Boston Globe: Mass. commission sets ambitious course to quell rising antisemitism
Seeks to bolster civil rights protections and civic education
By Brian MacQuarrie Globe Staff,Updated November 20, 2025, 4:55 p.m.
Boston Globe: Citing an alarming rise in antisemitic acts in Massachusetts, a state-appointed commission on Thursday unanimously approved a broad set of recommendations to increase tolerance, improve education about antisemitism, and build better ways to monitor incidents of hate and bias against Jews.
Compiled by the Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism, the nonbinding recommendations are being called a “Massachusetts Way” of confronting antisemitism, one that combines “strong civil rights protections, civic education, and moral responsibility,“ according to its final report.
The 19-member commission held 16 public meetings and heard from more than 100 people during 50 hours of testimony beginning in October 2024.
Related: Antisemitic incidents raise alarm in K-12 schools in Mass.
“Following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel in October 2023, antisemitism has manifested in new and troubling ways, particularly in K-12 schools, on college and university campuses, and in the workplace,” according to the report.
The antisemitism panel — composed of community members, lawmakers, educators, and law-enforcement officials, among others — also made recommendations in the areas of public safety and health care. The report will be forwarded to the Legislature and Governor Maura Healey.
State Representative Simon Cataldo of Concord, who co-chaired the commission with state Senator John Velis of Westfield, said the panelists were surprised and occasionally shocked by testimony about the depth, scale, and diversity of antisemitic acts in Massachusetts.
Among the state’s K-12 public schools, the commission found that antisemitism “is a pervasive and escalating problem.”
“Many Jewish students in Massachusetts schools are scared to publicly display their Judaism or let others know they are Jewish for fear of disparate treatment or bullying,” the report said.
Still, Cataldo said, the commission was “heartened by the number, quantity, and quality of positive responses and a willingness to take steps forward.”
For K-12 schools, the report recommended that the state establish an Advisory Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education; that public school districts institute mandatory antibias education, including guidance on antisemitism, for school committees, K-12 faculty, and administrators; and that a statewide program to report bias explicitly include antisemitism.
According to the report, public school students reported being exposed to content that contained “inaccurate, decontextualized, and harmful material regarding Israel and the Jewish people.”
In February, the commission presented more than two dozen examples of learning materials and resources from a Massachusetts Teachers Association website that panel members said constituted a one-sided view favoring Palestinians over Jews and Israelis.
The union later removed some learning materials about the Israel-Hamas war from its members-only website, but it adamantly denied that the materials were antisemitic. “The MTA does not promote materials that direct hate at any group,” the union said.
To underscore its concern for prompt action, the commission in August adopted recommendations to curb antisemitism in K-12 schools after releasing a preliminary version of its report. Cataldo said that action already has resulted in improvements across the state.
Jody Kipnis, a commissioner and cofounder of the Holocaust Legacy Foundation, said the recommendations “strengthen and reinforce the importance of civic and Holocaust education, and affirm that antisemitism, no matter how it manifests, has no place in Massachusetts.” In its higher-education recommendations, the commission urged “clear, transparent, and publicly available protocol” at colleges and universities to report hate, bias, harassment, or discrimination to school administrators.
Jewish students, faculty, and staff reported “feeling that their campuses are increasingly hostile environments, where expressing a Jewish identity or connection to Israel can lead to social isolation or backlash,” the report said.
However, the panel stressed, a reenergized push “to combat antisemitism and hatred of Jewish people must respect and protect the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment and the principles of due process.”
Antisemitism should be countered in a way that distinguishes between good-faith criticism of Israel’s government, the report said, and “advocacy that condones or supports the violent elimination of Jews and the State of Israel.”
The commission’s report also assailed the Trump administration’s “punitive measures” against higher-education institutions, including cuts in research funding in the name of fighting antisemitism on campus.
Such moves can backfire against Jewish students “and undermine the earnest efforts that many Massachusetts college and university leaders are making to deal with the issue of antisemitism in good faith,” the commission said.
That issue is real and insidious, the report stated.
“Here in Massachusetts, the stabbing of Rabbi Noginsky in Brighton in 2021 and the targeting by name and address of Jewish individuals and institutions by the Mapping Project in 2022 have contributed to the fear and intimidation experienced by the Jewish community,” the report added.
Noginsky, who survived the attack, was stabbed multiple times after distracting his assailant and leading him away from the Shaloh House Jewish Day School in Brighton, which had children inside.
The Mapping Project listed names and addresses of many Jewish organizations and individuals in Massachusetts and “falsely claimed that they are responsible for the ‘colonization of Palestine,’ ” the report says.
Overall, antisemitic hate crimes in Massachusetts rose by more than 20 percent in 2024 alone, and 84.4 percent of religious-based hate crimes in the state were committed against Jews, who make up approximately 5 percent of the population, according to the report.
