In front of a chalk board, a star of david stands embedded in a wooden table.
(Image by Yael Mazor)

ON NOVEMBER 2, 2023, only seven weeks after the horrific attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists, two high school students came before the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. They testified about the sudden explosion of antisemitic behavior they were experiencing and the feckless response of school administrators they witnessed.

Throughout my decade-long tenure on the board, I had never heard a clearer call to action.  

As the students spoke, some of my own prior background as an educator came to mind. In the 1980s, I was trained by Facing History and Ourselves to deliver Holocaust education in my junior high school classroom. The training offered a deep history, with information about the shifting nature of this pervasive form of hatred and of millennia of antisemitic crimes in Western history.

I never thought I would hear about such disturbing actions and behaviors scaling up in American public schools. I never imagined our society would abide the pervasiveness, virulence, and quiet acceptance of hatred toward Jews we see today.  

The evidence shared by these courageous young women suggested we face an unprecedented outburst of antisemitism in the United States, which compelled me to explore more deeply. It was not hard to research and confirm that what they were experiencing is widespread and growing.  

In general, behavior in schools has been problematic since the end of the COVID school closures. Young people are bullied in both blatant and subtle ways in real time as you read these words. 

Have we forgotten Carl Walker Hoover and Phoebe Prince, two Massachusetts young people who lost their lives to bullying about 15 years ago? Carl’s mother, Sirdeaner Walker was one of the most committed and effective advocates against bullying Massachusetts has ever seen. Through her powerful leadership, the intervention of the Legislature, and the commitment of state and school leaders across the Commonwealth, effective anti-bullying responses and practices were developed. 

Students of every description benefited for years. On the whole, real improvements were made at that time. School leaders understood that they cannot be idle or respond with half measures. But after the reopening of schools post-COVID, there’s plenty of evidence that responses and practices have been less effective, and many of the gains of the past are lost.  

A state education board in the United States is not going to resolve a conflict halfway around the world. But our state education board can and must lead clearly and unequivocally when specific groups of students are being mistreated and the response at schools and districts is proving inadequate. We have a duty to ensure that the students, their families, and the entire education community of Massachusetts know the call to action is heard and taken with the utmost seriousness.   

Following the November meeting, our chair promptly convened a panel, which soon afterward more deeply informed our board and the state education department about the widening extent of the situation. Not long afterward, on its own initiative, the Legislature convened a commission to expose in detail the unprecedented level of antisemitic conduct occurring in the Commonwealth and recommend how it must be addressed.  

The Special Commission on Combatting Antisemitism did a thorough and commendable job. The commission’s hearings revealed that antisemitism is often omitted from established anti-bullying practices that protect other vulnerable groups. Recently, it produced a range of recommended actions for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Many of the commission’s K-12 recommendations expressly pertain to every form of hate, bias, and discrimination, suggesting best practices for Jewish members of school communities, and applicable to every student. The state education department must follow up with vigor and as a top priority. I was very pleased to hear Commissioner Pedro Martinez commit to do just that at the Board’s September 2025 meeting. 

A notably contentious item has been the recommendation that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, published in 2005, be used by public school personnel. The commissioners understood that if they intend to assist educators unfamiliar with the issues, they need to provide a common definition as an essential tool.   

A September 2025 Washington Post poll found that in the last year, 42 percent of Jewish Americans avoided wearing material that would show their Jewish identity. Nearly half said they perceive a lot of antisemitism in the US, and fewer than 20 percent feel very safe. This unprecedented environment makes Jewish students more vulnerable and encourages potential perpetrators.  Educators clearly must have all the assistance they can get to manage it.   

The IHRA definition of antisemitism is the obvious and established resource to turn to. The Antisemitism Commission hardly had a viable alternative. Trying to craft a new definition wasn’t a practical option. Part of the commission’s statutory charge is to “make recommendations for the implementation of the United States National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.” This 2023 Biden administration guide recognizes the IHRA definition as a prominent tool embraced by United States agencies. The IHRA Definition was endorsed by the Massachusetts governor in a 2022 executive order. The commission was following precedent and the law. 

The IHRA definition has been critiqued as a threat to free speech and open expression by some who fear it conflates any criticism of Israel with antisemitic speech. However, its text says outright that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” 

Free speech and open expression are important, especially in educational settings. Experienced educators have long balanced the urgent need to ensure safe and welcoming school environments against the values of free expression.  Our more experienced administrators and properly trained personnel can manage, and not misuse, the IHRA definition. They should be trusted to use this tool with good judgment and discernment when it is needed.    

The recommendations of the antisemitism commission focus on Jewish students, because that is they who have an unprecedented need for timely, effective intervention.  It is reasonable to hope that effective implementation will refocus and revive very good past practices in all Massachusetts schools.

Action now can ultimately spare all students, not only Jewish students, from the consequences of hateful and bullying behaviors. Anything less than an immediate and urgent response by the state education department and local officials in every school community is unacceptable. 

Michael Moriarty served on the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from 2015 until September 2025.