Deena Pack of Bala Cynwyd, an Orthodox Jewish mother of three, is one of several parents who talked about antisemitic incidents that happened to their children in Lower Merion schools. Her youngest son was a pupil at Cynwyd Elementary School last year.

Hers was just one account of several told to about 100 Jewish parents and community members who gathered at Har Zion Temple in Penn Valley recently to discuss antisemitism in the Lower Merion School District.

“In January 2024, he had his first physical assault because he was wearing a kippah [yarmulke],” said Pack. A child asked him what it was, and he said, “’It’s a kippah. It’s like a kufi. We’re cousins.’ The child beat him up. I cried very bitter tears. He cried very bitter tears.”

“He said, ‘How could they hate me because of my hat?’” Pack said. He refused to wear a kippah for six months, wearing a baseball hat instead.”

Later three middle school boys pulled off his kippah yelling, ‘Happy Sabbath, Jew!’” Pack reported it to the principal.

Steve Rosenberg, Brandy Shufutinsky and Lori Lowenthal-Marcus

“The amount of silence after those two episodes was deafening,” said Pack. Although the boy’s teacher supported him and the principal wanted to help, “There was no resource available. Restorative justice is sometimes not justice.”

A different child beat him up on the playground, pulled his pants down and laughed at him, she said.

“He’s 9,” she said. “Can you imagine what that does to someone who is 9?”

Then “the same girl who beat him up for wearing a kippah beat him up again.”

She emailed the superintendent and the principal and got no response. The district permitted that girl to walk on the stage and graduate with her classmates, Pack said.

“I don’t care what race they are, what culture they are, no child should ever experience that feeling,” said Pack. “We have to stand up for our kids. He wasn’t safe to go to middle school. We pulled him and sent him to a private school.”

Dani Shaw, co-founder of Lower Merion School District Jewish Families Association, said the group wants to work with the district to improve how children are treated by their fellow students and staff. She’s also a member of an umbrella group, JAFFAK-12.

Parents started the JFA after antisemitism in Lower Merion schools increased in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, Shaw said. Parents with students in all the schools are involved and compile reports of antisemitic incidents, like “Free Palestine” written on the walls in students’ bathrooms, verbal slurs, bullying, physical assaults, and issues with the curriculum, she said.

They made some strides with former Superintendent Steven Yanni. Since he left, progress has slowed, but she is hopeful the new superintendent will work with them to address problems after he begins in April. They’re also helping parents from other Delaware Valley school districts, including Wissahickon and Upper Dublin, address antisemitism.

Panelists Steve Rosenberg a consultant with GSD and the former interim CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, discussed Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) with Brandy Shufutinsky director of education and community engagement with the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values (JILV).

Shufutinsky said the “celebration” of the Oct. 7 massacre on campuses awakened people to antisemitism, which was already “trending up.”

In the curriculum of many districts “well-intentioned” programs like Critical Race Theory (CRT) and DEI  have had “unintended consequences.”

And when people question or complain, school officials call them racist, which silences them.

“Nobody wants to be called racist,” said Shufutinsky. “So, how do you get to have a conversation?”

Rosenberg and others with JILV met with Yanni, Interim Assistant Superintendent Scott Weinstein and school board President Kerry Sautner in November to discuss antisemitism in Lower Merion.

“There were some things they didn’t want hear,” he said. “But they’re going to continue to hear from us.”

Shufutinsky said JILV helps parents craft questions for their school board and explains how to “stay on message.”

“You have to know what’s going on,” she said. “You have to be a voice for change…You can’t be silenced when you’re called racist.”

Rosenberg said the media has focused on antisemitism at colleges and universities; but by the time kids get there, it’s too late. “We have to get them in the K-12 space.”

Lori Lowenthal-Marcus, a lawyer with The Deborah Project, which fights antisemitism and brings lawsuits to protect Jewish students’ civil rights, also spoke.

They had been battling antisemitism on university campuses but then began to pay attention to “the worms growing in K-12 schools.”

“Antisemitism is just as serious as any other discrimination,” she said.

In one California district, a world history teacher blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 terror attack and the conflict that ensued using “lots of incorrect information.”

“This is a world history teacher talking to 10th grade students who are listening to the person in front of the room tell them the Jewish state, the Jewish people, are evil, bad,” said Lowenthal-Marcus. And “deserve what they get.”

A math teacher in that district asked a student if they were Jewish and said he could tell “because of their nose,” said Lowenthal-Marcus. A principal lied about swastikas drawn in front of her school building, saying they were Japanese anime. And a substitute teacher told students jokes about the Holocaust.

“All of these incidents were reported to the authorities,” she said. A parent tried to see the curriculum the history teacher was using about the Israeli-Hamas conflict but was rebuffed, she said. “It is the right of parents to see the curriculum.”

“Antisemitism is just as important as any other kind of discrimination and you’re protected by the same laws,” she said.  “We’re entitled to the same civil rights as everyone else.”

Amy Buckman, a spokeswoman for the Lower Merion School District, said, “Lower Merion District Policy 235 prioritizes fostering “inclusive environments within its schools through understanding, respect, and celebration of diversity and the ways in which that positively impacts the sense of belonging for all students.”

It also prohibits “Any form of bullying, hazing, or discriminatory harassment” and ensures that “appropriate corrective and preventative action shall be taken when allegations of bullying, hazing, or discriminatory harassment are substantiated.”