A synagogue in Montgomery County, Md., a suburb of Washington, was defaced with antisemitic graffiti on Tuesday. 

A swastika, the word “genocide” and the phrase “AZAB,” an acronym standing for “All Zionists Are Bastards,” were spray-painted on street signs and banners outside of Shaare Tefila, a Conservative congregation in Olney. The graffiti covered large signs outside of the synagogue that read “Hate Has No Home Here” in several languages below a heart shaped American flag and another that read “We Support Israel.” 

Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, called the act “outrageous.”

“While it is fortunate that no one was physically hurt, it is yet another sad reminder that antisemitic incidents have become common occurrences throughout our region,” said Halber. He added that local officials and police officers responded “immediately.” 

Halber called for increased Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding to applicants in Maryland and specifically to Montgomery County, which has the largest Jewish population in the state. 

“This funding has quickly become an absolute necessity for our community. Policymakers must sustain and build on these investments for our safety,” he said. “Let this incident serve as another reminder: antisemitism always fails. Our Jewish community will never be intimidated into silence, and we will forever be proud to support Israel.”

A book that centers on Palestinian identity is drawing controversy from some Jewish parents in the Montgomery County, Md., public school system after it was assigned to first grade students as required classroom reading, Jewish Insider has learned. 

The book,“Tunjur! Tunjur! Tunjur! A Palestinian Folktale,” written by Margaret Read MacDonald, aims to convey a message to children that there are consequences for taking things that don’t belong to them. It tells the story of a woman who “prayed to Allah” for a child and received a pot as her child. The pot, too young to know right from wrong, had a tendency to steal honey from the marketplace and jewels from the king — until she got caught. As punishment, she was filled with muck. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson,” the pot’s mother tells her. “You cannot take things that do not belong to you.” 

While the book does not mention Israel, local Jewish leaders and parents voiced concern that the required book’s subtext sends an anti-Israel message to elementary schoolers and that the reference to “Allah” does not belong in a public school setting. 

A syllabus notes that students can receive supplemental reading materials if “any instructional material conflicts with your family’s sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The book’s lesson that “‘you cannot take things that do not belong to you’ echoes activist rhetoric that falsely casts Israel as an oppressor and the Jewish people as imperialist rather than indigenous,” Dana Stangel-Plowe, chief program officer at the North American Values Institute, a nonprofit that monitors antisemitism in K-12 schools, told JI.

“It reinforces a false narrative that erases the historic Jewish connection to Israel. It sends a troubling message to Jewish families during a time of rising antisemitism,” Stangel-Plowe told JI.

Not all Jewish communal leaders agreed that the book was problematic. Guila Franklin Siegel, chief operating officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, argued that Jewish families should embrace the book.  

“If the only complaint about this book is that it’s sharing a Palestinian folktale that teaches children not to take things that don’t belong to them, I can’t see what the problem with the book is,” Franklin Siegel told JI. “It will be a shame if Jewish people wind up objecting to books only because they have protagonists who happen to be Palestinian.” 

“There may well be books and materials that do misinform students about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we always monitor that work,” said Franklin Siegel. “If we turn this into a back and forth where parents are requesting opt-outs for any material that they don’t see eye-to-eye with, we’ll wind up in a situation where we’re seeing a significant number of students whose parents are requesting opt-outs for things like Holocaust speakers.” 

Meanwhile, Margery Smelkinson, a parent of four MCPS students, told JI that she would have preferred the district find a children’s book that teaches not to steal “without causing controversy.” 

“The real problem is that MCPS chose a book that even requires an opt-out form — why not just pick another book?” 

Smelkinson called on the school district to prioritize helping students get up to speed in reading, math and science instead of “creating more barriers to learning.”

“I’m concerned and curious if my child was introduced to [similar rhetoric] last year,” Diana Tung, the parent of an MCPS second grader and kindergartener, told JI. “I assume in a public school setting there’s going to be pretty diverse spiritual beliefs [but] the context of the tale itself [concerns me]. The themes should be taught using a different folktale, I’m pretty confident there are plenty.”  

“Books and materials approved to be available for use in classrooms, beyond being in alignment with curriculum standards, are selected to be representative of our very diverse community,” Christopher Cram, a spokesperson for the suburban Washington school system, which is the 15th-largest school district in the country and educates a significant number of Jewish students, told JI. “Students and families expect to be able to see themselves in the materials we use.” 

The school system has faced several antisemitic incidents since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, leading to the school board president, Karla Silvestre, being subpoenaed to testify at a congressional hearing in May 2024. Weeks after the hearing, at least six MCPS school buildings — including three elementary schools — were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. 

The assignment of the Palestinian folktale as required reading comes two months after the Supreme Court ruled in Mahmoud v. Taylor that MCPS must allow parents to opt their children out of lessons and books that feature LGBTQ+ themes if the material conflicts with their religious beliefs.

Four schools in Montgomery County, Md., which is home to a large Jewish community, were vandalized on Monday with antisemitic graffiti, prompting condemnations from both candidates in the high-profile contest to replace Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD).

Police were called to four different schools in the area on Monday morning to respond to reports of antisemitic messages and iconography being spray painted on their respective properties. The calls were all made within a three-hour timespan, the first coming from Churchill High School in Potomac just before 6:30 a.m. Wootton High School in Rockville made the second call at 7:35 a.m., followed by Strathmore Elementary School in Silver Spring at 9:15 a.m. and Fallsmead Elementary School, also in Rockville, at 9:24 a.m. 

One message read: “Israel Bombs Schools.” Another brandished Hitler’s name next to a swastika. 

Montgomery County Police are investigating the incidents.

A Montgomery County Public Schools spokesperson said on Monday that, “A number of our schools were illegally vandalized with politically charged graffiti, antisemitic iconography (including swastikas), and, in some instances, anti-LGBTQ+ language.”

The spokesperson said that the school district was reaching out to parents to make them aware of the situation, adding that principals were asking staff to report such incidents and to offer “the supportive resources necessary to address the harm and anxiety these actions may have caused.”

“We are committed to maintaining a safe, inclusive environment where all students, staff, and caregivers feel safe, valued, seen, heard and have a sense of belonging. We firmly denounce divisive actions that perpetuate hate, inequality, and injustice against any person, family, or community. We must unite to recognize and embrace our differences and not let them divide us,” the MCPS spokesperson said. 

The incident, which came one week after nearby Bethesda Elementary School was vandalized, was swiftly condemned by local leaders, including the two candidates in the state’s high-profile Senate race.

“Let’s call this what it is — antisemitic vandalism. These acts of hate have no place in Maryland. I will always stand with our state’s Jewish community, and fully support local authorities as they pursue the perpetrators of this abhorrent crime,” former Gov. Larry Hogan, the Republican nominee, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. 

“Hate speech has no place in Maryland and will not be tolerated. I was deeply disturbed and saddened to hear that an individual defaced Montgomery County schools with antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ graffiti,” Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic nominee, told Jewish Insider in a statement. 

“Our schools are places where our children and our families can come together in learning – hate and vitriol do not belong, and these acts are disgusting. I am grateful to our law enforcement for their quick response, and know they will hold the perpetrators accountable.“To our Jewish friends, family, and neighbors and to our LGBTQ+ neighbors: you belong in Maryland. We will stand together against this hate,” Alsobrooks added.

Guila Franklin Siegel, chief operating officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, also denounced the vandalism, noting that it was the “second consecutive week” that Montgomery County schools were facing antisemitic attacks. 

“It is no accident that the perpetrators of these incidents have defaced schools that are located in neighborhoods with high concentrations of Jewish residents and have significant numbers of Jewish students and faculty members,” Siegel said. “These schools are also blocks away from multiple synagogues. This pattern of behavior — in impact and almost certainly in design — targets Montgomery County’s Jews. In doing so, it causes tremendous harm not only to Israelis and Jews, but to our entire shared community.”

“We are confident that people of goodwill across all backgrounds and faiths will see these acts for what they are: hateful words designed to tear our communities apart rather than bring them together,” she added.