Combatting Antisemitism

While it seems the world has turned upside down, one constant has been the ups and downs that the Jewish people have encountered as we navigate our relationships with people outside of the Jewish community. As we all know, we have been experiencing an uptick of antisemitism, and it continues to get worse. The ADL reports that 1.09 billion people hold antisemitic attitudes.

We know that this issue is impacting everyone in the Jewish community including our high school students and three teens from PAS are trying to help.

Meet 11th-graders Aaron Egol, 17; Ava Epstein, 16; and Skylar Deutsch, 16. As friends since childhood, they grew up in New York City and spent their formative years learning, growing, and connecting at PAS. They approached Ariel Glueck, our Director of Teen and High School Programming and Engagement and together they launched the Combatting Antisemitism Task Force this past January. The group meets once a month to help spread knowledge and support about antisemitism in the world and how to take action against it.

“I was not inspired by any specific incident that happened to me but by what was happening broadly in New York City, seeing stuff in the news with Kanye West and incidents all over the world,” Aaron said. “We wanted to get involved in our community and provide a safe space to have conversations to help make a difference.”

Skylar says that when she was in preschool, she was in a sort of “bubble." But things changed as she got older. “I saw what was happening in the world and in the city, especially when finally had access to social media,” she said. “It set off an alarm and inspired me to take action."

For Ava, the task force helps shed light on daily incidents of antisemitism rather than just the Holocaust. “We want to still talk about the Holocaust and remember it but want to talk about incidents happening in everyday life to help prevent another Holocaust from happening in the future,” she said.

The task force is a place for people to cope with what is going on in daily life. There are roughly 30 teens who attend the meetings in a comfortable setting that is engaging and a place to learn how to advocate against antisemitism.

Aaron, Ava, and Skylar feel they have been lucky to attend mostly Jewish schools where they are surrounded by people who are not antisemitic. Their brushes with antisemitism have mostly been stereotypical jokes in passing. But they know when they leave for college that things could change, and they all want to be prepared.

The task force is partnering with the 92nd Street Y and Temple Israel for a workshop on responding to antisemitism. Speakers will teach teens how to speak to peers, adults, and teachers with whom they may not feel comfortable speaking. They also plan to bring in college students (PAS alumni) to discuss antisemitism on campus, talk about opportunities to get involved with Jewish life at college, and how to prepare for any dangers.

“Wherever there are Jewish people there will be acts of antisemitism,” Ava said. “There’s a way to make it better but I don’t think it will 100 percent go away.”

Aaron, Ava and Skylar believe raising awareness is key. They are nervous about college, but the task force helps them prepare for tough conversations. They also want others to know that they are not alone.

"We’ve gotten to a place where antisemitism has become acceptable in our culture,” Aaron said. “I agree there’s things we can do to apply social pressure and transform the reality that antisemitism is accepted in our society.”

Glueck is especially proud of these three PAS teens. “I am so impressed by their initiative, follow through, and thoughtfulness,” she said. “I know that they will continue to make a difference in the lives of their peers and the greater PAS community.”

The mission statement of the task force is: Helping to shine a light on antisemitism in large- and small-scale environments through education and advocacy.

“The three of us agreed when we created this task force to help fight antisemitism and felt it was our duty to do so,” Skylar said. “We didn’t really have an option.”