In the days immediately following the October 7th terrorist attacks in Israel, Jewish students began to bear the brunt of anti-Israel and antisemitic incidents, not only across Montreal-area college and university campuses, but also at elementary and high schools alike.
Federation CJA began fielding calls and emails from worried parents of Jewish children enrolled at non-Jewish schools. Their children were being bullied in school simply for being Jewish.
Many parents, ill-prepared to handle these incidents, turned to Federation CJA for support and guidance to navigate these uncharted waters.
“We have not seen this level of antisemitism in non-Jewish schools before,” said Dr. Karen Gazith, Director of BJEC, a department of the Jewish Identity and Engagement pillar of Federation CJA. “We were getting these disturbing phone calls from parents and knew we had to respond.”
While Federation CJA has not needed to support students in this way outside of the Jewish day school system before, we quickly pivoted.
We held workshops to guide parents on the best ways to respond to instances of bullying and how to approach school administrations to advocate on their child’s behalf. At times, we called principals directly to make sure their policies of anti-violence were being enforced.
“We heard the concerns of distressed parents and we were committed to act,” said Emmanuelle Amar, Director, Policy & Research (Quebec) at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA). “We provided them with advice on the best course of action to take, engaging directly with all stakeholders to resolve the issue.”
With a new school year just underway, we’re preparing for what could be another challenging year for Jewish students filled with taunts from other students, fisticuffs in school corridors, harassment in the recess yard, or hate speech in the lunchroom.
This is why we are hosting a free webinar on September 24th (a repeat session will also be held on October 8th). The sessions are being led by Dr. Karen Gazith, Emmanuelle Amar and Karen Payne, Federation CJA’s Strategic Advisor, Antisemitism Advocacy and will address Bill 56: the Plan de lutte contre l’intimidation et la violence, an action plan and framework governing the schools’ responsibilities to their students to protect against bullying and intimidation. Topics will also include how to navigate relationships with school amidst rising antisemitism and community resources and tools at parents’ disposal.
“Many parents don’t know their rights or about their child’s schools’ policy,” said Dr. Gazith. “They do not know about the importance of documenting all encounters with principals or teachers.”
To report an antisemitic incident at your child’s school, please fill out our Incident Report form.
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