A swastika was found in a Commack High School bathroom and antisemitic graffiti was found on a desk at Smithtown High School East this week, the latest in what educators have called an alarming spate of hate incidents.
In Commack, the discovery Tuesday was the second this month, superintendent Jordan Cox said in a letter to the school community. The Smithtown graffiti also was found Tuesday, superintendent Mark Secaur said in a Wednesday letter to the school community.
Both Cox and Secaur said officials in their districts had reported the incidents to the police, who had opened investigations.
“Antisemitism or any form of hatred within our schools will not be tolerated,” Cox wrote. “Once the responsible individual is found, I am committed to pursuing legal action to the fullest extent.”
Secaur, in his letter, said his district would respond similarly: “strict disciplinary action will ensue and criminal charges will be recommended.”
The discoveries come amid a global spike of online antisemitism after the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas in Israel. Researchers from the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group, said in a Nov. 9 blog post that antisemitic posts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, grew by 919% in the week after the attacks. Antisemitic posts on Facebook grew 28% that week.
Across Long Island schools, at least five widely reported antisemitic behaviors and racist episodes have occurred within the first month and a half of the 2023-24 school year. Newsday reported in late October that district officials from Port Washington to Riverhead have addressed these, with some educators worrying the occurrences will worsen as war continues in the Middle East.
Suffolk police did not immediately comment. Cox did not immediately make himself available for an interview, but in an email, district spokeswoman Brenda Lentsch said: “We’re working with the police and our security staff to identify the students responsible.” A representative for Secaur did not immediately respond to an interview request for him.
Suffolk police on Nov. 6 opened an investigation into a swastika drawn in a bathroom stall at Commack High School. The status of that investigation was unclear.
In his letter to the school community, Cox said district officials would arrange a presentation from the police department’s Hate Crimes Unit.
Additionally, he said the district had multiple initiatives underway to combat hate at its high school, middle school and elementary schools.
At the high school, student leaders were scheduled to attend a program on fighting hate in social media at the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center. Sophomores are viewing Holocaust survivor stories recorded by the Shoah Foundation, and in the spring will visit the Holocaust museum on Long Island. The district will continue offering a stand-alone Holocaust Studies course. Educators also plan to host Ruth Minsky Sender, an author and Holocaust survivor.
Rick Lewis, CEO of the Mid-Island Y Jewish Community Center and the Suffolk Y JCC, said he was “hearing from many superintendents that they have issues” of hate and bias incidents in their schools. “It’s not just Commack.”
About 10 school districts including Commack plan to send student leaders and teachers to the anti-hate program, which will focus on social media and gaming, he said.
Rabbi Beth Klafter of Temple Beth David, a nearby Reform congregation, said some parents in her congregation with children in Commack schools had told her they worried for their children’s safety after discovery of the swastikas.
“In the environment we’re living in, there is that fear,” she said. “I, as a Jewish adult, have lived my entire life on Long Island — this is the first time in my lifetime that I have some fear over my safety because of antisemitism. It is rampant.”
Some of those parents feel “here we go again,” she said.
In 2019, authorities found anti-Semitic graffiti over the Labor Day weekend at Sunny Acres Park in part of the Commack hamlet in Huntington Town. In 2015, pictures circulated of two Commack students wearing T-shirts emblazoned with swastikas and the word “Auschwitz” while on spring break. In 1996, the window of a Commack synagogue was smashed, with swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti painted on its walls; the nearby Smithtown Jewish school was also defaced. In 1993, anti-Semitic slurs were found painted on the Commack High School track hours before graduation. Two members of that year’s graduating class pleaded guilty to felony criminal mischief and a misdemeanor count of making graffiti in the case; despite tearful apologies in court the next year, they were sentenced to two months in jail.
Klafter said she’d met with Cox and was heartened by his commitment to increasing the district’s efforts to teach about antisemitism and to seek prosecution for whoever drew the swastikas.
But, she said, “there’s only so much any educational curriculum can do, when children are learning from parents, from social media, from the environment they live in about antisemitism. You can’t possibly teach every student when it’s so much of what they see around them.
A swastika was found in a Commack High School bathroom and antisemitic graffiti was found on a desk at Smithtown High School East this week, the latest in what educators have called an alarming spate of hate incidents.
In Commack, the discovery Tuesday was the second this month, superintendent Jordan Cox said in a letter to the school community. The Smithtown graffiti also was found Tuesday, superintendent Mark Secaur said in a Wednesday letter to the school community.
Both Cox and Secaur said officials in their districts had reported the incidents to the police, who had opened investigations.
“Antisemitism or any form of hatred within our schools will not be tolerated,” Cox wrote. “Once the responsible individual is found, I am committed to pursuing legal action to the fullest extent.”
Secaur, in his letter, said his district would respond similarly: “strict disciplinary action will ensue and criminal charges will be recommended.”
The discoveries come amid a global spike of online antisemitism after the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas in Israel. Researchers from the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group, said in a Nov. 9 blog post that antisemitic posts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, grew by 919% in the week after the attacks. Antisemitic posts on Facebook grew 28% that week.
Across Long Island schools, at least five widely reported antisemitic behaviors and racist episodes have occurred within the first month and a half of the 2023-24 school year. Newsday reported in late October that district officials from Port Washington to Riverhead have addressed these, with some educators worrying the occurrences will worsen as war continues in the Middle East.
Suffolk police did not immediately comment. Cox did not immediately make himself available for an interview, but in an email, district spokeswoman Brenda Lentsch said: “We’re working with the police and our security staff to identify the students responsible.” A representative for Secaur did not immediately respond to an interview request for him.
Suffolk police on Nov. 6 opened an investigation into a swastika drawn in a bathroom stall at Commack High School. The status of that investigation was unclear.
In his letter to the school community, Cox said district officials would arrange a presentation from the police department’s Hate Crimes Unit.
Additionally, he said the district had multiple initiatives underway to combat hate at its high school, middle school and elementary schools.
At the high school, student leaders were scheduled to attend a program on fighting hate in social media at the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center. Sophomores are viewing Holocaust survivor stories recorded by the Shoah Foundation, and in the spring will visit the Holocaust museum on Long Island. The district will continue offering a stand-alone Holocaust Studies course. Educators also plan to host Ruth Minsky Sender, an author and Holocaust survivor.
Rick Lewis, CEO of the Mid-Island Y Jewish Community Center and the Suffolk Y JCC, said he was “hearing from many superintendents that they have issues” of hate and bias incidents in their schools. “It’s not just Commack.”
About 10 school districts including Commack plan to send student leaders and teachers to the anti-hate program, which will focus on social media and gaming, he said.
Rabbi Beth Klafter of Temple Beth David, a nearby Reform congregation, said some parents in her congregation with children in Commack schools had told her they worried for their children’s safety after discovery of the swastikas.
“In the environment we’re living in, there is that fear,” she said. “I, as a Jewish adult, have lived my entire life on Long Island — this is the first time in my lifetime that I have some fear over my safety because of antisemitism. It is rampant.”
Some of those parents feel “here we go again,” she said.
In 2019, authorities found anti-Semitic graffiti over the Labor Day weekend at Sunny Acres Park in part of the Commack hamlet in Huntington Town. In 2015, pictures circulated of two Commack students wearing T-shirts emblazoned with swastikas and the word “Auschwitz” while on spring break. In 1996, the window of a Commack synagogue was smashed, with swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti painted on its walls; the nearby Smithtown Jewish school was also defaced. In 1993, anti-Semitic slurs were found painted on the Commack High School track hours before graduation. Two members of that year’s graduating class pleaded guilty to felony criminal mischief and a misdemeanor count of making graffiti in the case; despite tearful apologies in court the next year, they were sentenced to two months in jail.
Klafter said she’d met with Cox and was heartened by his commitment to increasing the district’s efforts to teach about antisemitism and to seek prosecution for whoever drew the swastikas.
But, she said, “there’s only so much any educational curriculum can do, when children are learning from parents, from social media, from the environment they live in about antisemitism. You can’t possibly teach every student when it’s so much of what they see around them.