High School Students Battle Bias and Hate

These teens came to Jackson Heights in Queens all the way from Long Island. They demonstrate against the recent anti-Semitic hate crime that took place in the very diverse and usually tolerant community of Jackson Heights in New York. 

[Rabbi Freidman, Rambam Mesivta High School Dean]:

“Six days ago there was a desecration of a synagogue and a public library in the neighborhood in Jackson heights. Someone had the audacity to spray paint swastika, on both the synagogue and the library.” 

Rabbi Zev Freidman is the dean of the two schools holding the demonstration.  He called on the residents of Jackson Heights to react.

[Rabbi Freidman, Rambam Mesivta High School Dean]: 

“They don’t except it, we don’t except it, and we call upon the people in the community to help us to call out—'stop the bias, stop the hate.'"

[Demonstrators]:

“Stop the bias! Stop the hate!”  

[Rabbi Freidman, Rambam Mesivta High School Dean]:

“The Nazis began their campaign of terror by doing the exact same thing. Painting swastikas on synagogues and places of public assembly” 

And as Rabbi Freidman says, back then and now, the greatest crimes happen when good people fail to act.

[Rabbi Freidman, Rambam Mesivta High School Dean]:

“They were kind of doing that with one hand and with the other hand, looking over the shoulder to see what the world is going to respond? What the world is going to react and if everybody is silent then we are going to take the next step.”

Today, these young students along with their educators are acting. 

[Sam, Rambam Mesivta High School Student]:

“If we don’t go, we will allow those seemingly minor offences to be justified, and once things get justified it’s a snowball effect and we’ll end up just like what happened in the nineteen thirties in the Nazi Germany.”

One graffiti swastika can be a chilling reminder of that violent and bloody history.

[Deborah, Shelhevet High School Student]:

“If everyone realizes then everyone will start protesting and saying this is wrong, and if everyone realizes what is happening then they won’t let it happen again because we have seen how terrible the results can be.”

Along with the demonstration, the two schools donated history books about the Holocaust to the library. 

[Michael, Rambam Mesivta High School Student]:

“If you teach people about different cultures, different races regardless of what these cultures and these races are, they learn that there is nothing inherently wrong with them and that there is no true justified bias against them.”

Under the leadership of Rabbi Freidman, the two high schools have been holding these activities since they were established. The goal is to get students actively involved in their communities. 

[Shai, Rambam Mesivta High School Student]:

“When you see injustice, whether it is to your neighbor next to you, to a race, to an individual, stand against it.”

NTD news, New York