Hundreds of students at Hillcrest High School in New York’s neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens, “rampaged through the halls” of their school for nearly two hours last week after they discovered that a teacher had participated in a pro-Israel rally, the US media reported early Sunday morning.
The unrest began when students discovered that the teacher’s profile photo on Facebook depicted her at an October 9 demonstration mourning the victims of Hamas's massacre of Israeli civilians two days prior. The teacher was holding a poster that read, “I stand with Israel.”
Anti-Israel students then created a group chat, according to a senior at the school quoted in the report. “Hundreds of kids” then “flooded into hallways,...chanting, jumping, shouting, and waving Palestinian flags or banners.” (Warning: the video below includes explicit language.)
“A bunch of kids decided to make a group chat, expose her, talk about it, and then talk about starting a riot.”Every student involved in RIOTING against a Jewish teacher should be expelled @NYCSchools The teachers know exactly who these students are.pic.twitter.com/Ps9EGRuOd7
— David G. Greenfield (@NYCGreenfield) November 26, 2023
Students filmed these events, and posted them on TikTok, with captions including, “POV: Hillcrest high school had a riot because a Health teacher was supporting Israel." In the videos, one can see a water fountain ripped from the wall and shattered tiles on the floor of a boys’ bathroom.
Another video, posted to X the evening after the events took place, appears to show a group of students marching down the street shouting “Free Palestine,” “Allahu Akbar,” and “F***Israel."
Eli Klein, a New York area art dealer with a large following on X, posted several videos of events inside the school, then deleted them, explaining to followers that “the Jewish teacher who was attacked for being pro-Israel asked me to, as she’s worried for her safety.”
Brooklyn school children. pic.twitter.com/X1KRcTdL6c
— Mr. Jewish Bookery (@Jewish_Bookery) November 9, 2023
The New York Police Department (NYPD) sent about 25 officers to the scene, according to Hillcrest’s principal, Scott Milczewski. They arrived at the scene around 11:20 am, and are said to have rushed the teacher into an office and locked the door, at which point students gathered outside and tried to push their way in. The “riot,” as students called it, lasted about two hours.
According to a New York City councilman, the department also contacted its counterterrorism bureau. “They found where [the teacher] lives,” one student told the Post. “Her address, her phone number, her family and everything.” Police returned to the school the following day, and arrested an 18-year-old student, whom they then charged with aggravated harassment for sending threatening messages in a group chat.
Public officials respond
Late Sunday night, New York City Mayor Eric Adams shared the New York Post report on X, commenting: “The vile show of antisemitism at Hillcrest High School was motivated by ignorance-fueled hatred, plain and simple, and it will not be tolerated in any of our schools, let alone anywhere in our city,” concluding, “We are better than this.” Adams said the city was conducting a full investigation, and that "teams will begin outreach with students at Hillcrest to ensure they understand why this behavior was unacceptable."
The vile show of antisemitism at Hillcrest High School was motivated by ignorance-fueled hatred, plain and simple, and it will not be tolerated in any of our schools, let alone anywhere else in our city. We are better than this. https://t.co/y0sVuntwGo
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) November 26, 2023
David Weprin, a New York assemblyman representing part of Queens, released a statement calling the incident “unacceptable and the very definition of antisemitism!” Weprin called on the Department of Education and the Hillcrest leadership “to impose strict consequences for the perpetrators of this violence.”
David Banks, chancellor of New York’s public school system, alluded to the incident in a town hall meeting with parents, saying, “What’s happening in the Middle East has gotten a lot of emotions from a lot of people.”
Banks graduated from Hillcrest High School some 40 years ago. The Department of Education called the incident “completely unacceptable,” and said it was investigating the matter.
“No form of hate, whether it be antisemitism, Islamophobia, or other form (sic) of bigotry will be tolerated in our schools,” the department said.
Reminiscent of scenes at universities, other incidents around the world
The incident was exceptional, but it was also reminiscent of other events, including those at universities and college campuses, since Hamas invaded Israel’s south on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, including 900 civilians, and kidnapping about 240 people, most of whom the group continues to hold hostage in Gaza. Hamas terrorists also raped, decapitated, and burned people, including children and infants, during the hours-long attack on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.
In late October, a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Cooper Union College, a prestigious engineering school also located in New York City, posed enough of a threat to a group of Orthodox Jewish students that campus security chose to lock them inside the school library for their protection.
The events also recall scenes of global unrest, such as the riot at a Dagestan airport when locals heard that a plane had arrived carrying passengers from Israel. Those events, and the ones above, are part of a global surge in antisemitic hate crimes since the October 7 attack and subsequent war in Gaza. In the United States, antisemitic incidents spiked nearly 400% in the first few weeks of the war.