New seminar prepares US Jewish teens to combat antisemitism on college campuses

Sinai Temple in Los Angeles launched a seminar in October designed to help prepare Jewish American teens to combat antisemitism on university campuses.

Antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiments have exploded on campuses worldwide following the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre last year, where 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 people taken hostage from southern Israeli border communities. 

The temple's inaugural class includes 16 high school students. The program will culminate in 2024 with a trip to Sacramento, California, where participants will apply their newly learned advocacy skills by promoting Jewish causes and engaging with state lawmakers. While currently a local initiative, there are plans to expand the program nationwide in 2025.

Rabbi Erez Sherman, co-senior rabbi and the head of the program, emphasized the need to equip students with the tools needed to combat antisemitism. 

“Today, we are asking our college freshmen to be leaders in this field even though we have never trained them. It's because we need them to. We are not [on college campuses], but they are there. So let's start actually training them on how to identify antisemitism, combat antisemitism, and the most important piece they are working on is learning how to form allyships,” Sherman told The Media Line. 

Rabbi David Wolpe, an Emeritus Rabbi of Sinai Temple, believes the new program is a crucial educational tool for confronting rising levels of bigotry against Jews. 

“This program is vital to educate the next generation to confront and combat the rising antisemitism casting a shadow over the Jewish future,” Rabbi David Wolpe stated.

While the course is designed for Jewish teens, Sherman also highlighted the importance of including American Christian communities in the fight against antisemitism. 

“Of course, we want the kids to reach out to the Jewish community once they get on campus, but we also want them to be able to go from Hillel to Christian clubs on campus to say, ‘What can we do together to make our experience even better,’” he said. 

Sinai Temple consequently reached out to the Saint Paul the Apostle Catholic church, the Church of Latter-Day Saints and several protestant communities to join forces against antisemitism, which is currently frequently hidden behind anti-Zionism and “Israel criticism.” 

Israeli hostage Ofir Engel, who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attack and later released, shared his traumatic experience of 54 days in captivity in Gaza with the students.

One of the U.S. teenagers participating in the program explained his reason for joining.

“I feel like I am not doing enough at my school. So I thought this was a perfect opportunity to be able to do something in the Jewish community and to get closer to my Jewish side. It was a better way to just get closer to my Jewish side and learn more about my history and learn how I can be a Jewish person living in the world, especially at my age,” he told The Media Line. 

An 18-year-old program student, Leah, said she was concerned by the rising levels of antisemitism on campus. 

“There was a rise of antisemitism at my school…and seeing all this antisemitism on college campuses as well, I kind of wanted to have a good basis on how to combat antisemitism and have productive conversations with people with opposing views of mine.”

While antisemitism on campuses is not a new phenomenon, anti-Jewish bigotry has reached unprecedented levels since last year's Hamas attack.

In November, Brown University Prof. Hedy Wald warned that current campus antisemitism is reminiscent of “echoes of the Holocaust.” 

"Aspects of anti-Jewish hostile learning environments we have personally observed in medical schools include tearing down posters of Jewish hostages, including children; demonization of Jews, accusing Jewish students of complicity with genocide, wearing banned graduation regalia portraying Israel's destruction, and Holocaust distortion or inversion," Wald warned.