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A STUDENT’S VIEW - Los Angeles doesn’t have an inclusion problem. It has a courage problem.
In a city that prides itself on diversity, Jewish students are learning a harsh and uncomfortable truth: some identities are protected loudly while others are protected conditionally, quietly, or not at all.
After October 7, that reality didn’t emerge. It was exposed.
Across Los Angeles, Jewish students are walking into classrooms and onto campuses with a new calculation: not how to succeed but how visible they can afford to be. Whether to speak. Whether to stay silent. Whether to hide a symbol, a belief, or a piece of who they are.
That is not education.
That is self-preservation.
In classrooms across the city, students are second-guessing what should never be questioned. Speaking up in discussions. Wearing symbols of identity. Even engaging in conversations that touch on Jewish history or Israel. The calculation is no longer academic it is personal, and it is constant.
And it is happening in a city that claims to stand for equity.
Let’s be honest about what’s unfolding. This isn’t subtle. Jewish students are being pushed to the margins—not always through explicit acts, but through something just as corrosive: institutional hesitation. A reluctance to speak clearly. A tendency to qualify, contextualize, or ignore antisemitism when it becomes politically uncomfortable.
What would be condemned instantly if directed at any other community is too often debated when it targets Jews.
Los Angeles has shown that it can respond swiftly when other communities face discrimination. Statements are issued. Policies are reinforced. Leaders speak with clarity and urgency.
But when antisemitism surfaces especially when it intersects with politics that clarity disappears. The urgency fades. The response softens. And the message becomes dangerously inconsistent.
In Los Angeles, inclusion is not a principle it’s a negotiation. And Jewish students are being asked to negotiate their identity.
That double standard is not accidental. It is a choice.
And so is the silence.
City leadership has never been shy about taking positions on issues of justice and discrimination. But on this issue on the safety and dignity of Jewish students—its silence is not an oversight it is a decision.
The same applies to public education systems across the city. Policies may exist on paper. Commitments may be repeated in statements. But students don’t experience policy they experience culture. They experience classrooms. They experience silence.
And right now, too many are experiencing that silence as permission.
Silence is not balance.
Silence is a signal.
It tells students that some forms of hate will be met with urgency while others will be met with hesitation.
Jewish students are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for consistency. For the same clarity, the same protection, and the same moral urgency that this city extends to every other community.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
Leadership is measured not by the issues that are easy to address, but by the ones that are uncomfortable. And right now, Los Angeles leadership is choosing comfort over clarity.
Because when institutions hesitate to confront antisemitism directly, they do not create neutrality they create space.
Space for exclusion.
Space for hostility.
Space for fear.
This moment is a test not of messaging, but of integrity.
If Los Angeles cannot guarantee that a Jewish student can walk into a classroom and speak openly without fear, then its claims of diversity are not just weakened they are exposed.
Exposed as selective.
Exposed as conditional.
Exposed as incomplete.
Los Angeles doesn’t have an inclusion problem it has a leadership failure.
And when leadership fails, students don’t just feel it they live it.
Every day. In every classroom. In silence.
(Shoshannah Kalaydjian is a young Jewish student who writes about education, identity, and the challenges facing the next generation. Growing up in today’s climate, she has witnessed firsthand how rising antisemitism affects young people in classrooms and on college campuses. She is committed to sharing the perspectives of Jewish youth, amplifying student voices, and encouraging leaders to create safer, more inclusive environments for all students.)
