sign up!
In order to continue to develop the most effective ways to support our students confronting antisemitism, we need to continue to get accurate information about what our students are experiencing.
First, in addition to notifying school authorities, please report any direct antisemitic action that is a hate crime using the direct link on JCFR page – www.jewishrichmond.org/incidentreporting
This includes physical and verbal attacks, and threats of violence directed at students.
Second, please share any information of any student’s experience of antisemitism that aren’t at the hate crime level, and may even seem like “no big deal,” to the JCRC Interim Executive Director Debra Rodman at drodman@jewishrichmond.org
For the sake of our students and our community, we need to be aggressively pro-active now.
Hope to see you on April 18!
