Question on Anti semitism

[Anonymous]

I wanted to ask a sincere question about how schools investigate antisemitism. In our kids’ school, an independent party interviewed 12 teachers, and half of them said they believed there was antisemitism. The report concluded that there is antisemitism at the school. I found this a bit puzzling because, in other contexts like racism investigations, independent reviews usually look at both sides of the issue and try to understand the broader dynamics. The fact that someone feels there is racism or antisemitism is very important, but it doesn’t automatically mean there is intentional discrimination. Sometimes it could reflect uneven communication or engagement from the school with different staff. When investigating any policy violation, I would expect all perspectives to be heard. Does this sound like a fair and reasonable process to you?

[Anonymous]

... I don't follow.

[Anonymous]

No OP

If it quacks like a duck it’s a duck

There is a reason people say that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:... I don't follow.

Let’s say, can you conclude there is sexual harassment based on a claim of sexual harassment, or do you need to investigate and look for hard evidence?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No OP

If it quacks like a duck it’s a duck

There is a reason people say that

I was just curious about the process itself. For other policy violations typically you have to really investigate the incident and get inputs or evidence from all parties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to ask a sincere question about how schools investigate antisemitism. In our kids’ school, an independent party interviewed 12 teachers, and half of them said they believed there was antisemitism. The report concluded that there is antisemitism at the school. I found this a bit puzzling because, in other contexts like racism investigations, independent reviews usually look at both sides of the issue and try to understand the broader dynamics. The fact that someone feels there is racism or antisemitism is very important, but it doesn’t automatically mean there is intentional discrimination. Sometimes it could reflect uneven communication or engagement from the school with different staff. When investigating any policy violation, I would expect all perspectives to be heard. Does this sound like a fair and reasonable process to you?

Seems pretty reasonable. Assuming the investigation was focused on understanding and addressing the climate for Jewish faculty at the school, it seems appropriate that the outside consultants would interview a bunch of current and former Jewish faculty members who were willing to participate to get their views. I'd also assume that school leadership wouldn't take the experiences of these faculty members as the only relevant experiences, but instead would use their insight to take steps to gain deeper understanding into current-day antisemitism and the multifaceted Jewish experience in order to better support the school's Jewish students, families and faculty. It seems like a report like this would be used to give school administrators a better understanding of their experiences and ways the school can enhance its inclusivity efforts, which seems like a fair and reasonable result for a study like the one you've described.

[Anonymous]

I guess it depends what is being investigated? If the question is: do Jewish teachers or students feel like they are in a safe and comfortable environment then the most important thing is to interview the Jewish students and teachers. Just like if you wanted to know if black students and teachers felt safe and comfortable, you would ask them. However, if there is a specific incident, then an investigation would need to talk to witnesses to find out what had happened as well as talking to the parties involved

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess it depends what is being investigated? If the question is: do Jewish teachers or students feel like they are in a safe and comfortable environment then the most important thing is to interview the Jewish students and teachers. Just like if you wanted to know if black students and teachers felt safe and comfortable, you would ask them. However, if there is a specific incident, then an investigation would need to talk to witnesses to find out what had happened as well as talking to the parties involved

Agreed. Is it a Climate survey or a disciplinary hearing. The processes should differ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to ask a sincere question about how schools investigate antisemitism. In our kids’ school, an independent party interviewed 12 teachers, and half of them said they believed there was antisemitism. The report concluded that there is antisemitism at the school. I found this a bit puzzling because, in other contexts like racism investigations, independent reviews usually look at both sides of the issue and try to understand the broader dynamics. The fact that someone feels there is racism or antisemitism is very important, but it doesn’t automatically mean there is intentional discrimination. Sometimes it could reflect uneven communication or engagement from the school with different staff. When investigating any policy violation, I would expect all perspectives to be heard. Does this sound like a fair and reasonable process to you?

OP, you call it an investigation, but is that what it was? Was the school investigating reports or incidents of antisemitism? Was the goal to uncover or punish a perpetrator?

Or was it more like a survey or assessment of whether the school has an issue? With findings but not necessarily a specific action plan or result intended as the output?

If the latter, what you describe seems fine if somewhat limited in scope to only teachers. If the former, doesn’t seem thorough, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to ask a sincere question about how schools investigate antisemitism. In our kids’ school, an independent party interviewed 12 teachers, and half of them said they believed there was antisemitism. The report concluded that there is antisemitism at the school. I found this a bit puzzling because, in other contexts like racism investigations, independent reviews usually look at both sides of the issue and try to understand the broader dynamics. The fact that someone feels there is racism or antisemitism is very important, but it doesn’t automatically mean there is intentional discrimination. Sometimes it could reflect uneven communication or engagement from the school with different staff. When investigating any policy violation, I would expect all perspectives to be heard. Does this sound like a fair and reasonable process to you?

Teachers probably see and hear things maybe you are unaware of. There can be two different types of anti-Semitism from what I have seen and no I am not Jewish. You have right wing Christians and gop that make anti semitic remarks and then you have pro Palestinian anti Israeli groups that have made anti semitic remarks. I see no problem with the survey but curious why you care so much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to ask a sincere question about how schools investigate antisemitism. In our kids’ school, an independent party interviewed 12 teachers, and half of them said they believed there was antisemitism. The report concluded that there is antisemitism at the school. I found this a bit puzzling because, in other contexts like racism investigations, independent reviews usually look at both sides of the issue and try to understand the broader dynamics. The fact that someone feels there is racism or antisemitism is very important, but it doesn’t automatically mean there is intentional discrimination. Sometimes it could reflect uneven communication or engagement from the school with different staff. When investigating any policy violation, I would expect all perspectives to be heard. Does this sound like a fair and reasonable process to you?

Teachers probably see and hear things maybe you are unaware of. There can be two different types of anti-Semitism from what I have seen and no I am not Jewish. You have right wing Christians and gop that make anti semitic remarks and then you have pro Palestinian anti Israeli groups that have made anti semitic remarks. I see no problem with the survey but curious why you care so much?

I care about the process itself because the conclusion was that there is antisemitism at school. Not sure you can definitely arrive at this conclusion just by asking Jewish faculty. The process itself would open the door for all types of claims of hatred, when in fact the problems could be somewhere else like lack of engagement with faculty. Also there are plenty of Jewish families in the school so I have never seen any incident or parents never mentioned it. In general, i feel that if there is an incident the outcome of the incident should be a fact-based assessment, not a perception-based assessment.

[Anonymous]

So if a group of Black teachers felt like they were being marginalized by the rest of the faculty, isn't that enough data to determine that it would be worthwhile to make sure that an effort was put forth to make them feel differently? In other words, unless you think that the teachers got together and fabricated their experience, chances are, there was some reason they felt that way.

Perception is important, particularly in a work place. If multiple people from the same group perceive that things aren't right, that's enough information to try to do something about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to ask a sincere question about how schools investigate antisemitism. In our kids’ school, an independent party interviewed 12 teachers, and half of them said they believed there was antisemitism. The report concluded that there is antisemitism at the school. I found this a bit puzzling because, in other contexts like racism investigations, independent reviews usually look at both sides of the issue and try to understand the broader dynamics. The fact that someone feels there is racism or antisemitism is very important, but it doesn’t automatically mean there is intentional discrimination. Sometimes it could reflect uneven communication or engagement from the school with different staff. When investigating any policy violation, I would expect all perspectives to be heard. Does this sound like a fair and reasonable process to you?

Teachers probably see and hear things maybe you are unaware of. There can be two different types of anti-Semitism from what I have seen and no I am not Jewish. You have right wing Christians and gop that make anti semitic remarks and then you have pro Palestinian anti Israeli groups that have made anti semitic remarks. I see no problem with the survey but curious why you care so much?

I care about the process itself because the conclusion was that there is antisemitism at school. Not sure you can definitely arrive at this conclusion just by asking Jewish faculty. The process itself would open the door for all types of claims of hatred, when in fact the problems could be somewhere else like lack of engagement with faculty. Also there are plenty of Jewish families in the school so I have never seen any incident or parents never mentioned it. In general, i feel that if there is an incident the outcome of the incident should be a fact-based assessment, not a perception-based assessment.

I think it is odd that you don’t want their views acknowledged. It was a survey and they gave their answers. Seems like you want to hide their views?

[Anonymous]

Because the report wasn't intended to punish a specific incident, it was to understand long standing and pervasive sentiments among many Jewish members of the community about what they experienced. From that, the school can figure out how to address it. It focused on faculty because there has been a lot of Jewish faculty leaving the school recently (6 of those were interviewed) but the problem goes well beyond the faculty. The report was damning and unrelated to a specific incident (although there were multiple and they continue to occur), however, it uncovered a pervasive attitude directed toward Jewish faculty members. If the adult faculty feel that they cannot be their authentic self (one of the key findings), how do you think the Jewish children feel?

For an example, if you interviewed 12 African American faculty members, 11 of whom said that they experienced racism at a school, you'd expect the school to take action to correct the atmosphere that allowed it to continue. Whether or not it was intentionally a racist environment, the result (in this hypothetical) is that AA faculty were uncomfortable and they would deserve the school to investigate the issue.

In the specific case you are describing, the report also indicated that a majority of the former faculty members left because of the anti-semitism. That seems like a significant finding for the school to understand why they are losing faculty (and frankly students).

I can tell you for a fact there is antisemitism at the school and I can also tell you that my non-Jewish parent friends were shocked when I mentioned it to them in the aftermath of the report. Don't assume that because there are Jewish families at the school and they never told YOU that there isn't an issue.

The disciplinary actions that result from any specific incident should be a fact based assessment, but this report was not intended for that purpose. Also, in addition to specific incidents, there is a general attitude among some at the school of not respecting Jewish students opinions and beliefs and the students not feeling comfortable openly expressing their beliefs or celebrating their identities. That is not a specific incident to be addressed but a culture that has to be changed.

To be honest, while you say that you are sincerely asking the question, you are either extremely naive about how anti-semitism presents or deliberately obtuse. With the dramatic rise in anti-semitism in this country, I'm actually shocked that there could be any pushback against a school wanting to understand more about how it is presenting in their community and affecting their students and I'm deeply disappointed that the community's reaction isn't to more forcefully demand quick action on the part of the administration to help the Jewish members of the community (faculty and students) feel as valued as other members.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to ask a sincere question about how schools investigate antisemitism. In our kids’ school, an independent party interviewed 12 teachers, and half of them said they believed there was antisemitism. The report concluded that there is antisemitism at the school. I found this a bit puzzling because, in other contexts like racism investigations, independent reviews usually look at both sides of the issue and try to understand the broader dynamics. The fact that someone feels there is racism or antisemitism is very important, but it doesn’t automatically mean there is intentional discrimination. Sometimes it could reflect uneven communication or engagement from the school with different staff. When investigating any policy violation, I would expect all perspectives to be heard. Does this sound like a fair and reasonable process to you?

Teachers probably see and hear things maybe you are unaware of. There can be two different types of anti-Semitism from what I have seen and no I am not Jewish. You have right wing Christians and gop that make anti semitic remarks and then you have pro Palestinian anti Israeli groups that have made anti semitic remarks. I see no problem with the survey but curious why you care so much?

I care about the process itself because the conclusion was that there is antisemitism at school. Not sure you can definitely arrive at this conclusion just by asking Jewish faculty. The process itself would open the door for all types of claims of hatred, when in fact the problems could be somewhere else like lack of engagement with faculty. Also there are plenty of Jewish families in the school so I have never seen any incident or parents never mentioned it. In general, i feel that if there is an incident the outcome of the incident should be a fact-based assessment, not a perception-based assessment.

I think it is odd that you don’t want their views acknowledged. It was a survey and they gave their answers. Seems like you want to hide their views?

Not really. One thing is improving the inclusiveness or the working environment for faculty which is always welcome. The other one is to label an incident as antisemitism. I don’t see the connection between the perception by faculty and the actual labeling of antisemitism. I take the cases of antisemitism very seriously, so not sure that a perception could be automatically be labeled as antisemitism. When other types of aggression exist, the assessment is completely different.