A rabbi representing a group of Jewish parents of Pikesville Middle students says antisemitic graffiti has at least twice appeared on the school’s physical complex over the past month but the school’s leadership is not doing enough about the situation.
Rabbi Velvel Belinsky of Pikesville’s ARIEL (American-Russian Institute for Enrichment of Life) synagogue and community center, said a swastika was first found in a bathroom at Pikesville Middle in November. Accompanying the swastika, he said, were the words, “Kill the Jews.”
Last week, a second swastika was etched in a classroom with the words, “Heil Hitler,” Rabbi Belinsky said.
“The boy who found it said he was scared to go back to school the next day,” the rabbi said. “Parents are scared, too.”
Antisemitism at academic institutions and elsewhere has skyrocketed around the nation and world since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Last weekend, outdoor signage at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation declaring support for Israel and the release of Israeli hostages was vandalized and destroyed. (BHC is located only a few blocks from Pikesville Middle.) The synagogue reported the incident to Baltimore County Police.
Rabbi Belinsky said he and Jewish parents met last Thursday, Dec. 7, with Pikesville Middle principal Nicole Bridges.
“The parents insisted on having me there, even though she was opposed to that,” Rabbi Belinsky said. “She started out the meeting with a long speech about keeping everyone safe at the school, and didn’t make any references at all to the swastikas or antisemitism. Afterward, I asked her to address the incident, and again she only spoke of having equal rights for everyone.”
The rabbi said he asked Bridges if law enforcement authorities were contacted by the school about the matter. “She only said that she was speaking to different community members about it,” he said. ” So there was no movement. … She admitted that nothing was done about it and is not sure if and what will be done in the future.”
When contacted by Jmore, Bridges’ office referred all inquiries to the office of communications at Baltimore County Public Schools. BCPS communications specialist Charles Herndon confirmed that Pikesville Middle was the site of “an incident in early November” but said there have been no recent issues.
In a statement, the school system wrote, “BCPS considers graffiti on or inside a school to be vandalism and a serious offense; BCPS also considers expressions of hate, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or bias to be serious offenses and will investigate and take action against those who are responsible for such expressions.
“At Pikesville Middle School, an image of a swastika was found over an early November weekend inside a school bathroom and administration quickly responded to remove the image. The school has not seen nor received reports of any additional images and/or graffiti that have been found this month.”
The remaining 6,000 members of the community are expected to immigrate by 2030.
The Columbia resident worked on the Gemini and Apollo space missions.
Israel is increasingly reliant on foreign workers, hundreds of whom moved into the dilapidated building during the Iran war.
A St. Louis native, Edelman served as ambassador to the central African nation from 1987 to 1989.