NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams and a top city education official are responding to claims of rampant antisemitism at a Brooklyn high school.
Just Tuesday morning, a threatening email was sent to Jewish educators at Origins High School and police responded by launching an investigation.
It happened not long after some teachers and parents told CBS New York there is also alleged racism and Islamophobia at the campus.
Danielle Kaminsky, a global history teacher at the school, recently shared that she has been targeted by students for being Jewish for years.
“I had students do the heil Hitler sign towards me. I’ve had students call me a ‘dirty Jew,'” Kaminsky said.
On Monday, gym teacher Kamilla Shulanova, who is Muslim, said she has reported a colleague that has been bullying her with Islamophobic slurs.
“I don’t feel safe at all, coming from my own worker,” Shulanova said.
They said their reports have gone unanswered and there has been no disciplinary action, adding the extent of it sometimes has just been a conversation with a parent.
A document shows one Jewish student in 2022 transferred out, citing “three swastikas drawn on my cable,” and a student “saying Hitler is the greatest of all time.”
First Deputy Schools Chancellor Dan Weisberg denied the allegations on Tuesday.
“The cause of combating antisemitism is not served by people exaggerating or putting out false claims,” Weisberg said. “There were incidents at this school where students said inappropriate things to teachers. The principal reacted decisively. Students were disciplined.”
The mayor blamed the incidents on kids seeing hate on social media.
“We have to continue to find ways to do better in this environment,” Adams said.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams was asked to comment at an unrelated event.
“That’s not what we’re talking about today,” Adrienne Adams said.
The council speaker declined to comment on the issue Tuesday and a representative for the council chair of the Education Committee did not respond to CBS New York’s request for an interview.
There have been calls to remove Dara Kammerman, the interim principal at Origins High School. She addressed the issue on Monday.
“There have been multiple suspensions,” Kammerman said. “Restorative practices are never used in place of punitive consequences.”
The deputy schools chancellor backed up the principal’s actions, and said he has spent time speaking with some Jewish educators and students.
- In:
- Brooklyn
- New York City Public Schools
- Eric Adams
- Antisemitism
- Racism
