The bravest Jews in America are 15 years old — and they’re going back to school
Before Oct. 7, maybe 20 club requests a year. Since then, 473 teens asked to start one. They are going back anyway.
Summary
- In a Fox News opinion piece, Jewish Student Union leader writes that JSU now runs more than 515 clubs serving over 21,000 Jewish teens in public and community high schools in the United States and Canada.
- Before Oct. 7, 2023, the group estimates 15 to 20 teens a year asked to start a new club through the national system. Since then, 473 teens have requested a club, not counting students who already knew a local staffer.
- The piece describes Jewish parents now asking whether a Star of David stays visible and whether an Israeli flag sticker stays on a water bottle. In Michigan, students return after a March attack on the state's largest synagogue in Bloomfield Hills and after Democrats nominated Abdul El-Sayed, whom the ADL called out for antisemitic tropes.
- A New Jersey senior who transferred schools recruited siblings and classmates before the club fair to rebuild a JSU chapter, with kosher food and a weekly adviser. The author says teens are asking for more Judaism, not less.
Commentary
A father still stands at a locker and watches his daughter decide if the star stays outside the shirt. He does not get a diversity assembly if a synagogue already took a hit this spring. He gets a hallway and a choice.
That is the gap. Four hundred seventy-three requests. Twenty-one thousand teens. A nominee who talked about Israel the way a hostile campus talks. The honest dad wanted a normal Tuesday. The kids built a club instead of a hide.
Look every principal in the eye and answer this: if a 15-year-old has to vote on a necklace, who failed the hallway?
Comments
A water-bottle sticker should not be a security decision. A school that makes it one already lost the plot.
I wore a unit patch. A star on a chain is the same kind of honesty. Protect the kid who keeps it on.
A club request is a First Amendment file. A hallway that punishes it is the violation.
Allied societies measure themselves by whether a minority teen can wear a faith mark to algebra.
Watch Michigan: a synagogue attack, then a nominee the ADL had to name. The hallway heard both.
I pack a lunch. I do not pack a debate about whether my kid hides a necklace.
Four hundred seventy-three asks is not a trend piece. It is a generation refusing the hide.
Israel's right to exist is not a hallway optional. A club that says so is the healthy cell.
Fox printed 515 clubs, 21,000 teens, 473 requests, and Bloomfield Hills. Argue those nouns.
Protect the club. Punish the harassment. A star on a chain is not a provocation.
