As a high school student and parent within the Montgomery County public school (MCPS) system in Maryland — one of the most prominent in the country — we have come to see that despite its reputation of stellar academic performance and celebration of diversity, antisemitism is on the rise here.

In fact, because MCPS could no longer ignore the numerous and increasing antisemitic incidents, earlier this month, a county-wide email was sent to all parents in the MCPS system, with a warning about rising antisemitism in the county.

As a student in one of the better schools in MCPS, Shawn can see the hate spreading in his school and around the county. But this disease is not so easy to spot. It contaminates people without them even realizing it, slowly but surely draining their empathy towards Jews — making them walk by as vulgar and disgusting acts of antisemitism occur right in front of their eyes, until eventually they become desensitized to it and see it as something to accept.

Shawn personally witnessed Jewish students being insulted in school, a place that should be a haven. At least that is what the stickers say on so many classroom doors. He has also seen Jewish and Israeli students verbally attacked and ridiculed for being Jewish. In addition, at our local middle school, where he was previously a student, there was a swastika drawn on a desk during school hours. His sister, and my daughter, Chloe, is currently a student there, and we fear for her safety in a school where this could take place in broad daylight.

We can’t help but think that if this gross behavior was directed toward another religious or ethnic group, the collective “outrage” would be a bit more than a simple and somewhat generic mass email.

The most outrageous insults we have seen are symbols and comments supporting or justifying the Holocaust. Why would anyone want to support such a horrible event? We believe it is because they feel it’s not important, they never learned the horrors of antisemitism, or they see random vandalism everywhere and emulate it.

Just recently, Shawn was eating at a Chinese restaurant where former presidents, senators, and generals have eaten, and saw a swastika on the wall of the bathroom. Young people see antisemitic acts like this, and think it’s alright to make fun of Jews. They think it’s normal to promote antisemitism. Thus, every time someone decides to draw a swastika and see no consequences, they continue and even accelerate this behavior, and others follow suit. Our society has made it clear that antisemitism is an annoyance that should not necessarily be encouraged, but certainly tolerated.

As a father, I am heartened to know that my son sees past the nonsense our society teaches its Jewish citizens. We are told that Jews have benefited from “white privilege” throughout the history of the United States. Thus, while some unpleasant events may happen from time to time, Jewish students, like my son, should just keep quiet and appreciate their “privilege.” Of course, any rational person not filled with hate would see this is a total distortion of history. It is laughable to ignore the virulent antisemitism that permeated US culture in the past two centuries.

Signs everywhere reading “Jews not welcome,” “no Blacks or Jews,” “no Jews or Irish,” dotted the landscape of restaurants, colleges, country clubs, hospitals, and other areas throughout the United States. Interestingly, universities and colleges were among the most antisemitic (and continue to be), and nowhere near as “enlightened” as they would have you believe. These facts are so obvious it breaks my heart that I even need to write it here today.

Another contributing factor to the explosion of antisemitism at American middle schools, high schools, and universities is our wildly unbalanced and ideologically driven teaching material dealing with the Middle East and Israel. K-12 textbooks are often filled with the most deplorable rewrites of history that deny any Jewish continuity in Israel, suggest that Jews control America, and literally replace Israel with “Palestine” on the world map. No wonder that when these children get to the university, they are already primed to hate Israel.

This hate-filled curriculum in part comes from Federally funded training workshops for K-12 teachers across America. Anti-Israel professors receive Federal grants through Title VI of the Higher Education Act (HEA) to instruct K-12 teachers. This is a very vexing and difficult problem to overcome. It took decades of influence from antisemitic and anti-Israel education policy professionals to bring our education culture to the ugly place we see today. However, I am proud to be part of the team at EMET working to reform US education policy.

In 2008, EMET was instrumental in amending Title VI of the HEA to require the need for “diverse perspectives and a wide range of viewpoints,” within the US taxpayer-funded Title VI programs. Despite EMET’s exhaustive efforts in 2008, the US Department of Education, which provides these grants to the universities, as well as the recipients of the grants themselves, have, up until now, ignored their statutory requirements to provide “diverse perspectives.” It is our hope to finally begin bringing sanity and honesty to the rabidly antisemitic training our teachers around the nation receive daily.

Shawn A. Muchnick is a freshman at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland. Morgan P. Muchnick is a policy professional living with his family inside the Washington beltway. 

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