For Jewish students, 2023 was not an easy year. While protests and encampments against Israel on college campuses garnered the most headlines, K-12 students were also faced with tribulations.

How they responded is incredible, said Devora Simon, a Pikesville resident who serves as director of Jewish Student Union, a division of NCSY that organizes and advocates for Jewish students in public schools across the country. Through JSU and NCSY, a part of the Orthodox Union, Jewish teens in public schools are given the chance to start Jewish cultural clubs.

“We’ve pretty much doubled our numbers since 2023,” Simon said. “In terms of number of clubs, in terms of participation … for a few weeks after [Oct. 7] it was kind of quiet, and then within a month or two, those schools would have double the Jewish students seeking [us] out.”

There are large clubs with hundreds of members in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. Baltimore has about a dozen schools that have a JSU club. But there are also ones in places you might not expect. There are chapters in Nashville. There is one in a school in Vermont that only has two Jewish students. There are clubs in parts of Virginia that Simon said she had never heard of before the students reached out.

Besides the chance to help Jewish students gather, the JSU clubs offer an important service: advocating for students who are not afforded the same religious understanding as students in Jewish day schools get.

“Yes, there are situations where schools will give you [days] off in very saturated Jewish areas. I think here in Baltimore it depends on the county. The whole school shutting down is definitely not the typical case, but students will generally be allowed to take off with no problem. In some cases, we have had situations where [schools] will give [students] a hard time, and we’ll support students and teach them how to advocate for themselves,” Simon said.

Most of the time, students are celebrating the High Holidays, Chanukah and Passover. However, there are more than 550 clubs total across the country that represent thousands of students, each with their own unique brand of Judaism. With Simchat Torah coming up, there will be work to do, Simon said.

“There’s been a real willingness and an openness from the schools to be understanding of that. We’ve had mostly positive experiences when it comes to education, but it does start with education — [schools] don’t typically know about it on their own,” she said. “We work with a wide range of students and wherever they’re at, we’re going to try to support them there. If they’re observing a holiday like Simchat Torah, we will help and support them and be that connection to the school.”

Simon said that, in Baltimore and beyond, school districts are generally accommodating of Jewish student needs. She said that on the rare occasion where there is pushback, it has typically come from parents who don’t want there to be a specific club for Jewish students.

Simon emphasized that the club is meant to have broad appeal and welcome students of varying backgrounds, not seclude certain types of Jews because of their level of observance or knowledge of their culture.

“We are a Jewish culture club. This is about creating a safe space and community. This is about education. This is not a religious club,” she said.

In most cases, the clubs are initiated by a student who wants to build Jewish community in their school, Simon said.
And while many schools are welcoming environments, real life isn’t always as kind. Simon said the role the JSU clubs play in a student’s life may end up helping more than they realize when they join.

“High school is where we can prepare teens and build up that strength and that identity, and then college is where it gets tested. So teens, they will show up on a college campus having no preparation around answering tough questions and being proudly Jewish in an environment that’s not really allowing for that, so we see ourselves as preparing them for that inevitability and creating a sense of community where it all begins,” she said.

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com