Jewish Children in Canada Outcasts of the Public School System That Will Not Protect Them

"He literally doesn't go to school anymore. He has absolutely no desire to be in school."

"I've pulled him out completely. He's got no desire to learn."

"He has no faith in any of the school[s], the systems or anything of that sort." 

"I was at my wits' end. I was like, 'If they're [police] not going to do anything, then goddammit, I'm doing something. [However], the only thing that I could do was put the kids through restorative justice."

"The fact that my son does not go to school anymore just tells you he's petrified. He doesn't want to go to school; he doesn't want to be around these kids. He knows he's just going to be bullied again."

"We could move, but why am I forced to move out of an area that I lived in for over 23 years? You want me to pick up and move because of what's going on with the demographics in my area?"

"Guess what. I'm staying here. It is my house." 

Aviva Rubin-Schneider, Halifax 

 

"Three youths were referred to the Restorative Justice process, which is led by Coverdale Justice Society."

"Restorative justice is tailored to each individual situation, but in some cases it could involve police and/or the victim attending meetings with the participant so that all involved can speak to how the incident affected each person and the community."

Halifax police spokesman Martin Cromwell 

 

"All schools in the Halifax Regional Centre for Education are committed to providing safe, welcoming and inclusive learning environments for students and staff."

"Antisemitism -- including the use of slurs or symbols of hate -- is unacceptable and addressed as discriminatory or racist behaviour under Nova Scotia's Provincial Code of Conduct."

"Behaviour of this nature is taken seriously and addressed consistently in accordance with policy."

Kelly Connors, spokesperson, Halifax Regional Centre for Education 

 

 

At age 14, a Halifax school student after undergoing years of harassment and antisemitic slurs, now pursues his school studies online, no longer willing to submit himself to more of the same and worse, by physically attending Park West School in Halifax. Where classmates called  him 'Jewseph' and 'Jewboy' and when passing him in the school hallways, executed the Nazi salute in his direction. Brought to the attention time and again of the school authorities, nothing was ever done to put a stop to the bullying antisemitism.

 

And then, things became even more dire for the boy following October 7, 2023, when Palestinian terrorists flooded into southern Israel, headed by thousands of Hamas operatives as well as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to execute a barbaric sweep of Israeli farming communities, raping girls and women, shooting and stabbing people to death, immolating families sheltering in their safe rooms by setting fire to their homes, savagely torturing women, then abducting children, the elderly, men, women, and foreign farm workers.

 

This event spurred an immediate reaction among Palestinian-Canadians and other Muslim groups, when they assembled in large numbers at demonstrations in the streets of Canadian cities against Israel, defending Hamas's atrocities as a response to Israeli 'occupation', which constrains Palestinians from carrying out their incessant 'martyrdom' attacks on Jews in Israel, incited by their leadership as a 'struggle' against the 'occupiers', who convince Palestinian youth that there is no greater glory than to become a martyr.

 

From Palestinians encouraged to use any means at their disposal to kill Jews, to Muslim and leftist sympathizers in Canada taking up the challenge to harass, intimidate, and threaten Canadian Jews, moving on to firebomb and shoot up synagogues and Jewish schools while propagandizing Israel as 'genocidal' and 'apartheid', the world changed for Jews in Canada. And 14-year-old Joseph Rubin-Schneider was one of many victims. 

 

Wall/Instagram

Matters changed for the worse for the boy when in January of 2024 several of his fellow students assaulted him on school grounds, punching, kicking, throwing him to the ground while he was being name-called by watching students. "My son didn't throw a punch", his mother said later. The school authority continued to fail to provide the boy with a safe learning environment. He is now in therapy while conducting studies online through the public school system. 

 

When Aviva Rubin-Schneider contacted the Halifax Regional Police and their hate crime unit in 2023, a plainclothes police officer met with the principal and vice-principal of the Park West  elementary and middle school following which a police officer delivered a few lectures on racism, intolerance and hate crimes to students between grades 6 and 9. This intervention failed to produce a safe learning environment for her son; the harassment simply continued.  

"More antisemitic incidents were documented last year in physical spaces than the year before. These included street assaults, attacks on synagogues, targeted harassment of Jewish communities, and repeated harm to Jewish institutions."

"Antisemitism in Nova Scotia Schools is a concerning issue, and we get many complaints from students and parents every year."

Atlantic Jewish Council 

 Many Jewish-Canadians now wonder, as the country they were born in, where their parents were born and raised them has become unfamiliar, whether this is no longer their country in equal measure with all other Canadians. The house that Aviva Rubin-Schneider claims as her own, her neighbourhood, her city, her province and her country has been invaded by a culture, a social system, a religion and an ideology completely adverse to the values and social mores she grew up with and valued, trusted and loved. Leaving behind, beside, and before Canadian Jews the confrontational question: Is Canada still their 'house'?