A student-centered program designed to combat antisemitism in schools will be coming to Howard County’s public school system this fall.
As part of the program, called Student to Student, teens representing the four branches of Judaism will give presentations to peers in local high schools, youth groups and other locations.
Shauna Leavey, the director of community engagement for the Jewish Federation of Howard County, said the program will allow presenters to offer their personal narratives on topics like the Jewish life cycle, Shabbat, Jewish dietary practices, the Hebrew language, antisemitism, the Holocaust and Israel.
“Antisemitism thrives in a culture of ignorance,” Leavey said. “Because of the teams of teens who present the information, young people can now put a ‘human face’ to Judaism — the best antidote to prejudice and intolerance.”
STS is scheduled to launch this fall after the nominated student presenters have attended mandatory training in October. Future student presenters will be accepted on a rolling basis.
“This program is intentionally designed to complement the material that is already being taught in the curriculum,” said Joel Frankel, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Howard County.
STS was created in 1992 in St. Louis and has since spread to other school systems across the country.
“I’ve known about Student to Student for a number of years because of previous roles I’ve had in the Jewish community,” Frankel said. “Parents and teachers have spoken to its success.”
Frankel said the Jewish Federation is actively working with the school system in a variety of ways.
Last year, Michael J. Martirano, the Howard County Public School System’s superintendent, issued a statement addressing local and national antisemitic incidents. In his statement, he encouraged families to continue to monitor the social media activity of their children to make sure they aren’t being subjected to hateful or dangerous personalities online.
Martirano also referenced the Anti-Defamation League’s report on antisemitic incidents in 2021, which showed an increase from the previous year. The ADL’s most recent January 2023 report found that 20% of Americans believe in six or more anti-Jewish tropes — double the numbers from 2019.
The ADL’s most recent tabulation of antisemitic incidents saw the incidences of antisemitic harassment in the United States nearly double — from 1,242 to 2,298. The same report saw incidences of vandalism jump from 751 to 1,288 and the number of assaults more than triple — from 33 to 111.
Frankel said that the school system is doing a good job of working with the Jewish Federation to respond to antisemitic incidents.
“The rise in antisemitism across the country and across the globe and here in Maryland is troubling,” Frankel said. “There is a challenge that we all feel about expressing our Judaism publicly.”
Frankel hopes the program will empower students to feel comfortable and confident in expressing their Jewish identity, and that the program will help break down antisemitic stereotypes.
The STS program is just one of the ways that the Jewish Federation of Howard County is fighting antisemitism. The organization is also working with other community partners like the Howard Community College’s Center for Social Justice to bring Matthew Berger to speak. Berger is the executive director of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.
“If Jews alone could have solved antisemitism, we would have by now,” Frankel said. “We need allies in this fight.”
STS’s creation was aided by a grant the Jewish Federation received from the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Fund for the Enrichment of Jewish Education, which provides funding for programs and activities that enrich Jewish education in the Greater Baltimore area. The grant made it possible for the Federation to hire a program coordinator to help organize and implement STS.
