Parents of Jewish students in California’s East Bay school district gathered late last month to discuss their concerns that antisemitism was on the rise following the appearance of swastikas and other Nazi imagery on numerous campuses in the region, the East Bay Times reported on Wednesday
Those at the May 31 meeting discussed incidents like Jewish high schoolers receiving emails and text messages containing cartoons of Nazis, and students doing the Nazi salute to Hitler in school hallways.
Some pinned the alleged upward trend in racist behavior on President Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric.
The parents also heard from Jacqueline Regev, a teacher and education director for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), who described an uptick in the bullying of Muslims and LGBT students, in addition to discrimination against Jews.
Since January, northern California public lower schools have seen some 29 antisemitic incidents at more than two dozen campuses, compared to about 25 incidents at 16 schools in all of 2016, as revealed in an expose by the local J Weekly paper.
For instance, in March, swastikas and the message “Toasted Jew” were graffitied around the Carlmont High School campus in Belmont.
According to the ADL’s most recent report on antisemitism, there was a 106 percent spike last year in antisemitism at the country’s K-12 “non-denominational” grade schools (though one education reform expert cautioned that figure might be “overstated and misleading”).