A senior at an elite NYC high school already plagued by antisemitic incidents received so much hate this week over her decision to attend Tel Aviv University that the school’s college-decision Instagram page had to be taken down, the teen and her parents told The Post.
The despicable deluge came immediately after Brooklyn Technical HS’ Class of 2025 student-run account announced on Monday that the student committed to a dual degree program between Tel Aviv and Columbia universities.
One hater replied that she had “nothing to be proud of.” Another said they looked forward to her thesis on “ethnic cleansing.”
Others made outrageous comments about her “cheating her way into genocide university,” and going to a college built “on children corpses,” parroting Hamas talking points.
The girl’s plans for a political science and Middle Eastern studies dual major was also ridiculed: “lol middle eastern studies this has to b a joke,” someone said.
Another student — who is in a class with the girl — even shared the post to his own Instagram “story” but added a massive Palestinian flag to cover her college announcement.
But the senior, whose name is being withheld by The Post, said the worst comment of all was, “Man with mustache was right,” referring to Adolf Hitler.
Hundreds of dark comments continued into Tuesday, turning the celebratory post into a political firestorm so nasty that the entire @bths25decisions account was taken down by the school on Wednesday.
“It’s not only really affecting me, but the whole Jewish community at school,” the 17-year-old told The Post.
But the high-achieving scholar, a Jewish student union leader from Manhattan, said she was not shocked by the vitriol, which she has experienced since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks killed 1,200 innocent Israelis.
“I was caught off guard but I’m not totally surprised because this has happened with my school before,” she told The Post. “After October 7th, I would voice my opinions and people knew where I stood, especially being Jewish and Israeli, and people would harass me online.”
The Post has reported on antisemitic incidents plaguing the elite Fort Greene school long before Hamas’ 2023 massacre. Students met with faculty including Principal David Newman last spring to discuss hate they were experiencing but were forbidden from using the words “Israel” or “Zionism,” which could be “triggering.”
When horrible remarks began this week, student moderators turned off the comments, some of which were from anonymous accounts that appeared to be created only to spew hate. Others even acknowledged that they weren’t students at the school.
“Caused a Brooklyn tech civil war with this post,” one commenter said, with a crying emoji.
Moderators tried to smooth the incident over with clumsy statements.
“We do not condone any degree of antisemitism or Zionism,” they said in one Instagram story on Tuesday, seemingly condemning support for Israel. “We will do our best to refrain from taking any political stances, and any deviation from this policy can be attributed to human error.”
Then, a second statement was made: “WE ARE SORRY,” it read. “NO POLITICS. NO ANTI-SEMITISM. NO NOTHING.”
Shortly after, the account was shut down by the school, according to sources.
Students said the outcome was “disappointing” because the page was simply to share news about college plans.
“Every senior deserves to be able to celebrate their college accomplishment without it being political,” another Brooklyn Tech senior told The Post.
The girl, her parents and her friends have urged the specialized high school to take action.
“I expect them to take action against the student that we know initiated some of this and we have requested that he be removed from her class, that he get suspended,” her dad told The Post. “We requested that they write an official statement to the school community . . . all of which they were receptive to, but non-committal.”
The city Department of Education said the school immediately intervened after learning about the incident, launched an investigation and is “taking the necessary steps to respond.”
“Any form of antisemitism, bullying, or hatred has absolutely no place in our schools, communities, or online,” a spokesperson told The Post.
Sources say Brooklyn Tech is working to create a school-sanctioned account for college announcements that would have an administrator assigned to it.
Linda Quarles, a Brooklyn Tech parent and vice president of the Citywide Council on High Schools, a volunteer advisory board, said she “trusts the kids who participated in this ugliness are going to face severe consequences.”
“When you see a host of anonymous accounts and those unrelated to the school jumping in, it’s obvious that these are coordinated campaigns designed to intimidate and harass Jews,” she added. “The school stepped in to swiftly close down the account but that doesn’t solve the problem of Jew-hatred in our city.”
The Israel-bound senior said she’s not letting that hate at home put a damper on her plans for the fall.
“I’m excited to experience both Tel Aviv and Columbia,” she said. “I’m not really scared because I feel like I’ve gone through enough — I know how to handle it.”
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