10 | NOVEMBER 2 • 2023 

N

o one asked you, you 
dirty Jew.
” 
“I bet you can hear a 
penny fall from a mile away.
”
“Go back to the gas 
chambers.
”
At first glance, these 
sentences, with 
varying degrees 
of problematic 
content, sound 
like they come 
from a 1930s 
movie, Nazi 
propaganda or 
an interview with 
post-2020 Kanye West. 
 But these are all sentences 
and phrases I have heard 
directed at me or my Jewish 
friends in 2023, in a place that 
is supposed to be an institution 
of higher learning. When 
you hear people offhandedly 
mention that antisemitism 
levels are rising in America, 
that does not just apply to hate 
crimes like those tracked by 
the Anti-Defamation League. It 
also means it is becoming more 
socially acceptable for people, 
especially teens, to revive and 
repeat anti-Jewish stereotypes 
that have been around since 
near the beginning of our 
existence as a people. 
If you walked a day in the 
shoes of a Jewish high school 
student, regardless of which 
high school, you would be 
shocked by the number of racist 
tropes or casual references and 
off-color jokes to atrocities 
that have befallen the Jewish 
people you would hear. Of 
course, in some areas, it is 
worse than others; as a kid 
in Metro Detroit, I shudder 
to think of the conversations 

in areas of Michigan where 
our communities are tiny or 
nonexistent. 
Yet, even in an area where 
Jews make up a substantial 
portion of the population, 
this behavior is increasingly 
prevalent. So, what exactly is 
happening in our high schools, 
what do Jewish students do 
to cope with it and how can 
the community help us deal 
with this social burden and 
distraction from our education?
I go to a school where 
students routinely have some 
of the best test scores in the 
state and often garner excellent 
scores on history exams. We are 
required to take World History 
and American History courses 
where WWII, 9-11, American 
slavery, the Armenian genocide 
and other acts of brutality are 
well covered, and students 
seem to have no problem 
handling the moral weight and 
solemn attitude associated with 
discussing these topics in class. 
Yet, it is shocking how my 
peers who will gasp with 
outrage if someone did make 
jokes about these topics or did 
not treat them appropriately 

will not intervene if the same 
thing were to happen with 
quips about the Holocaust or 
abusive Jewish stereotypes. 
I’ve seen people jokingly 
form a Nazi salute at a poster 
of Hitler in a history class or 
repost a “funny” meme about 
Jews secretly having horns 
and wanting to eat Christian 
children. Now, there is getting 
to be a climate where these 
dangerous portrayals are 
somehow not only deemed OK, 
but also humorous. 
Discussing this with my 
Jewish friends from Monday 
night school and around other 
high schools in the area, we 
were not appalled, but grimly 
unsurprised to learn that we 
were all going through similar 
kinds of situations. Even close 
friends who were not Jewish 
might call out kids for making 
uncouth jokes, only to make 
a comment about Jews or our 
Jewishness in private. I won’t 
get into every example of 
stories I’ve heard, but suffice 
it to say that we’
d all seen or 
heard something, directly or 
indirectly, that ranged from 
uncomfortable to horrific. 

It was at least reassuring for 
me to talk to my friends about 
how we are all going through 
the same thing, but it’s hard to 
find solutions for this issue. 
Besides saying “that’s not 
funny,
” or “what the hell,
” it 
is hard to do much without 
putting a target on your back, 
because even in the schools 
with the highest Jewish 
populations, we are firmly in 
the minority. The way we are 
able to power through this 
casual adversity that people 
don’t think causes actual harm 
is by sticking together.
Over the past year or 
so, I’ve developed a silent 
understanding with other 
Jewish kids my age who I 
wouldn’t normally talk to: a 
glance across the room, a pat on 
the back or a nod passing each 
other in the hallway. With a lot 
of people angrier than usual 
because of the current situation 
in the Middle East, this only 
becomes more important as 
the feeling of isolation and 
targeting has compounded 
within the last couple of weeks. 
Since many of our peers 
began to mercilessly attack 
Israel and Israelis after the 
reignition of the conflict 
and speak to us as if we are 
representatives of the Israeli 
government, remembering the 
words “Hinei ma tov, umah na’im, 
shevet achim gam yachad” (“How 
good and how pleasant it is 
that brothers dwell together.
”) 
becomes more important than 
ever. 
Even if we are treated like 
outsiders, whether we are 
religious or not, we must stick 
together with our tribe and 

Jaxson 
Kaplan-
Rudolph

student corner
Confronting Antisemitism 
as a High School Student

PURELY COMMENTARY

continued on page 11

