American anti-Semitism has a Benjamin Button problem.
Past studies have shown that young people are less likely to hold and express traditionally racist views. I say “traditionally” because that category tends to exclude anti-Semitism, which is trending in the opposite direction. The future may be “antiracist,” but unless something changes it’ll also be anti-Semitic.
The data scientist David Shor and his research firm recently released the results of a new study that highlight this problem. Starting at age 18 and proceeding in 10-year jumps, age seems to reduce anti-Semitic attitudes, at least until one hits 68, at which point the trendline stabilizes.
As political scientist Kevin Wallsten pointed out, this roughly corresponds to the findings of the 2024 American National Election Surveys Pilot Study, and the trendlines are similar if you asked respondents how important a problem anti-Semitism currently poses: Younger folks are less likely to think it’s a major problem.
While there are numerous reasons for the trend, one plain contributor to increased anti-Semitism among the young is that it is what they are being taught. Will Sussman, who left a graduate MIT program to research illiberal education for the Manhattan Institute, turned his attention to a perfect example: the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the anti-Jewish educational resources it provides to teachers statewide.
Those materials were the subject of a hearing with the state legislature earlier this week. And while the hearing was obviously a demonstration of how schools are straightforwardly teaching young Americans to hate Jews, it also shows why young people are more likely to think that anti-Semitism isn’t a problem.
I’ve reported on the MTA’s anti-Semitism problem in the past, such as when a union webinar featured a presenter who said “when we learn, and teach, and know about Zionism, both as settler-colonialism and as a very well-funded propaganda effort, we realize that these claims about anti-Semitism are lies.” I noted at the time that the MTA was building a curriculum guide around Israel “and Occupied Palestine.” The Massachusetts hearing further demonstrates that the MTA cannot be trusted to do so.
“I’m too old and too confident in my experience and views to be lectured about the dangers of anti-Semitism,” proclaimed MTA President Max Page in his opening statement. Page was telling the truth; throughout the hearing, he could not muster anything but contempt for the subject at hand.
State Rep. Simon Cataldo brought up a “visuals and art” section of the educational materials titled “Visualizing Palestine,” which “uses data and research to communicate Palestinian experiences visually.” Cataldo and Page then had the following exchange.
Cataldo: “You’re aware that nowhere in this document, Mr. Page, is a corresponding section about Israeli or Jewish experiences?”
Page: “So, you know, I am not going to go through each individual document. What our board asked our professional staff to do was to prepare, thoughtfully, a series of resources. That was done professionally, thoughtfully over many months. I have not seen one set of resources provided by the New York Times, Facing History, any other where people didn’t have concerns.”
Cataldo: “Mr. Page I was asking you if you’re aware that none of the resources in this section involve Jewish or Israeli experiences.”
Page: [Shrugs disdainfully.]
What are some of the visuals and other materials included in the state teachers union’s resource guide? In a section on aid to Israel, there’s a dollar bill folded into the shape of a Star of David. There’s a poster showing a keffiyeh-clad gunman with the phrase “What was taken by force can only be returned by force,” an explicit call for violence against the Jewish state.
“Are you aware of what ‘data and research’ supports the use of this material in Massachusetts classrooms,” Cataldo asked Page, whose rambling response did not address the question.
Another item was a violence-promoting propaganda poster for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terrorist organization. There’s one depicting Jewish aspirations for self-determination as a forked-tongue snake. An Israeli company is blamed for killing thousands of migrants on the U.S. border with Mexico. A workbook for kindergarteners is about Israel’s illegitimacy as a state and the violence of “Zionists,” concluding with an exercise in which the young students are asked to explain how they will “raise funds for the children of Palestine” and what they will chant at a “Palestine protest.”
Cataldo also showed an Instagram post by a member of the MTA’s board of directors that was celebrating Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, to which Page said “I’m not going to engage with this.” Both the source of the post and Page’s response are instructive. Throughout the hearing, Page rolls his eyes, refuses to respond, and simply says over and over again that individual teachers know how to present challenging material. Teachers in the hearing room can be heard expressing their support for Page’s snide dismissal of anti-Semitic incitement.
Young children, often in taxpayer-funded government schools, are being fed anti-Semitic propaganda. It is clear that America’s youth are learning what their teachers are instructing. The generation currently being raised on the virtues of violent Jew-hate will grow up to practice it, and unions like the MTA will have primed them to do so.
