Because of anti-Semitism, Holocaust jokes, Hitler paintings and hate letters, a 12-year-old student in America faces trial.
Rising anti-Semitism around the world has recently found a particularly unusual expression in Dalton, Massachusetts, where a 12-year-old sixth-grader will be tried in juvenile court for harassing one of his teachers, a Jewish teacher, with a variety of antisemitic statements, Holocaust jokes, Hitler drawings and hate letters.
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The Jewish teacher, Morrison Rovelli, who taught social and civics classes at the school, resigned from his position last month after he said he had faced ongoing antisemitic harassment for several months. In an interview with Insider, Rovelli said his former student's anti-Semitism gradually deteriorated into full-blown Nazi jokes and references to the Holocaust.
The 12-year-old student now faces criminal harassment charges after local police in Dalton charged him in juvenile court.
Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. In the worst antisemitic incident ever in the US, 11 worshippers were murdered in 2018, Photo: Reuters
Rovelli told Insider that the harassment began in February of this year, when he tried to take over the classroom. He said the boy began shouting homophobic slogans, after which he asked him to leave the classroom. Later, the school administration held an "intervention" in the presence of the school principal, student and teacher.
Regarding this meeting, the teacher said, "The student did not say anything during the meeting. It probably should have hinted to me that it wasn't going to end."
And it is indeed not over. During the month of April, the relationship between the student and the teacher worsened after the teacher arrived at the school wearing a kippah during Passover. In response, the student made hateful remarks about the Jewish symbol and was sent by the teacher to be confined.
A few days later, Rovelli said the student approached him with a piece of paper that at first seemed like a written apology. However, the "apology" was actually an anti-Semitic illustration scribbled by the student, showing Adolf Hitler standing over a dead man with the word "Jew" written on it, alongside swastikas and canisters bearing the word "gas." In the title of the page, the student wrote, "Sorry Jew."
Dalton, Massachusetts. North of New York. "The school tried to sweep the story,"
The student's fiery anti-Semitic hatred did not stop even after the school suspended him and removed him from the Jewish teacher's classroom. According to the teacher, who was still supervising the student's curriculum, the harassment continued in the hallways of the school. Throughout this period, the student sent him an email with insults, as well as a handwritten note insulting him.
In May, the teacher filed a formal complaint with the teachers' union of which he is a member, citing details of the unsafe work environment under which he is employed. The teachers' union recommended that he bring the student's antisemitic drawings and emails to the police.
In an interview, the teacher said that he felt that the school did not do its duty to protect him, nor did it take the necessary steps to put the student in his place. In his view, the school should have recruited a professional to supervise the boy, implement an educational program for the entire school on discrimination and discrimination, hold a meeting, or invite the Anti-Defamation League to talk to the students. "They really tried to sweep it under the rug. They were really trying to protect their reputation," Rovelli said.
That same month, the teacher was himself placed on administrative leave after he issued a tongue to the student — an action he allegedly did — after the student cursed at him. At the end of the day, the Jewish teacher resigned and informed the school principal: "There is no way I am going back to work at your school."
36% increase in antisemitism in the US
Although the case in the United States is exceptional due to the young age of the student, it is consistent with the worrying situation that emerges in the State of Antisemitism in the World Report for 2022. According to the report, anti-Semitism is rearing its head all over the world, with the most prominent cities manifesting hatred against Jews being New York and London. In the US alone, there was a 36% increase in antisemitic manifestations compared to 2021.
The report, published on the eve of Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day in 2023, was prepared by Tel Aviv University in cooperation with the Anti-Defamation League. Ultra-Orthodox Jews are the main targets of physical anti-Semitic attacks in the West, manifested in beatings, spitting and throwing objects.
In 2022, there has been a sharp increase in the number of antisemitic attacks in the United States and there has also been an increase in the number of antisemitic incidents in Belgium, Hungary, Italy and Australia, alongside a decline in other countries, including Germany, France and the UK.
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