Antisemitic hate thrives at NYC’s most prestigious public high schools
Antisemitic hate is thriving in some of the city’s most elite public high schools.
At Brooklyn Tech, Stuyvesant and Bronx Science — three of the city’s nine specialized high schools — students have been tormented by peers giving Nazi salutes and accusing them of being part of a “genocide” of Palestinians, while school administrators and teachers also spew pro-Palestine propaganda, according to students and evidence obtained by The Post.
Last week, Stuyvesant’s business manager Dina Ingram blasted out an email containing an anti-Israel protest guide from a George Soros-funded nonprofit to the entire school community “on behalf of Principal [Seung] Yu.”
The “School’s Out for Palestine toolkit” encouraged students to sign up for the May 31 walkout calling for “an immediate ceasefire in Gaza & an end to U.S. support for Israel’s genocide of Palestinian people.”
The eight-page guide included resources for the youngsters to “prepare for & respond to backlash” and noted they didn’t need their school’s permission to participate.
An hour later, Principal Yu emailed an apology and claimed the materials were “mistakenly included” instead of a letter about the walkout itself.
“We are deeply apologetic about this mistake,” read Yu’s email. “I want to reiterate that we do not endorse the walkouts and protests.”
The Department of Education also reiterated that it was a “clerical error.”
Jewish families at Stuyvesant were “disturbed,” one parent said. “There are a lot of upset parents.”
Students at Brooklyn Tech said they have been subjected to antisemitism since even before Oct 7.
This week, one senior recalled an ugly episode two years ago where students in her sophomore history class boo-ed and threw pennies at her while she gave a presentation on Israeli scholar Mordechai Kedar’s “Eight State Solution.”
Shayna, now a 17-year-old senior, said that another student gave the Hitler salute during her speech.
“I was kind of afraid to go to school after that, but more than fear, I feel disappointed that this is so normalized that there are no consequences,” she told The Post this week.
When she reported the disgusting behavior to school administrators, Shayna claimed their response was, “It’s not that serious.”
Antisemitism in the school has only gotten worse since Hamas’ vicious attack on Israel on Oct. 7, according to Shayna and other Brooklyn Tech students.
One freshman said a teacher told him “Shut up, you Zionist” during a classroom conversation about the Israel-Hamas conflict, during which the 15-year-old was refuting a classmate’s claim that “Israel kills babies.”
“I was taken aback and I just shut up,” he said of the January incident, which “scared” him so much that he stopped letting his Star of David necklace show.
When a group of Jewish students including Shayna and the freshman confronted Brooklyn Tech principal David Newman about the rampant hate, Newman arranged for them to share their experiences during a faculty-wide meeting.
But the principal forbid the students from using the words “Israel” or “Zionism” at the May 6 meeting – lest they trigger certain teachers, according to five students who were involved.
“Ignorance about Jewish identity, Zionism and Israel is no excuse for antisemitism directed at students and inaction among the adults in the room. The necessary response is increased education,” Daniel Brooks, the lead educator of Club Z’s New York chapter, said in response to the situation at Brooklyn Tech.
This week, a two-page letter by pro-Palestine students posted on the walls of Bronx Science pressured the school community to join them in spewing anti-Israel rhetoric.
“With disregard to the genocide occurring and the lack of attention to the suffering of millions in Palestine, the school has decided to support Israel,” the letter laments.
Another flier circulated by students called for Taglit Birthright Israel’s headquarters on Third Avenue to be “shut down” during a June 15 rally. The organization provides free trips to young people with the aim of fostering Jewish connection and giving immersive Israel experiences.
The hateful students wrote in a post on Instagram that the organization instead “aims to deepen Israeli settler colonialism.”
A spokesman for the DOE said the incidents are “disturbing” and being looked into.
“Students and staff deserve to be safe and respected in their school and we encourage students, staff, and families to report incidents expeditiously so that they can be quickly investigated, and action taken,” he added.
Additional reporting by Susan Edelman