School leaders to receive training on creating safer spaces for Jewish students
'With over 135 school districts in southwestern Pennsylvania, we can't wait for incidents to occur'
An upcoming program will enable educators to ensure students, regardless of background, are safe and respected at school. A Nov. 9 summit, hosted by Classrooms Without Borders and the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, aims to equip superintendents, principals and curriculum designers through meaningful presentations and discussions guided by national experts.
“We want to empower school leaders,” Kate Lukaszewicz, associate director of Classrooms Without Borders, said. Fueling that charge is an understanding that there has been a “rampant increase in antisemitism, specifically anti-Zionism, since Oct. 7.”
The Anti-Defamation League called 2025 the “third-highest year on record for antisemitic incidents” since the group began tracking incidents in 1979. And, given Pennsylvania’s 281 recorded incidents in 2025, the commonwealth totaled fifth most in the nation.
“With over 135 school districts in southwestern Pennsylvania, we can’t wait for incidents to occur,” David Knoll, the Federation’s associate vice president of public affairs, said. “We need to do more with preventative action, and be more efficient with our resources and our time, by teaching and educating the superintendents and principals.”
Recent conversations with both administrators and students have demonstrated greater learning is needed, Lukaszewicz said. “We’re coming at this with the belief that these educational leaders want to do right by all of their students, including the Jewish students, but that they might just need some more information about how to recognize subtle antisemitism and some strategies for responding to it.”
Throughout the Nov. 9 summit, participants will view social media posts referencing Holocaust denial and distortion, stereotypes about Jews and threats to democratic values.
Discussions, according to organizers, will address navigating school-based discussions of modern antisemitism, Zionism and anti-Zionism.
Attendees will hear from experts, including American Jewish University’s Michael Berenbaum. Author and editor of 24 books, Berenbaum formerly served as director of the research institute at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and president and CEO of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Berenbaum is also co-producer of “One Survivor Remembers: The Gerda Weissmann Klein Story,” a 1995 film that won both the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Special.
Tsipy Gur, founder and executive director of Classrooms Without Borders, called Berenbaum a “world-renowned scholar” perfectly tasked to empower local leaders.
Taking a prescriptive approach to school-based instruction and conduct is essential, Knoll told the Chronicle.
“We can’t wait for incidents to occur,” he said. “We need to prevent incidents from happening in the first place. That’s the whole point.”
Nearly 50 superintendents, administrators and school leaders are registered for the program.
Organizers are pleased with the total and believe that continued programming will yield a sizable impact.
Summits like these, “help move the needle,” Knoll said. “Hopefully in a couple years we can teach all the superintendents and principals what antisemitism is and how to stop it in their school systems.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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