Wesley Seidner and Emma Steinhause leapt into action and mobilized the Jewish community when they observed something they believed was wrong at their respective schools. The two DMV area students were among the 19 recipients of the 2024 Shine A Light on Antisemitism Civic Courage Award. Sponsored by The Jewish Education Project, the award recognizes students, educators, gamers and influencers who take action to combat antisemitism.
Seidner, a junior at Oakton High School in Fairfax, Virginia, is no stranger to antisemitism.
“Throughout my school years, I experienced at least one blatantly antisemitic incident annually, which my parents would bring to the attention of school officials,” he said. “Despite their efforts, nothing ever changed, and these incidents were not treated with the same seriousness as other forms of hate crimes or ignorance.”
Seidner experienced verbal and physical harassment related to his Jewish identity at school, including being cornered by four students in a bathroom for wearing a Team Israel baseball cap after Oct. 7, 2023, and was “attacked within a day” when he wore his yarmulke.
His younger sister also faced discrimination, including “frequent antisemitic comments” — classmates told her she was “going to go to hell for not believing in Jesus.”
Despite many of his Jewish friends sharing similar experiences at other schools, Seidner said Fairfax County Public Schools did nothing to acknowledge this “systemic problem.”
“The school system consistently refused to send out messages condemning antisemitic attacks unless there was swastika graffiti,” Seidner said, which is why he became involved in suing FCPS for failing to protect its Jewish students.
Seidner hasn’t shied away from being “proudly Jewish,” citing his grandfather who survived the Holocaust. His goal is for his sister to feel safe attending Oakton after he graduates.
He has also helped revitalize Oakton’s Jewish Student Association, challenged FCPS’ curriculum when he found that “key historical events were misrepresented or omitted” and authored a book on Jewish baseball players, which he began writing in 2021.
“I am honored to receive the 2024 Civic Courage Award, but I wish it wasn’t necessary,” Seidner said. “This award exists because antisemitism and hatred persist, and while I am proud to stand up against them, I would much rather live in a world where no one has to.”
Steinhause, a junior at the University of Maryland, wasn’t active in organizing until she began college. As the vice president of UMD’s Jewish Student Union and the president of Terps for Israel, she worked closely with the Jewish students at UMD to ensure they feel comfortable in their identities and help them combat antisemitism through education.
She described coming “face-to-face” with antisemitism twice — in the spring and fall semesters of 2024 — when a group of students submitted a bill supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to the UMD student government.
The student government committee ultimately rejected the proposal to divest from companies linked to Israel, according to The Diamondback, but Steinhause said the bill’s introduction caused tensions on campus.
“BDS is really where everything came to light, when problematic things were said, when Jewish students really did start to feel unsafe,” Steinhause said, referencing “scattered cases” of antisemitism.
In response, she helped fellow Jewish students file discrimination complaints with the university: “We helped Jewish students learn how to advocate for themselves, advocate for Israel and be proud of their Judaism.”
She and a few other UMD students worked with Maryland Hillel and the Israel on Campus Coalition to lobby student legislators and explain the BDS movement from their perspectives.
“It’s not a black-and-white issue that you can just solve in an economic way; it’s an issue of humanity that affects both sides,” Steinhause said. “We tried to portray that to legislators and help them see that the BDS movement doesn’t really cause the effects that people pushing it were intending.”
She said this method of communicating with her peers tended to be “pretty effective in turning people against BDS.”
Steinhause also helped gather hundreds of students throughout 2024 to publicly oppose BDS, preparing speeches to advocate for themselves at student-body meetings.
In the fall of 2023, when some students called for an “Intifada revolution,” Steinhause said she was disappointed and frustrated. So she sat down with UMD administrators to explain why she viewed that speech as problematic: “That was our first meeting of many.”
“We had the opportunity to explain to them what [the] issues were, why these issues were such a big deal,” Steinhause said.
Because of those conversations, she noticed some change on campus.
“Eventually … they understood where we were coming from and … made sure that that kind of rhetoric was not allowed on campus anymore,” Steinhause said of UMD administrators.
She feels fortunate that she has the opportunity to represent the Jewish community and be in a position of change making.
“It’s an honor,” Steinhause said. “I mean, I’m not happy that I have a reason to do this type of work. I wish there was no antisemitism or anti-Israel rhetoric on our campuses, but I’m honored to have been recognized.”
