Antisemitism education amendment passed in Massachusetts

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) – As the Massachusetts Senate continues to debate their budget bill, an amendment to combat antisemitism passed last night.

We spoke with Senator John Velis, and he told us it was an emotional night in State House as many of his Jewish colleagues shared their experiences with antisemitism. He believes requiring the state to come up with a curriculum to educate students and teachers on the vast history of antisemitism is a step in the right direction. Especially as the number of antisemitic instances are on the rise here in the Commonwealth.

Longmeadow parent Shelley Barron told us, “My involvement was really catalyzed by, there was an incident where there was a swastika found on a whiteboard in Longmeadow High School seen by the child of a friend of mine and by our child, so that was very distressing for many of us here in the Longmeadow and kind of the Lower Valley Jewish community.

Shelley Barron is a parent of a 1st grader at Blueberry Hill Elementary School in Longmeadow. As a Jewish mom raising Jewish children, she told us she’s noticed an uptick in antisemitic biases, especially since October 7th when the Israel-Hamas war officially ignited.

This uptick in hatred here in western Mass is what has led her to become an advocate for educating students and the public on the harm of antisemitism, and now an amendment to the state senate budget introduced by Senator John Velis would require the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to come up with a curriculum to educate students and teachers on antisemitism both historically and beyond. It passed 40 to 0 on Wednesday night.

Velis explained, “I’ve had a lot of meetings recently. I should say with constituents telling me about their kids, kids eight years old, just young young, young telling me about how their loved one, their child, their grandson, granddaughter is embarrassed to say, sad to say, scared to say that they’re Jewish.”

From vandalism to physical assault and verbal harassment, Senator Velis told us antisemitism in our state has gone up over 100%.

To put that in perspective, only 3 percent of our state’s population is Jewish, meanwhile, that small group of our population is on the receiving end of over  60% of all hate crimes that occur in Massachusetts.

Senator Velis added there are five states with 50% of Jewish hate and antisemitism in the U.S. and Massachusetts is among those five.

These alarming numbers are why the senate is working to lend a hand to our Jewish residents and find the root cause of this severe hatred.

Barron added, “I think it’s actually really important to integrate age appropriate curriculum to create safer schools for all children.”

CEO of the Jewish Federation of Western Mass told us there is a lack of understanding by many administrations and officials on what truly qualifies as an act of antisemitism, and they are noticing a lot of hatred going unreported. Gorenstein feels this amendment could potentially help to target this issue.

“I hope that it will help our schools and communities better recognize and connect the dots when these small, isolated things actually happen that they are part of a bigger picture unfortunately and a framework that we want to be disrupting.”

The budget is being reviewed in the Senate as we speak, and once passed, it will then go to a conference committee to come up with a compromise bill with the house.  Senator Velis is optimistic that this antisemitism education amendment will be included in the final draft. I did reach out to DESE as well as the Massachusetts Teachers Association for comment but haven’t yet heard back.

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