As the new school year begins, some Montgomery County Jewish students and their parents are increasingly concerned that antisemitic acts will rise up again, perhaps even more frequently.
During the weeks leading up to the first day of the 2024-2025 school year, there were numerous incidents of vandals spray-painting antisemitic and anti-Israel vandalism on local school and synagogue buildings.
While officials continue to condemn these acts and repeat that hate has no place in Montgomery County, antisemitism still looms large throughout the county. Recently, at least five schools were vandalized with politically charged antisemitic vandalism.
Incidents occurred at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville, Strathmore Elementary School in Silver Spring and Fallsmead Elementary School in Rockville. About a week earlier, antisemitic vandalism was spray-painted at Bethesda Elementary School where the Bethesda Farmers Market was held.
The vandalism included phrases like “Israel Bombs Schools,” “Israel Rapes Kids,” “Free Gaza” and “Hitler.”
Rachel Barold, a local student, said that she and some of her friends are reliving their bad memories from December 2022, when someone defaced a sign at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda with the message “Jews Not Welcome.”
“A lot of students are just getting flashbacks,” she said, noting that nothing seems to have changed.
Whitman was recently targeted again on Aug. 19. A note sent out by Principal Gregory Miller informed the school community that someone pasted sticky notes on a school pillar at the front door of the gymnasium and entrance to the stadium. According to Miller, the notes contained “politically charged hate-biased language.”
Barold wondered aloud, “How are we going to deal with this, and the school year hasn’t even started yet?” She and her friends are “concerned that it is going to restart even in a heavier way.”
She criticized the school for merely calling these acts politically charged vandalism. People need to know which group is being targeted, she said.
Barold, and members of a group she leads called Jews 4 Change, want to alter the trajectory. On Sept. 3, as the school day ends, they plan to write in chalk uplifting messages in many languages in front of their high school.
“Jewish students will continue to respond with love,” she said. “We will continue to fight for equality for all.”
Montgomery County Police Chief Marc Yamada did label recent acts of hate vandalism as antisemitic and anti-Israel.
“The recent acts of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel vandalism at our schools and places of worship are unacceptable and the Montgomery County Police department is taking every investigative step possible to close these cases by arrest,” Yamada wrote in a statement.
He stressed that what is occurring is not just a crime but also “hateful actions that seek to divide our community and instill fear in our residents.”
Yamada said it is important that everyone, regardless of their faith, culture or religion “has the right to feel safe and respected in Montgomery County.”
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, during a recent weekly press briefing, called the incidents “deeply disturbing.”
“One incident might be shocking, but the repetition of these acts is a serious problem,” Elrich said. He continued, “the goal is simply to divide our community” and “turn neighbor against neighbor.”
According to Elrich and Yamada, security and police patrols will be stepped up as necessary and anyone found responsible will be prosecuted.
Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Thomas Taylor also condemned the recent vandalism. He said principals are asking staff to report these instances and provide resources to address “the harm and anxiety these actions many have caused.”
“We are committed to maintaining a safe, inclusive environment where all students, staff, and caregivers feel safe, valued, seen, heard and have a sense of belonging. We firmly denounce divisive actions that perpetuate hate, inequality, and injustice against any person, family, or community. We must unite to recognize and embrace our differences and not let them divide us,” he said in a statement.
Guila Franklin Siegel, chief operating officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, praised the school district and police for “their quick response” to these incidents. She also thanked them and the many community members who stepped up to help remove the hateful messages.
“It is no accident that the perpetrators of these incidents have defaced schools that are located in neighborhoods with high concentrations of Jewish residents and have significant numbers of Jewish students and faculty members,” she said.
“These schools are also blocks away from multiple synagogues. This pattern of behavior — in impact and almost certainly in design — targets Montgomery County’s Jews. In doing so, it causes tremendous harm not only to Israelis and Jews but to our entire shared community. We are confident that people of goodwill across all backgrounds and faiths will see these acts for what they are: hateful words designed to tear our communities apart rather than bring them together,” said Franklin Siegel.
When the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack and the ensuing war in Gaza is litigated on school walls, it does “nothing to achieve peace in the affected region and only further inflames tensions and divisiveness here at home,” she said.
Suzanne Pollak is a freelance writer.
