Leaders of the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee said the agency drew on its strong ties with the local education community in the wake of an anti-Semitic incident at The Pembroke Hill School in Kansas City.
“Our partnerships with schools are built on trust and ongoing dialogue in both times of quiet and times of crisis,” said a statement released Monday by Executive Director Gavriela Geller and board President Gary Wolf.
The statement came a day after news broke of a swastika being found on a desk at the elite prep academy just west of the Country Club Plaza. Jewish parents told The Kansas City Star that this is not the first case of anti-Semitism at the school, and said school officials have not done enough to address such instances in the past.
Geller and Wolf said Pembroke Hill officials immediately contacted JCRB|AJC and the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education for guidance on how to handle the current situation and on how to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
“Our partners at Pembroke Hill are sincere in their desire to address antisemitism and we look forward to continuing to work with and support them,” the statement said.
The two officials added: “We believe strongly that to combat antisemitism, one must truly understand it; we work every day to educate teachers, administrators, and students to help them understand that antisemitism is of crucial importance not only to the Jewish community, but our society at large.”
One of the reasons the incident has resonated within the local Jewish community is because it seems to be part of a “troubling trend” of anti-Semitism within local schools, the statement said.
The two leaders cited data from a recent survey of local Jewish middle and high school students. Conducting the survey was Sarah Markowitz, who was hired in June to fill the newly created position of education and program associate.
Markowitz, 24, graduated in May with her master’s degree from Chapman University in Orange, California.
The survey was one of Markowitz’s first initiatives. The Chronicle spoke with Markowitz and Geller before the incident at Pembroke Hill as part of a story on the new position at the agency.
Having grown up in California, Markowitz was curious to know what it was like to be a Jewish student in Kansas City. She studied anecdotal evidence from last year’s Leaders for Tomorrow program and talked to a few students. However, she said she felt like there was more to be learned, that incidents of anti-Semitism may be a common occurrence.
In August, Markowitz distributed the survey designed to guide the agency’s education strategy for the next couple of years. She received 66 responses — more than expected — from middle- and high-school students throughout the area.
The survey revealed it is common for Jewish students to experience anti-Semitism in their schools. Seventy-five percent of the respondents identified at least one form of anti-Semitism they had experienced in schools. Most forms of anti-Semitism took the form of Holocaust jokes or jokes related to stereotypes.
“We also asked them to describe their experiences, and 34 of them took the time to write out and tell us what they were experiencing at their schools. That really stood out to me because they were describing various stereotypes they hear, terrible Holocaust jokes, swastikas drawn on textbooks and on lockers,” Markowitz said. “Unfortunately, all of that was repeated in multiple survey responses. But we saw that the students minimized their experiences, saying ‘Oh, it’s just jokes, it’s no big deal.’ ”
When asked how much of a problem anti-Semitism is at school, only 29% said it wasn’t a problem at all.
Markowitz said a large part of her job is building relationships with schools and school districts so if they have a question about their calendar and conflicts with Jewish holidays or issues around Christmas, they know they can go to her and she will partner with them to give them as many resources as possible.
“That’s been one of the best parts of my job so far, to engage with the schools and school districts in the area; everyone is so welcoming and open to learning with us,” she said.
Being in a new position meant Markowitz had to start from scratch to develop JCRB|AJC’s new education strategy, which is called PREP (Prepare to Respond, Educate to Prevent).
“The first part is focusing on empowering Jewish students to stand up for themselves. That’s our Leaders for Tomorrow program, our [education & advocacy] workshops for students,” she said. “We’re also helping to educate the educators themselves … and that’s going to help Jewish students feel more comfortable and more confident, knowing their teachers understand what they’re going through, that their teachers are their allies.”
The Leaders for Tomorrow program is a high school leadership program for grades 10-12. “It’s a really intensive program where students learn about anti-Semitism, the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also about advocacy skills so it can help them become effective advocates for themselves and for the Jewish community, high school and beyond,” Markowitz said.
The program has a session once a month for seven months during the school year.
JCRB|AJC also is working to bring in additional teacher training on how to teach Jewish history, teach about Israel, and teach about the Arab-Israeli conflict in classrooms “because that’s a difficult concept for teachers if they don’t really know the background,” Markowitz said.
The agency is partnering with the Institute for Curriculum Services, which prepares lesson plans and helps teachers prepare for those kinds of lessons.”
She is also excited about a new program with KU Hillel. It’s a Jewish leadership and advocacy fellowship for college students and the issues they may be facing on their college campuses. Students are trained on what anti-Semitism is, educated on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and taught how to be advocates.
In addition, she’s working on a third program for middle- and high-school students where she’ll be working to bring Anti-Defamation League workshops to the Kansas City area.
“It’s been great to talk with high school students and see that there is a need for these kinds of programs. The students we work with, especially in the high school leadership program, are extremely passionate and they’re mature young Jewish leaders, so I’m learning a lot from them,” Markowitz said.
Geller praised Markowitz’s past work in Holocaust studies, Jewish advocacy and research on anti-Semitism. She has worked for both AJC and the ADL, and was a leader in the Jewish community in college.
“She really is able to approach this with a strategic and professional perspective while being incredibly relatable to the students as well,” Geller said. “We’re already reaping the benefits of having someone of her caliber here in the community.”