Many efforts that aim to counter antisemitism center on college campuses. Now, the D.C. office of the Anti-Defamation League has launched a program for parents and caregivers of K-12 students.
“A lot of attention has been paid over the past few years to what we’ve seen on college campuses, and I think that has paid off,” Tali Cohen, ADL D.C.’s regional director, told Washington Jewish Week. “When it comes to K-12, we are still facing a lot of challenges.”
Although ADL-reported antisemitic incidents in the United States declined overall in 2025, that was not the case for K-12 schools, Cohen said. ADL recorded 825 such antisemitic incidents in K-12 schools, and Maryland and Virginia both ranked among the top 10 U.S. states for antisemitic incidents in schools that year.
“We know that we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg, and that most incidents go unreported,” she added. “So we in the D.C. region wanted to come up with a program to empower parents and provide some resources they need to address antisemitism in the classroom, but also online.”
In late August, ADL D.C. announced the creation of Caregivers & Parents Empowered Against Antisemitism & Extremism (CAPE), a network for parents across the DMV and North Carolina seeking “safer and more inclusive schools and communities.”
It noted parents and caregivers are often the “first line of defense,” as children usually turn to them for answers before anyone else.
CAPE includes expert-led training sessions on how to talk about antisemitism with youth, friends and neighbors and inclusive spaces with schools. The group will also cover how to navigate hate online, whether that be via artificial intelligence, gaming platforms, online extremism and youth radicalization.
Held every six weeks, these virtual sessions will be led by staff of ADL D.C.’s national colleagues: ADL Center on Extremism, the ADL Center for Technology & Society, and the ADL Center for Antisemitism Research.
“The subject matter experts that are doing this intense research [and] advocacy work, they’re going to deliver our training to parents here in our community,” Cohen said.
The program, Cohen said, couldn’t have come at a better time. Mere days into the 2026–27 academic year, ADL D.C. is already receiving phone calls reporting antisemitic incidents, according to Cohen.
“We saw a very busy spring — we had a lot of incidents arise in springtime as school is ending — and we are seeing that uptick continue in the fall,” Cohen said. “Now that we are going back to school, the problem is pervasive, and it’s something that we think parents need to know about.”
Online hate and bullying are particularly underreported, she said.
“I think that’s where we need to be able to empower parents to have those conversations, to be caring, to make sure that they know how they can talk to their kids about this, and also the extent to which this is happening across different gaming platforms across social media,” Cohen said. “It’s critically important.”
CAPE participants will hear directly from ADL staff members who are working with social media companies to improve the bullying and harassment reporting process and experts in online gaming platforms.
Cohen is a parent herself.
“As a Gen X parent, I am not familiar with these multiplayer games,” she said. “The fact that anyone can come into our children’s computers and interact with them while they play a game — this is not the days when I grew up with Nintendo or ColecoVision.”
Because technology has so rapidly evolved, Cohen said she wants parents to understand what goes on in multiplayer games and what users may experience.
“The intent is really to educate parents on what it is to be a 14-year-old living in today’s society,” she said.
Cohort members will also have access to the ADL’s latest studies, resources, updates and insights in the field, according to Cohen. One August study found that one 45-minute lesson on contemporary antisemitism in middle or high school markedly reduced teens’ endorsement of antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes, she said.
“As we continuously come out with more and more of this research, I want to make sure that parents in our community have first-line access to it,” Cohen said.
The name of the program is symbolic.
“You do not need superpowers to be your child’s hero, and naming this program CAPE is part of that,” Cohen said. “You need knowledge and community and courage to act. CAPE gives parents all three, so every one of us can put on that cape and stand up for our children.”
Cohen expressed gratitude to ADL’s partner organizations, including the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and the American Jewish Committee, for their support.
“I have been so humbled and honored by the support that this is receiving from our Jewish partner organizations — JCRC, AJC and others have been very enthusiastic about CAPE and putting it out to their communities,” Cohen said.
CAPE’s first cohort is open to registrants until Sept. 10. Cohen expects that this first cohort will be at least 25 participants strong when it launches this fall.
zbell@midatlanticmedia.com
