‘This school is a living hell hole’: Jewish teachers and students reportedly bullied by antisemitic students in NYC school

A New York high school continues to allow anti-semitic students to harass Jewish teachers and students without any repercussions, according to several staff at the school.

Three weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre resulting in the death of 1,200 people, dozens of students at Origins High School reportedly marched through the halls with a Palestinian flag, chanting “Death to Israel” and “Kill the Jews.”

Danielle Kaminsky, a Jewish teacher, said antisemitism at Origins has been festering for several years, the New York Post reports.

“I live in fear of going to work every day,” Kaminsky said.

The Post interviewed several staff members and obtained a Jewish student’s transfer request, all which revealed several incidents, including:

• A student painted a “Hitler mustache” on his face and banged on classroom doors, giving Nazi salutes when a door opened. 
• Three swastikas were drawn on teachers’ walls or other objects in a single week. 
• A 10th-grader told Kaminsky, “I wish you were killed.” 
• Another student called her “a dirty Jew” and said he wished Hitler could have “hit more Jews,” including her. 
• Students pasted drawings of the Palestinian flag with notes saying “Free Palestine” on Kaminsky’s classroom door. One scribbled note simply said “Die.” 

Kaminsky claims students routinely draw swastikas next to their names on classwork, engrave the Nazi symbol on their desks, and scribble them on bulletin boards.  

In 2021, the Israeli flag – one of nearly 200 from countries around the world hanging in Kaminsky’s history classroom – was ripped down.  

A group of girls told her it was taken outside and burned.  

Last January, a group a male students cornered Kaminsky in her classroom at the end of the day before asking, “Miss Kaminsky, do you love Hitler?” 

“I was so taken aback,” Kaminsky told The Post. “I did not respond, and they all gave the heil Hitler sign.” 

Kaminsky quickly left her classroom, frightened, but the boys chased her down the hallway.  

Campus manager Michael Beaudry said the scene was captured on security footage. 

Despite reporting every incident to school administration Kaminsky was offered little help. 

“I’ve been yelled at, followed, taunted,” Kaminsky said. “I report everything to the principal. I’ve been to a school safety committee. I’ve told my union, the UFT. I’ve told my superintendent.” 

“Nothing has made me feel safe going to school. I used to get involved in after-school clubs, sports, and Regents prep. Now I don’t want to stay in the building any longer than I have to.”  

Beaudry claimed no serious discipline has been handed down for any of the reported incidents occurring in the school under acting principal Dara Kammerman’s leadership.  

“She is perpetuating an antisemitic environment and a school of hate,” Beaudry told The Post. “The students continue these behaviors because they know there won’t be any consequences.” 

The school’s enrollment has recently dropped from 508 to 445 after several Jewish students left the school due to intense bullying.  

According to reports, approximately 178 students at Origins are Muslim while no more than a dozen students are Jewish. 

One Jewish sophomore requested a safety transfer after finding three swastikas scribbled on his laptop charger when he returned from the restroom. 

“I feel like in history class I’m always targeted and it’s hard for me to take,” the student said in the request obtained by The Post. “I feel very uncomfortable in this school, and the comments just make it worse and worse every day.” 

Beaudry described the school as a “ticking time bomb.”  

Beaudry submitted 15 complaints against Kammerman to the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools. However, the official referred these complaints to the city Department of Education for internal handling.  

“There is currently no evidence that these claims are true, but we are investigating the claims,” the department said. 

Kaminsky and Beaudry say Kammerman has retaliated by issuing numerous disciplinary warnings for insubordination.  

Seeking intervention, they approached City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov and ex-Assemblyman Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism.  

Mark Goldfeder, senior counsel with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law, was also contacted and is prepared to file a civil-rights lawsuit on their behalf, and potentially others.  

“Even in this time of heightened antisemitism, I am shocked at the level of depravity on display here, and at the administration’s callous, indefensible tolerance of it,” Goldfeder told The Post. “Antisemitism, like all forms of hate, is not intuitive. It must be learned. Apparently, it is being taught at Origins, and that is simply unacceptable.” 

After reviewing dozens of complaints and speaking with teachers, parents and students, Vernikov described the school as a “hell hole.”  

“The horror described by those who teach and attend this school is beyond belief,” she said. “It has become abundantly clear that this school is a living hell hole for so many. If immediate change is not made, many will continue to suffer.”