Guest column by Joel Rubin, Vice Mayor, Town of Chevy Chase.
As the father of two multiracial Jewish daughters in the Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) system, I am deeply troubled by the system’s failure to unequivocally counter the antisemitic hate being directed at Jewish students.
We live in a county that rightly prides itself on our diversity, where Jews make up more than 10 percent of the population, and where many of us are here because of the school system. To realize that our Jewish children are being sent into a cauldron of antisemitic hate at school without strong defenses to protect them is unacceptable. Yet that is our current reality.
I’ve worked in the Jewish community throughout my professional life, including as the Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress and the Jewish Outreach Director for the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign. I grew up in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, just around the corner from Tree of Life synagogue, where 11 Jews were murdered in 2018. I understand what trauma means to the Jewish community.
And now it’s in our children’s schools. Right here in Montgomery County.
It’s not as if this is a new issue. In 2022, Montgomery County Police reported 48 anti-Jewish incidents, up 55% from 2021, far more than any other religious-based bias incident. Nearly half of the 2022 incidents were in the last four months of the year, and in just the last week, nine antisemitic incidents were reported in the county’s schools.
Our schools have clearly been failing to protect our Jewish children.
To stop this vile hatred from spreading, we need to take a step back and ask the victims of these incidents – our kids – what should be done. I did so last night, and you know what my daughter said? That someone needs to be caught and punished.
Simple. Straightforward. And unfortunately, not happening at MCPS.
Neither my kids nor I have heard of one disciplinary action being taken against one student who has promoted antisemitism. This means that to them – and me – the schools don’t have their back.
But there is a way out. And it starts with tackling this issue head on. That means not just education, but also enforcement.
On the education side, greater investment in Holocaust education will be taking place starting next year, in addition to Restorative Justice efforts at the schools. The County Council has also passed a resolution against antisemitism and is talking about creating a task force against hate. These steps are in addition to the heroic work that the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council conduct to raise awareness about this problem.
But while long term educational engagements that turn a culture around are broadly helpful, they miss the sharp point of the moment. We all live in the here and now, not the long term. And in the here and now, antisemitism at our schools just isn’t being dealt with forcefully as the problem spirals out of control.
To understand what I mean, look at MCPS’s proposed $3.15 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2024, which represents roughly half of the county’s budget. Within it, there isn’t a single word about antisemitism. To understand a government’s priorities, ignore the words and look at the budgets.
In the case of the MCPS budget, the idea of countering antisemitism just doesn’t exist.
My children have the right to go to school without fear. And I as a parent have the right to expect that my children’s school will not allow them to walk in fear because of who they are. But until the enforcement side of the ledger is taken seriously – and implemented – both they and I will have that fear.
Let’s be clear: none of our Jewish children should have to attend schools that don’t punish the perpetrators of anti-Jewish hate. Yet today, our Jewish children are left alone to fend for themselves in a cesspool of antisemitic uncertainty. To them, this hate has been tolerated.
It’s therefore time for MCPS administrators to take control of the situation, to find the perpetrators, to start meting out punishment along with education, and to tell the public that punishment has been carried out. The schools aren’t doing the kids who commit these acts any favors by letting them think that they can get away with promoting this hate. It’s past time for some tough love.
Fortunately, MCPS Superintendent Dr. Monifa McKnight has an opportunity to fix this failure. She’ll be holding public town halls on this issue on March 8th and 23rd. She’ll have a chance then to express more than words, an opportunity to make it clear that the perpetrators will be punished, and that resources will be dedicated to fighting this scourge.
But if she doesn’t, then her efforts will be a failure. Not just for MCPS, but for all of our children.
Joel Rubin is the Vice Mayor of the Town of Chevy Chase, a Democratic Strategist, and a former Obama Administration Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. He’s also a frequent national security media commentator and Jewish community activist. You can follow him on Twitter at @joelmartinrubin.