How to fight rising antisemitism? Bergen yeshiva and Catholic school started by talking

As the eighth graders from the Orthodox Jewish yeshiva chatted with their Catholic school counterparts about holidays, many of them arrived at the same conclusion:

"They were talking about the Easter egg hunt and we realized it was just like when the adults hide the afikomen (matzo) at the Passover seder and we try to find it," said Daniella Fox, an eighth grader at Yeshivat Noam in Paramus.

Rebeccah Shippie, 13, from the Academy of Holy Angels in Demarest chimed in. "They said they hide the matzo bread instead of Easter eggs, and we all realized we have traditions in common. Even though we are different religions, we are all pretty much the same."

About 70 middle schoolers from the two parochial schools have spent months forging friendships and common ground. They're part of a newly launched collaboration aimed at encouraging students to stand up to antisemitism at a time when reports of anti-Jewish harassment are on the rise.

The two schools have met monthly since the autumn to learn about standing up to hate, most recently at a pre-Easter gathering at Academy of Holy Angels.

Learning to be 'upstanders and not bystanders'

"The girls are learning so much from the program and from each other," said Traci Koval, middle school dean at the all-girls academy.

"One of the topics we talk about in sessions is how to stand up against something that isn't right. We give them real-life scenarios and then ask them what they would do. These are lessons they will carry with them throughout their lives, that they should be upstanders and not bystanders."

The project was the brainchild of Amy Vogel, development director at Yeshivat Noam. Vogel formed a close relationship with Academy of Holy Angels staff when she spoke at the Demarest school last year about her family's experiences during the Holocaust.

When she subsequently heard about a grant from the Jack and Gitta Nagel Foundation aimed at helping schools combat antisemitism, she called AHA to propose an alliance.

"We immediately said yes," said Jean Miller, the Academy principal. "The world is becoming so angry. We need to find a way to spread more kindness."

Vogel's concept − to partner the modern Orthodox school with the Catholic academy, allowing eighth grade girls from both schools to learn about one another and about prejudice − was awarded a grant last summer. Part of the money was used to hire two master educators from Yeshiva Noam to help create a curriculum and implement the project.

A surge in prejudice after Oct. 7

The students' first meeting, coincidentally, took place several days after Oct. 7, when attackers from the terrorist group Hamas stormed into Israel, killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages. That massacre sparked a war in Gaza that has killed at least 33,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

A surge of antisemitism since Oct. 7 has included reports from schools and colleges across the U.S.. Between Oct. 7 and Feb. 20, the Anti-Defamation League, a group that tracks extremism, recorded 5,590 antisemitic incidents around the country, more than four times higher than the same period last year. At K-12 schools, the ADL has tallied 450 anti-Jewish bias incidents, more than double from the beginning of last year.

In New Jersey, the U.S. Department of Education has opened investigations into the Teaneck School District, where students held a pro-Palestinian walkout, and where Jewish residents complained of being harassed. The Biden administration has also opened a civil rights investigation into Rutgers University's Newark campus over alleged antisemitism.

Teaneck, where many of the Yeshivat Noam students live, "has seen a dramatic rise in antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7," said Vogel.

More: In Tenafly, weekly march keeps focus on Edan Alexander and other Hamas hostages

The AHA staff are well aware of the rising hate.

"The Yeshivat Noam group came here right after Oct. 7, and we had been praying for them and were so worried about how they were feeling," said Miller.

Compassion in a time of hate

"We hugged the Yeshivat Noam teachers. Some of them got choked up," recalled Koval.

"They've had a tough time. Their neighborhoods are experiencing hate. This isn't Brooklyn, it's right here in Bergen County and it's affected all of us," she said.

The warm welcome was not lost on the students. "It's been good for us to know that there's good people who don't even know us who are there for us and care," said Fox, the yeshiva student. "I find that very comforting."

Rachel Shapiro, of Teaneck, a 14-year-old student at Yeshivat Noam, hopes other schools replicate the program. "It's important for students to be exposed to people of other religions" so they can see how similar they really are, she said.

"If the students hear something antisemitic they will know how to respond to it," she added.

How the students find common ground

In sessions, the students talk about how to identity bigotry. They look at examples on social media and have discussions about it. "They learn not to make generalizations about an entire people because that's what leads to hate," said Vogel.

Teachers meet monthly to work on the curriculum, while the students gather monthly for activities, which are a mix of fun and serious. The girls played ice breaker games like Human Bingo, they created art or wrote poetry about the community coming together and they read articles about prejudice, which they reflected on afterward.

"They share personal experiences and get to know each other as people," said Miller.

After the first meeting, the girls began forming friendships. They made plans to see one another's theater productions and are trying to arrange a basketball competition.

"It's been heartwarming to see how everyone cared about us," said Vogel. "Their parent body has been appreciative of what we are trying to do. That's so comforting to me that they understand that antisemitism is rising and they want to be part of the solution."

For Shippie, the Academy 13-year-old, the program has already made a difference. "I used to hear about antisemitism on the news but never considered how it affected people," she said. "We need to recognize that we are more similar than different."

In just a few years, she plans to graduate from Catholic school and go onto a university with students from a variety of backgrounds. The lessons she's learning from her new friends will remain, she said.

"I will always remember this."

Deena Yellin covers religion for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to her work covering how the spiritual intersects with our daily lives, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: yellin@northjersey.com

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This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ yeshiva, Catholic school students partner to fight antisemitism