Children facing antisemitic bullying suffer profound psychological harm, including anxiety, depression, and identity crises, due to persistent exposure to hate. This trauma, often overlooked, is spreading through schools and campuses worldwide. As a forensic psychologist and clinical traumatologist with decades of experience, the author highlights how antisemitism, from hallways to classrooms and online, becomes a chronic stressor for Jewish students.
The American Psychological Association recognizes that children targeted by bias-based bullying display symptoms of stress, including anxiety, depression, and psychosomatic complaints. For Jewish children, the rise in antisemitism — in hallways, classrooms, and online — has created a persistent form of stress, with the specter of hate seen in media and internet culture, as well as through protests and marches, evoking the same symptoms of severe distress seen in other forms of overt and objective assault and terror. A survey found one in four American Jewish students experienced antisemitic incidents, with higher numbers on college campuses, reporting assault, threats, social rejection, and a perception that teachers may condone discrimination.
A 2021 study found that discrimination-based bullying doubles the risk of clinical depression in teens. Academic performance can suffer as trauma consumes cognitive resources and concentration, leading to declining grades and disengagement. Identity confusion arises when stigmatizing Jewish identity leads students to internalize shame or hide their heritage, fracturing self-image, splitting families, and hindering identity development. Antisemitism has intergenerational effects, with Holocaust survivor descendants showing elevated stress markers tied to historical persecution. The author notes that today’s antisemitism can re-awaken old wounds in families, with the post-Holocaust assertion of ‘Never Again’ giving way to ‘Again’, reactivating dormant fears that had been considered healed for 80 years.
A 2022 study found elevated stress markers in Holocaust-survivor descendants, suggesting that trauma can become biologically embedded. Exposure to further persecution and prejudice stokes the embers of fears extinguished 80 years ago. Campus threats and hate messages like ‘you are not welcome and not safe here’ intensify that horror history. Recent events, such as a 23-year-old man who shot students at the Annunciation Catholic Church mass in Minneapolis, although his media trail indicated he hoped to massacre Jews, reveal the ongoing threat of violence. Another case involved a campus shooter who aimed to target Jews but ended up killing Catholics, with the perpetrator expressing regret over his error, as if that would justify his crime. The author emphasizes the need to provide intervention to both victims and the broader community, training teams to be prepared for subsequent attacks.
Following a shooting at a Jewish school in another community, the author provided ‘debriefing’ to faculty and students. The husband of one teacher, non-Jewish, insisted that his wife resign, fearing she might be mistaken for a Jew in a future attack. Access to weaponry, internet games promoting violence, and massive marches calling for death to Jews all indicate an ongoing indoctrination of Americans, leading to the proliferation of violent attacks. The author, who deals with both old and young Jewish people terrified to leave their homes, notes that the risks are real and their fears legitimate.
When children cannot talk about what’s happening, fearing blame, shame, or disinterest, silence isolates them, deepening trauma. Clinical research with victims of hatred shows that unexpressed distress leads to major emotional, psychological, and even physiological symptoms. What remains unspoken gets communicated silently through mental and physical deterioration. The author calls for training educators to recognize antisemitism as a mental health risk, guiding parents to listen without dismissing a child’s fears, enforcing school policies as seriously as other forms of hate speech, and supporting Jewish organizations with trauma resources. Prevention is essential through schools offering programs on sensitivity and tolerance, addressing the belief that antisemitism is justified by twisted ideology based on hate, with recent statistics indicating nearly two-thirds of American youth repeating antisemitic rhetoric claim to support Hamas in its murderous attacks against Jews.
Antisemitism is a societal problem and a public health issue for our children, with every rejecting slur in a hostile classroom fostering distress that leads to lifelong scars. For this generation of Jewish children to thrive academically, emotionally, and spiritually, the author stresses the need to recognize antisemitism for what it is: a trauma that wounds not just individuals but communities. The mental health of our children needs protection, and so does the mental health and stability of all of humanity.