by Anya Kamenetz, The Hechinger Report
February 14, 2026
The town of Concord, famed for its Revolutionary War history, has highly rated public schools, standing out even in the already high-performing state of Massachusetts. But in June of last year, they were singled out in a negative way — for antisemitism.
The Anti-Defamation League, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and a pro bono team at the law firm Mayer Brown filed a brief with the federal Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights alleging a former student in the Concord-Carlisle district was the victim of antisemitic bullying from middle school through high school by a total of seven others, until he left for a private Jewish day school in November 2024. The Title VI civil rights complaint details incidents including the drawing of swastikas on school property and the use of antisemitic slurs and invective such as “kike” and “go to the gas chamber.”
Awareness of, and alarm about, antisemitism has been growing since the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing war in Gaza, and schools all over the country are struggling to respond.
New York City public schools launched an anti-hate hotline. California recently passed a law banning certain classroom materials and creating a new Office of Civil Rights for K-12 education that includes an antisemitism prevention coordinator.
Massachusetts, with one of the largest Jewish populations in the country, is the only state to tackle the issue with a statewide legislative commission. After holding public hearings over 13 months to discuss the Concord-Carlisle case and other incidents, the Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism released its final report on Dec. 1. It called for schools to teach more about antisemitism, Judaism and Israel; make stronger and more frequent public statements about the unacceptability of antisemitism; and introduce new processes to report and track incidents of antisemitism, including in the classroom, among other recommendations.
Massachusetts is a deep-blue state, and the commission started its work before Donald Trump was elected to a second term. But the report and recommendations are being published in the context of the Trump administration accusing schools and universities of not doing enough to combat antisemitism and pulling hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding from higher education institutions, notably Harvard. The same week the commission released its report, the U.S. House Committee on Education & the Workforce launched a coordinated investigation into alleged antisemitism in three public school districts, in California, Pennsylvania and Virginia. This is happening even as the administration is pulling back on enforcement of antidiscrimination protections of Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ+ students and those with disabilities, among others.
This work has proven controversial, starting with the definition of “antisemitism” and continuing with the proposed solutions and broader implications for communities. California’s new law was immediately challenged with a lawsuit brought by teachers and students who say it violates free speech. And in Massachusetts, the commission’s final document was met with a “shadow report,” issued in direct response by Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff, a group of Massachusetts-based experts in fields like education, law and Holocaust and genocide studies.
For groups like these scholars and Together for an Inclusive Massachusetts, a multicultural coalition, the problem — and the real impetus behind these efforts nationwide — is that national pro-Zionist organizations, like the Anti-Defamation League, the Israeli-American Civic Action Network and the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, a media watchdog group headquartered in Massachusetts, are attacking teachers unions and other groups perceived to be allied with Palestine. In a lobbying visit to the state house responding to the final report, these groups called the commission a “Trojan horse” for these interests, “pushing Trump’s agenda.”
In an interview, Rep. Simon Cataldo, the Democratic cochair of the commission, who is Jewish and grew up in Concord, said that’s not the case: “ What we’re trying to do is approach this issue in the Massachusetts way, and that’s a way that needs to be zealously protective of folks’ civil liberties.” He said commission members are striving to treat people equally under the law, regardless of their positions on Israel and Palestine.
A still-unaddressed question is what kind of curriculum or intervention actually reduces antisemitism at schools like Concord-Carlisle. Ron Avi Astor is a bullying and school violence expert at the University of California, Los Angeles who has studied bias around the world, including in Israeli schools. He said there is no proven approach: “There isn’t a lot of research showing that any of the stuff that we’re doing works.”
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Concerns about the Massachusetts report begin with its definition of antisemitism. It advises educators to embrace the definition developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, a multinational nonprofit focused on Holocaust education. That definition, also used by the Trump and Biden administrations, gives 11 examples of antisemitism, several of which could be interpreted primarily as political criticisms of the state of Israel — like claiming that the existence of Israel is a “racist endeavor” or drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy with that of the Nazis. The shadow report notes that Kenneth Stern, one of IHRA’s lead drafters, himself has warned against the definition being “weaponized” and urged institutional leaders not to adopt it as formal policy.
“It’s extremely problematic,” said a teacher in suburban Boston who asked not to be named because she has been disciplined for some of her public comments. She is affiliated with Massachusetts Teachers Association Rank and File for Palestine, a group within the state teachers union that formed after Oct. 7 to call for their pension fund to divest from Israel and to protest the adoption of the IHRA definition. “It’s vague enough that people won’t want to criticize Israel,” she said. “It conflates Zionism and Judaism.”
ADL testified at the commission’s first hearing about a national rise in what it termed antisemitic incidents post-Oct. 7. Six in 10 of these incidents, by the ADL’s own count, relate to Israel or Zionism, including the use of slogans at campus protests like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” or “We don’t want no Zionists here.”
Cataldo defended the IHRA definition. He argued that some, though not all, Jews experience criticism of Israel as antisemitic: “For many folks, the only Jewish state is part of their religious identity.” Other Jews, he acknowledged, identify as anti-Zionists.
He also argued that anti-Zionist rhetoric can be used in an antisemitic way: “You walk down the street and you’re visibly Jewish, wearing a yarmulke, and someone shouts in your face, ‘Free Palestine!’ instead of ‘Dirty Jew!’”
In its examination of curricula, the commission also kept the focus primarily on the Israel-Hamas war. The Massachusetts Teachers Association held a 2024 webinar and published materials on a website in early 2025 that included a link to a web page that had poster with an image of a Star of David made from dollar bills, symbolizing U.S. military aid to Israel, and images of soldiers in keffiyeh scarves carrying assault weapons.* In a SCCA hearing, Rep. Cataldo called these materials “virulently antisemitic.”
The union declined to comment for this article. Its president, Max Page, told press after the hearing that critics had “cherry-picked” examples from materials accessible through links on the site. The union apologized and took some of the materials and links down. No one reported that any of the materials were actually used in classrooms. Massachusetts, like many other states, has a high degree of local and classroom-level control over what is taught.
Related: Some teachers struggle to teach the Holocaust without running afoul of new ‘divisive concepts’ rules
The commission report calls for more instruction and the creation of resources on antisemitism, Jewish history, Israel and Palestine, as well as for the formation of an advisory council on Holocaust and genocide education consisting of experts and community members, alongside councils on topics like special education and English language learners. The state is already one of 30 to mandate Holocaust education.
But some experts say that Holocaust education is no panacea for reducing antisemitism. Journalist and author Dara Horn has argued that in the absence of more context about Jewish life today, teaching about Jews solely as victims of genocide may be making antisemitism worse.
Avi Astor of UCLA, who is working with Los Angeles’ two Holocaust museums to collect data on the impact of their programming, agrees. “I talk to the teachers and kids who come out of the museum,” he said. “They’re not all really clear on what a Jew is when they leave. They know that a lot of bad things happen to Jews, but I’ve had teachers and kids ask, well, what did the Jews do?”
In Massachusetts, teachers and students said the increased tension and scrutiny of potential antisemitism in the classroom has already led to teachers avoiding these topics.
Jen Meagher, a high school teacher in suburban Massachusetts, said “people are so on edge about this” that there has been less discussion of these topics in schools since Oct. 7 than ever before. “I teach an AP language and composition course, and we deal with rhetoric and news and that kind of thing, and I do struggle with not talking about Palestine and Israel in that class,” she said. “To me that feels like I’m not doing my job — not talking about the world honestly.”
Jamal Halawa teaches English as a second language at Somerville High School near Boston. He is Palestinian-American and an activist with a group called Somerville for Palestine. But he doesn’t teach about the issue, and he said most of his colleagues don’t either: “I’d say about half the teachers are terrified to touch it.” Meanwhile, he said, “kids are scrolling on their phones, seeing the most horrible things for two and a half years.” The lack of teaching on the topic, he said, “creates a cognitive dissonance in the kids.”
He sees the work of the commission as a continuation of attempts to silence talk of Palestinian rights both in schools and in the community. “It makes us crazy to think that calling for the liberation of our people makes a few people feel uncomfortable, so they’re going to say that we’re antisemitic,” Halawa said. “Many of us in Somerville for Palestine are Jewish.”
Avi Astor, as a school climate researcher, said schools’ primary concern should be figuring out how to keep discussion going while being respectful of people’s feelings. “What’s relevant in classrooms is how the kids feel and what they actually think about the other groups,” he said.
Related: College uncovered: The politics of protest
The experience of Concord-Carlisle in particular shows how schools struggle to parse, define and respond to antisemitism.
ADL attorney Corena Larimer said that the mistreatment of one student affected others: “Incidents such as Heil Hitler salutes in the hallways targeted Jewish students generally and made for a hostile environment.” But others said they didn’t recognize their school in the Title VI complaint. “I was so surprised when I saw that complaint,” said Mack Rottenberg, who as a senior was one year ahead of the bullied student. “I’m pretty openly Jewish, and at Concord-Carlisle, I’ve felt nothing but love and support.”
And a teacher at the school, who asked not to be named because of fear of retaliation, dismissed the claims to The Hechinger Report as overblown. “At every school there will be kids that are jerks, isolated incidents, but this was implying pervasive, systemic antisemitism,” said the teacher. “I don’t recognize the school described in this Title VI complaint. It’s preposterous.”
Melinda Kulish, the mother of twins who are seniors at the high school, also said neither she nor her children had heard anything about the bullying. But unlike Rottenberg, they weren’t surprised. Her daughter, Gwen Sodergren, stopped wearing her Star of David necklace for a year after Oct. 7, partly because she had an outspoken Israeli friend who became a target of hostility from classmates. “I didn’t think it would be a good idea for me to be broadcasting that I’m Jewish — that would group me into the conflict,” Gwen said.
Kulish and her children also said antisemitism was not the only form of bias unaddressed at the school. Kulish pointed out that there was a similar high-profile case of prolonged racist bullying against a Black student in the district in 2023. “Anything political, people are kind of scared to talk about it,” said Gwen. Casey Sodergren, Gwen’s twin, said he’s been targeted for his queer identity, and he’s witnessed anti-Black bullying as well.
While the state commission work has come to a close, having drawn both heat and light to these issues, communities are now deciding how to implement its recommendations, which are not legally binding. Going forward, community and student leaders in Concord-Carlisle are emphasizing the power of inclusion and allyship.
The Department of Education lists the Title VI case as pending. Concord-Carlisle district superintendent Laurie Hunt declined to comment for this article. At a public meeting of the school committee and select board that drew a reported 250 attendees over Zoom in July 2025, she expressed “a heartfelt sorry for all the pain and hurt in the community.” Parents and local community members, meanwhile, formed a group called Concord-Carlisle Against Antisemitism.
Brian Farber, a member of the group, is the father of a fifth and seventh grader in an interfaith family. He said his children haven’t personally experienced antisemitism in school: “The conversation with our kids has been about bullying. We said, of course, don’t be that kid. But also, stand up for those who are being bullied and report it to a trusted adult immediately.”
He’s found the district to have been responsive so far to the group’s concerns. For example, it will be including religion as a category in its annual school climate survey.
Farber also said that since the complaint was filed, he’s seen many positive examples of non-Jews offering solidarity. He’s joined the town’s diversity, equity and inclusion commission, looking to improve awareness of how to report incidents of bias against every group. “We just want both these towns, Concord and Carlisle, to be safer, more inclusive, for everybody,” he said.
At Concord-Carlisle High School, meanwhile, Rottenberg tried to start a Jewish Student Union back in 10th grade. But he said he was told, “There really isn’t a place for this at this school,” since “there’s no Christianity club.”
After the ADL complaint was filed, Rottenberg said, school administrators told him and his cofounder that they’d changed their minds. This is in line with a commission recommendation that schools should allow and encourage Jewish Student Unions and similar cultural groups. The Jewish Student Union now meets once a week and has about 25 members, including Gwen Sodergren and, notably, some non-Jewish allies.
“I think we’re just trying to rise up against the hate. I don’t care who the hate is towards. If it’s towards a Jewish person, Black person, Asian person,” Rottenberg said, “ what’s great is that we just have kids trying to fight against that and stand together.”
*Clarification: This sentence has been updated to clarify that the MTA website linked to but did not directly publish certain materials.
Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at preston@hechingerreport.org.
This story about anti-Zionism vs. antisemitism was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
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