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TV personality Dr. Logan Levkoff tackles the antisemitism at her son’s private school and shares her 4 key steps to combat it.
Dr. Logan Levkoff’s son, Maverick, entered the halls of The Fieldston School in the Bronx with confidence in a bright future. He was an athletic and studious kid who was excited for the school year to begin. He and his parents had no idea what was about to come.
“The issues didn’t happen all at once…they trickled in really slowly,” Logan, a nationally recognized expert on relationships and intimacy, said in an Aish.com interview.
Maverick began attending Fieldston in 7th grade. His parents believed it was a place that shared their values in supporting diversity, focusing on education, teaching critical thinking, and supporting constructive dialogue and discourse.
Logan, an alumni of both Penn and NYU, said, “Fieldston seemed like a well-rounded school where Maverick could thrive. For a while, we did feel that way, but once high school began there were some very significant challenges that came in the form of antisemitism.”
The first incident took place when Maverick was a freshman, and the story was picked up by several media outlets. The school hired a speaker who labeled all Jews living in Israel “Nazis” because of their treatment towards Palestinians.
In an effort to fix this, the administration brought in two rabbis to discuss how antisemitism exists across the political spectrums. A teacher in attendance gave the middle finger to the rabbi, which was filmed and reported to the administration by several students. This was the second blatant demonstration of antisemitism.
Disturbingly, that same teacher hosted a party earlier in the year and posted on their social media, “I won’t allow Zionists in my home.”
Maverick and his mom Logan
The school, with the best of intentions, then created a series of workshops in an effort to have constructive conversations about these issues. But Logan was dismayed by this choice. “The workshops were too short to really tell a full narrative or be impactful, and some of the speakers hired had a very clear agenda. For example, J-Street presented a 45-minute Zoom on the Israel-Palestine conflict. You can’t do a deep dive on anything in 45 minutes, let alone a conflict that has existed for thousands of years, on the history of Jews and Judea.”
Towards the end of the session, Maverick was courageous enough to ask why the words “Hamas” or “Palestinian Authority” were never mentioned in the discussion.
The speaker shut down the conversation with the deflection, “Thanks so much for the question, but unfortunately we are out of time.” Just before the screen went dark, someone in Maverick’s class made a comment about Israel being a settler-colonial state.
Logan continued, “My son attempted to open a conversation with someone about this comment. It ended with Maverick being called a genocidal ethnic cleanser. All this was in response to his effort to have a nuanced, thoughtful conversation.”
Maverick felt betrayed, not only because it took place in a school environment, but also because he thought this student was his friend.
Logan felt betrayed as well. “As someone who has devoted her life to supporting causes that are liberal, I am appalled at their response. I spent years fighting for queer rights, abortion rights, supporting victims of sexual violence, only to find out that in a lot of those communities, they hated me. Because at the end of the day, it’s not really about Israel for them—a lot of people can’t locate Israel on a map—and if they really believed in endogeneity they would really understand that Jews are indigenous to Israel. It’s really about hating Jews.”
Maverick, like his parents, was not the type of child to sweep things under the rug. He wanted to continue addressing these issues head-on and was committed to having difficult conversations, no matter the outcome.
So, when Maverick’s “Nazi Germany and the Holocaust” teacher assigned only one survivor narrative (who identified as an anti-Zionist Communist), Maverick spoke up, explaining that this writer represented a fringe perspective.
His teacher firmly responded, “Soviet anti-Zionism was a legitimate political movement.”
Logan and her husband refused to stay silent throughout the whole ordeal with the school. Logan was collecting and reporting these incidents, as well as writing letters to the administration and DEI coordinator.
Because Logan is a TV personality with a large following on social media, she also began to use her public platform to talk about the antisemitism taking place in schools that purported to share her values. She also offered to pull Maverick out of school.
“Maverick was adamant about wanting to stay. He had friends that he loved, and had a handful of teachers that he loved. He had teammates and coaches he didn’t want to betray. He said, ‘I got this, and I can do it.’
“Maverick was comfortable taking on the task and had the tools to be a leader. We trusted in him and he had our support, and he did everything we could have wanted and more.”
Maverick became the go-to for other students to report their experiences with antisemitism. Although this was a huge emotional burden for him, he drew courage from the fact that his parents supported him.
Logan emphasized, “The only way we raise resilient, strong Jewish children capable of withstanding the blowback that comes from dealing with antisemitism is they have to know we have their back, that we will make things very ugly for Jew haters. They have to know we will support them if they get a bad grade, if they get in trouble, or if they get suspended for defending their honor and our people.”
Maverick took on this role very proudly because he knew there were many students too afraid to speak up.
Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Maverick to see his parents’ support in action.
Maverick spent his senior year working on a Holocaust-related project - a school wide assembly - with a survivor who subsequently became his friend. One hundred students lined up to hug this man after the talk because they were so inspired by his story and his words.
What Maverick didn’t know was that a group on campus was trying to get the school to apologize because the survivor didn’t “represent the school’s values.” One of his offenses: he said that he hoped they could see themselves as one race – the human race, implying that he was color-blind. For this generation, color-blindness is considered an aggressive act, not recognizing the unique experiences of Black and Brown people. However, as the Nazis considered Jews “an inferior race,” you can imagine why someone who survived the Holocaust would believe that kindness for all people (regardless of their identities) is paramount. Logan lamented, “It is ridiculous and offensive to even expect modern DEI language from an 82-year old man, let alone a survivor who had been tortured in the camps.”
It may start with Israel on the front lines, but it's certainly not going to end there.
Maverick called his mom to tell her he was being dragged into a meeting. Logan understood what happened in those meetings, and that he was being forced into a situation in front of a large group of adults where he would have to apologize to an entire group of students pushing against him. “I knew it wasn’t a safe situation, and that it was time to seek help from lawyers. We said to him, ‘You get yourself home. We are keeping you out of school until you are emotionally and intellectually safe.’
“I had been trying to fight this issue myself. This was the first time I sought legal advice because this was my son’s project and his name was all over it.”
Maverick did eventually go back to school when the school decided not to apologize for hosting the Holocaust survivor.
Logan and her husband were proud that they had spent years preparing and arming Maverick with information about Israel in order to accurately retort to any acts or forms of antisemitism. They took their children’s education about Israel into their own hands, and encourage other parents to do so as well.
Additionally, Logan’s family co-founded a program that takes non-Jewish student leaders on college campuses and brings them to Israel on a leadership mission every year. For the past 13 years, Logan has seen antisemitism bubbling up on campuses and began her initiative to combat this.
“It is an extraordinary mission that we are very proud of.”
Logan admits that she’s not sure if she would have kept her son in the school if these events had taken place after October 7th.
“I want to remind people that all of this was before October 7th. I can’t tell you that we would have stayed at a school where seniors are running around in keffiyehs just days after the savagery committed by Hamas, and spraying hate speech on buildings. I don't think we would have stayed in a place where anyone would attempt to justify the atrocities of 10/7. Because that is hate of a variety that you cannot negotiate with. That’s not a lack of education, that’s pure Jew-hate.”
Logan believes these issues are present everywhere. “Pre-October 7th, we could have pulled Maverick out, but we’d be moving him from one lion’s den to another.” This makes learning how to handle antisemitism in any school crucial for both parents and children.
Logan shared four steps on how to combat antisemitism in your own school setting.
No matter how small or big, write down the incident as soon as it transpires and email it to the dean, the principal, the advisor, and the relevant teacher. Make sure to CC yourself so that you have a timestamp documentation of your report. Then start a file.
Logan explains that this might be the first incident, but it’s probably not going to be the last one. If your school has a code of conduct, make sure you look at it and find the relevant passages. Let your school know how this act breached their code of conduct or student handbook.
No incident is too small to be reported.
Share your troubling incident with other Jewish families to see if they have had similar experiences. Find out if they have reported their incidents and urge them to do so if they haven’t. Find outside resources to discover if your child’s civil rights have been violated in school.
Do not rely on the school to teach your children about Jewish history. Arm them with facts and information so that if false information is deliberately or mistakenly presented to them, they will know how to answer and fight back. Educating them will give them the tools and confidence needed to speak up if they want to.
Show your children how to be proud of their Judaism and Jewish heritage. Make sure that they know that they can come to you for support or anything else they may need. Fighting antisemitism can feel isolating and overwhelming, and our kids must know that we have their back.
If they speak up and are met with retribution in the form of a poor grade, bullying, or suspension, they have to know that we are going to defend them and help them to fight it. Your child must know you will do everything you need to do to help, including making the incident public and bringing in legal support.
Logan acknowledges that you might lose some friends in the process, but losing your integrity is far worse than losing a friend who is okay with antisemitism.
“I can say very candidly that it has felt for years like I have been screaming into the void. Not just at my son’s old school, but within my communities, and even those closest to me. People thought that I was Chicken Little, screaming that the sky was falling, when really I just had my eye on things. I will tell you that it sucks being right.”
Logan believes that October 7th proved to the world that this isn’t about Israel at all. “This is about global Jewry and who we are as a people. It may start with Israel on the front lines, but it's certainly not going to end there.”
She urges Jews everywhere to speak up and stop caring how they will be perceived. “We need to fight for our own humanity and dignity the same way we do for everyone else. Because at the end of the day, it doesn’t make a difference if you are a quiet Jew or a loud Jew to a bigot or an antisemite. They don’t care. If we don’t speak up, it is on us. This is our time. In the words of Menachem Begin, ‘We are not Jews with trembling knees.’”
Logan ended with, “We know we need to fight back now. Many of us thought Israel needed us more than we needed her, and we just found out that this isn’t about Israel at all. This is about us. We should be using it to our advantage, and fighting back with pride.”
The Fieldstone School is affiliated with a larger, national organization called The Ethical Culture Society. This organization's tagline is deed not creed. I was curious to read their viewpoint on Oct 7. and what they said did not surprise me. They stated how awful it was that "two sides were fighting with each other." Did I see one word about the hostages? Spoiler alert: NO!
Did I miss somewhere in the article where the family gave up on the Fieldstone school because of its blatant antisemitism?
Vote with your feet, ie., send your tuition dollars elsewhere.
♥
I think Jews must learn to keep to themselves and not get involved in the affairs of others and not try to change Society.
One hundred years, so many Jews in Russia were, to our shame, Bolsheviks, one hundred years later, so many Jews in America, like this woman, are, to our shame, Woke.
In both Russia and America, Jewish involvement in left wing politics led to nothing but disaster.
Just lead your own good life and do not get involved with them.
Logan Levkoff, a typical woke woman.
Now she's learnt that the Woke hate her because she's a Jew.
I hope this is a lesson to all Jews.
Shun all those who hate us.
Very simple solution. Move to Israel before it is to late.
It is hard to have "Jewish Pride" when the Jewish Community will not accept you as a Jew, even though I have relatives that lived in Lithuania during World War II and died in the Holocoust soley because of their Jewish identity. I even know the horrible details of exactly how they died but I will spare the readers on this forum from the horrible description. It is true not all of my ancestors are Jewish. I am 5/8 Jewish and 3/8 nonJewish. My nonJewish ancestors were Romanian Christains on my mother's side and Chineese on my father's side. My ancestors did not settle in New York, they settled in other places were in the US where there were very few if any Jews. Why they did this I will never know, but it partially explains my non Jewish ancestry. If ONE IS NOT SAFE NOONE IS SAFE.
In Jewish law Judaism passes down the female line. If you have nonJewish female ancestors who did not convert then you may not be Jewish by Jewish law. This is something that can be checked and if so and you are serious about being a Jew, the only real route is official conversion. Not easy but worth it for those who are serious about Judaism.
Bullies, thugs, and ignoramuses exist across all religions, and spectrums of life. They are the mutual enemies of all humanity, and God.
"Diversity, equity, and inclusion ( DEI) are organizational frameworks which seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people,..."
Our job is not to be part of the "blend." It is to stand up, and above; to lead.
This is the age of the bully, and the ignorant.
This too shall pass.
Welcome to the real world
If you lay down with dogs, you are going to get up with fleas. Today’s left is no longer liberal. It’s communist. You’re not going to change their hatred of Western values.
Nice that jews are determined to fight for survival, but at the end of the day,
when conditions further erode &and the 'mob' goes berserk,
we are at the mercy of G-d!
why many liberal jews fail to connect the dots of cause & effect, realizing, if
they took the Torah seriously & follow some of the most basic laws,
our collective strength would shatter the mobs in their tracks!
The Torah is in black &white ,easy enough for all to understand. It appears we are color blind to this reality of neglecting our laws and pay the price with hatred against us.
Throughout every epoch of history, there are corresponding patterns of anti-semitism linked to our failing to keep up our end of Sinai's Contract.
BASIC COMMITMENTS
YIELD LIFE SAVING RESULTS!
Because instead of fixing the problem. We allow Israel to shape policy that is unsustainable and is cruel. There is a political solution that allows for cohabitation and right of return and it doesn’t involve creating settlements in Arab villages, for wealthy American Jews. People all forget we are the greatest minority and our light was almost extinguished on several occasions.Gaza should not have been locked out the way it was from global commerce and tourism. Please shift to a more progressive position. Find better ways to allow Muslims to pray at Al Aqusa. Find the common ground and stop killing in the name of. Antisemitism is only the hate of Jews but all semetic people.
how about allowing jews to pray there. How about allowing jews to enter all parts of Israel instead of having signs put up at entrances of Arab villages that says no jews allowed.
You poor, ridiculously misinformed Jew who has fallen for Arab propaganda (read: lies) and the leftist media's twisted reporting!
Please do yourself a favor and learn the truth from reliable, objective sources.
None of these will deny that there are serious problems, but an intelligent look at the bare facts shows that we're not the creators of those problems!
Stop licking the hand that bites you!!
Could we please refrain from name calling? I have a lot to learn about Judaism and Israel and I come to Aish to gain greater knowledge.
I too suffered from anti semitism in High School. My parents from the old country didn't fight the administration like you did. Maverick should be happy and proud he had family like you.
I too had antisemitism from state school, high school and at work at times. i am now 61. it never changes, just hides for a while and comes out. everyone needs to fight and stand up for ourselves
I too suffered from anti Semitism in HS during the '70s. It looked different than what we are seeing in the 21st century, but was anti Semitism nonetheless.
Love that she is wearing a Sar-El shirt. Kudos to them for giving their son the tools to fight antisemitism but at the price of Fieldston I would not have wanted another cent of my (((money))) to go to them.
Make aliya to Israel. We made aliya 30 years ago.
Wonderful article! Thank you for joining the battle!
Maybe we shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss Rabbi Kahane? Snowflakes can’t stop Nazis or Fundamentalist Islam. Menachem Begin and his generation had Jabotinsky to clarify and rectify a cogent political philosophy for a stand on your own feet in your own land mentality. I would as an older very militant to the right of Atilla the Hun Zionist recommend you read all 8 pages of Jabotinsky’s The Iron Wall from 1923 very pertinent today.
Maybe Jews should turn back to G-d and not pretend that we are strong enough to build up our muscles and fight the world?
We need to do both.
Maybe there should be a Jewish Pride Parade.
There is in France, it’s called French Frum Females Day!
What for, to incite the Jew haters?!
Better to always follow the Torah, behave with dignity, and contribute positively to society the way we've always done; that's what's meant being "being a light ..."
Of course, we need not stay silent in the face of antisemitism, though we must be well informed before responding to antagonists.