by Sam Douglass
Information for In Committee news reports are sourced from GoldenDomeVt.com and the General Assembly website.
The Senate Committee on Education heard testimony Thursday from a number of advocates and individuals with lived experience being Jewish and experiencing anti-semitism in Vermont. This testimony wasn’t in regard to any particular bills in the committee but was to build general awareness of antisemitism in schools and familiarize lawmakers with the issue.
Testimony began with Maggie Lunz, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor on behalf of Shalom Alliance, an organization dedicated to fighting antisemitism in K-12 schools and communities. While Lunz spoke briefly, she passionately explained that antisemitism on Vermont social media is ongoing and blatant, with examples she received from as recent as late Wednesday evening that described Jewish people as “hook-nose hinies”.
The next witness was Rabbi David Fainsilber who represents the Greater Stowe region Jewish community with many of his families traveling from surrounding rural areas. Coming from a large metropolitan area, he was unprepared for the antisemitism he had found in Vermont. Jewish students have reported to him that in public schools there are often an uncountable number of swastikas drawn in the bathrooms, that antisemitic stereotypes are repeated frequently, and he told the committee a report of one student where classmates were creating a puppet of Adolf Hitler and a Jewish person in a burning house. Fainsilber also testified that some students have begun hiding their Jewish heritage and expression due to the recent growing anti-Israel sentiment in schools.
In preparation for his testimony on Thursday, Fainsilber gathered together groups at his synagogue to brainstorm ideas for the committee to best combat antisemitism. The students he gathered spoke with him about widespread ignorance and seek a balanced approach in public schools, especially with how schools address holidays.
The committee then heard testimony from a number of Jewish students in high school and college who shared similar stories and experiences to ones that Rabbi Fainsilber recounted in his testimony. One student shared a story of a swastika made of feces smeared onto the bathroom wall. Another student shared stories about other students making jokes that made light of the Holocaust or antisemitism.
The ongoing tensions and fighting in Israel has made the situation worse as one student testified, “Since October 7, many Jewish students have also experienced anti Semitism framed through
global events, including being told that they are not welcome in certain spaces because of real or perceived connections to Israel or seeing language that erases Jewish identity entirely.”
While the testimony Thursday wasn’t directed in favor or opposition to any bill, there have been bills that express similar ideas introduced into the Vermont Statehouse over the 2025-2026 biennium.
A bill, H.310, was introduced in 2025 by Fmr. Representative Casey Toof (R-Franklin 8) and aims to fight the same antisemitism expressed by the witnesses in the Senate Education Committee. The bill clarifies the legal definition of antisemitic harassment and directs the Secretary of Education to create training and curriculum to bring Holocaust awareness into our schools. Vermont is the only state in New England without mandatory Holocaust education in its public schools.
This policy was referenced and supported by the witness in the Senate Education Committee. Rabbi Fainsilber in particular lamented the situation which he views as incomprehensible. “I shared earlier that I’m third generation of Holocaust survivors. I personally had 200 relatives
murdered in the Holocaust in Poland. So I can’t comprehend how a child in Vermont can graduate high school without having learned about the Holocaust, to learn about Nazi horrors in age-appropriate ways so that it will never be repeated, to learn that the US closed its borders to Jews before the Holocaust, to learn about other genocide’s perpetrators”, said Fainsilber.
Since the attacks of October 7th 2023, anti-Isreal and pro-Palestinian sentiment has become a rallying cry for activists and the city of Montpelier itself has been subject to weekly protests on its streetcorners over the past few years. Antisemitism in Vermont isn’t restricted to schools or its major cities, and even non-Jewish Vermonters are feeling its sting. Recent reporting from Vermont Daily Chronicle detailed the antisemitic comments and death threats leveled at a bipartisan coalition of legislators who visited Israel on a legislative trip. This group of lawmakers faced calls for resignation and were ruthlessly targeted with death threats.