Students at NYC high school terrorized by antisemitic teens blame social media for ‘horrible’ behavior

Brooklyn high schoolers who spewed antisemitic, Hitler-loving hate toward Jewish teachers and classmates are being radicalized by disturbing social media content and their own families, students at the school told The Post. 

Their observations come a week after The Post revealed horrifying antisemitism at Origin High School in Sheepshead Bay, where students told a Jewish teacher they wished she was killed, and video captured a teen wearing a Hitler mustache while making a Nazi salute.

“It definitely comes from social media … it’s just one-sided perspectives,” said an Origins freshman.

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Racist rhetoric is common in the hallways and all over teens’ social media feeds, with students pushing hate anonymously on burner accounts, according to two sophomores at a charter school co-located in the building.

“There was a video on Instagram that was going viral — it was a group of Jewish boys in a park and [another] group of boys were doing Nazi things while the [Jewish] kids were trying to play basketball,” said one of the sophomores. “It’s horrible.”

Origins students —  40 percent are Muslim and many come from Middle Eastern families — may also be channeling antisemitism or anti-Israel sentiment fostered in their homes, classmates suggested. 

“At Origins, we’re a melting pot of kids from all different backgrounds and religions, so I think a lot of those biases and things start in the home when we’re younger — they’re like inherent biases,” said a 17-year-old Muslim senior.

The city’s Department of Education has allowed antisemitism to persist — and metastasize — by not combating the “Jew-hating narratives” teens are absorbing, said Michelle Ahdoot, director of programming and strategy for the advocacy group End Jew Hatred.

“The principal [at Origins] is not at all acting in accordance with what should be done,” Ahdoot said. It’s sad, it’s disheartening.” 

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The Origins administration has repeatedly downplayed the severity of students’ hateful actions, records show. 

The Post reviewed four school incident reports — including one on the teen who posed as Hitler, and two describing harassment of Jewish teachers; with kids telling one “they don’t like Jewish people” and another that “they love Hitler.”

All the incidents were initially classified as harassment based on “race, color, creed, religion,” etc. but the reports state  “No” as to whether they were “Bias Related.”  

If categorized as bias-motivated, the superintendent and NYPD would be notified, and the students could have received an out-of-school suspension.  Instead, they received a slap on the wrist with just their parents being called.

Acting principal Dara Kammerman said in an email to Jewish teacher Danielle Kaminsky that two students she reported as praising Hitler claimed “they were having a history-related conversation.” 

The students were “willing to have a restorative conversation” to resolve the matter, Kammerman wrote. 

Days before The Post’s front-page exposé, Kammerman allowed students to speak at an assembly to promote a rally at Brooklyn College to “honor the martyrs” of Palestine, and to share flyers for the event.

One flyer landed on Kaminsky’s desk with a scribbled note: “Fuck Isreal [sic] n—a.” 

That incident was also deemed not bias-related, an internal report shows. The DOE said the matter is under investigation.

DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer defended Kammerman, saying, “Our principals are listening, and the principal at Origins High School has a record of addressing complaints head-on with both education and appropriate consequences – including suspensions.”

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The DOE would not explain why the reported incidents of harassment of Jewish teachers were marked not bias-related. Even though there was video of the teen posing as Hitler, the DOE cited “lack of evidence.

The closest mosque to the school, Muslim American Society Sheepshead Bay Community Center, is located 11 blocks away.

The center’s imam, Muhammad Abdulhay, blamed social media for the teens’ antisemitism. “We don’t teach it,” he said.

“Many brothers and sisters go to the wrong places in the media and, you know, every second you have millions and millions of new clips and videos,” Abdulhay told The Post.

An 18-year-old senior attending Professional Pathways, an alternative school co-located in the building, said Origins students’ antisemitic terror stems from being exposed to the “Free Palestine” movement and protests against Israel.

“It’s like another way of protesting,” the student said about the hateful actions. “That’s what people who protest do — they start rioting, they start writing stuff, throwing stuff.”

“They just love their country and they take it to the extreme — which isn’t that bad until it’s taken to places where it shouldn’t be brought, like all that Nazi stuff,” he added.