OUR COMMUNITY

24 | JULY 1 • 2021 

T

wo years ago, Samantha Merecki, 
a student at L
’
Anse Creuse High 
School-North in Macomb 
Township, was scrolling through Instagram. 
Samantha, who is Jewish, stopped at a post 
about a synagogue being vandalized and 
realized antisemitism was still rampant, 
despite it being many decades since the 
Holocaust occurred.
Then, she saw a post about a synagogue 
holding a drill to teach people what to do in 
the event of a mass shooting or other terror-
ist attack.
“When you think about antisemitism, 
you think about the 1940s and everything 
that happened then,
” explains the 16-year-
old resident of Macomb Township, in 
central Macomb County. “It’s crazy to think 
that hatred is still around.
”
Motivated by what she saw on social 
media, Merecki decided there was much 
work to be done in helping to erase 
antisemitism and to teach people about 
Jewish culture and history.
She began look for an organization to 
partner with, Merecki discovered End Jew 
Hatred, a grassroots movement that aims to 
liberate Jewish people from oppression and 
discrimination.
“I thought they were perfect,
” she says of 
the group. “So, I contacted them and asked 
about rallies, events and protests.
” Merecki 
says End Jew Hatred “welcomed her with 
open arms,
” which encouraged her to col-
laborate with the national organization to 
develop a local chapter.
Approximately 3,400 people of Macomb 
County’s nearly 900,000 residents are 
Jewish, far fewer than the estimated 
50,000 Jews who reside among the 1.3 
million in neighboring Oakland County. 
 It has had its share of antisemitism, 
though, according to the ADL. In June 
2019, three middle school students drew 
chalk swastikas outside a Warren elemen-
tary school. In August 2018, Warren police 
arrested a teenage boy who painted racist 
graffiti, including swastikas, on fences in 
Warren.

While the local chapter of End Jew 
Hatred is still growing with only a handful 
of members, Merecki hopes to build it out 
and inspire other people to join the move-
ment.
She’s held two rallies supporting Jewish 

culture, one in Detroit’s Hart Plaza and the 
other on Hall Road in Shelby Township. 
The teenager says the rallies garnered most-
ly positive response, with a handful of com-
ments opposing the movement.

WORKING HARDER
A recent spike in antisemitism due to 
last month’s Israeli-Hamas conflict has 
encouraged Merecki to work even harder. 
She’s personally witnessed an alarming 
rise of antisemitic statements, particularly 
on social media.
“I’ve lost many friends from the conflict,
” 
Merecki explains. “People say stuff like, ‘I’m 
part of the reason [the conflict] is happen-
ing because I support Israel, that I’m part of 
the reason kids are being killed.
”
Other individuals, she continues, have told 
her that “Zionists are the root of all evil” and 
that “Zionists are the reason Satan exists.
”
Alarmed by these statements, Merecki 
believes there could be better education 
about Jewish culture, traditions and history. 
“Usually, people who would normally 
care about Jewish people are the same 
ones that are replacing the word ‘Jew’ 
with ‘Zionist,
’” she explains of the words 
being interchanged. “They talk about Jews 
controlling the media and controlling the 
banks.
”
Even though Merecki has been told that 
 

 

“she’s a child killer,” she “needs to die” 
and has been called a handful of Jewish 
slurs and derogatory words, the antisem-
itism inspires her to work harder on her 
mission. She takes to social media to help 
educate people about Judaism and Israel 
and continues to work with End Jew 
Hatred to reduce the growing antisemi-
tism.
“I wish people understood that Jews 
have been kicked out of so many coun-
tries,
” Merecki says of one lesson she hopes 
to teach. “We have such a rich history in 
Israel, but people always assume Jews are 
European, that they come from Europe. 
Judaism was born in the Middle East.
”
Merecki believes young people like her 
have an important role to play in reducing 
antisemitism. “Social media has a huge 
impact,
” she says. “I’ve actually taught a lot 
of people about Jewish history and culture 
through TikTok. People are getting really 
interested in learning about Judaism.
”
The teenager explains that social media 
is a great outlet to help educate people and 
that more young individuals like herself can 
take advantage of it as a tool for communi-
cation and outreach. 
“I’ve been posting more about Judaism 
and everything that’s beautiful about it,
” 
Merecki says, “and the comments are just 
filled with horrible stuff. I want to find a 
way to put a stop to that.
” 

Macomb County teen is dedicated to 
stopping antisemitism.

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

COURTESY OF SAMANTHA MERECKI

‘End Jew Hatred’

Samantha 
Merecki at a rally 
she held this year.

