The ABCs of Jewish Inclusion: What your school should focus on this year
American Jewish Committee (AJC) has three key recommendations for K-12 administrators as the Fall 2024 semester gets underway to help ensure that Jewish students and faculty, and indeed all school community members, have a safer, more inclusive, and more productive 2024-25 school year. Our recommendations focus on the particular needs of Jewish school community members while simultaneously seeing schools as essential building blocks in cultivating a free and democratic society. AJC is well-equipped and ready to work with you to foster a more pluralistic, education-focused atmosphere for all. View our programmatic and educational offerings here and contact us to learn more about how we can work together this academic year.
Awareness
Ensure that your faculty has been educated about Jewish identity, the diversity of the Jewish community, and antisemitism.
Engage in a curricular audit to see where Jews appear in the curriculum. Ensure that the Jewish experience and the richness of Jewish culture appear throughout your scope and sequence.
Establish a DEI philosophy that includes Jews and addresses antisemitism.
Formulate clear and enforceable policies to address antisemitism in school.
Ensure your Jewish students are comfortable expressing their full identities as Jews in classrooms and extracurricular spaces.
Include important Jewish holidays in your school calendar and provide accommodations to Jewish faculty and students as needed.
Communication
Communicate clearly and consistently to your school community about school values and rules, including policies governing protests, walkouts, postering, vandalism/graffiti, and social media.
Cultivate an atmosphere of open dialogue where students and faculty feel comfortable discussing difficult topics respectfully, constructively, and with nuance.
Celebrate values in action, particularly programs that demonstrate communicating across difference, bridge building, and civic engagement.
For our complete action plan for Independent School Administrators, click here. For our complete action plan for Public School Administrators, click here.
