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Great Neck educators describe Brandeis antisemitism institute and plans to integrate materials across grades
Summary
A six-person Great Neck team attended a Brandeis summer institute on antisemitism; educators described workshops, plans for classroom units and a teacher InService course in November to share materials districtwide.
Educators from Great Neck told the Board of Education about their participation in a Brandeis University summer institute on antisemitism and outlined plans to adapt the institute''s materials across district curricula.
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Dan Holtzman introduced a six-member team that attended the four-day, application-based seminar; the cohort was scheduled to travel to Israel with the program but that portion was postponed to July 2026, presenters said. The team described intensive sessions on the history and contemporary manifestations of antisemitism and said Brandeis provided experts and primary sources.
Presenters described classroom-level plans: a middle school approach that weaves primary-source documents into existing social studies units, and high school research units that ask students to study three historical instances of antisemitism and evaluate them using the 3-D test (demonization, double standards, delegitimization). High-school teachers said they would pair study of antisemitism with units on resistance, resilience and civic engagement and align the work with New York State ELA and media-literacy standards.
District leaders said they will offer an educator course through the district''s InService Institute in November using Brandeis materials, and that the two newly sworn-in student ex officio board members will help carry student voice into board discussions. Several board members praised the team''s work and noted the district''s earlier state-level recognition in Holocaust education.
Presenters emphasized age-appropriate curriculum design and said instruction will differ by grade level; middle school staff said they will repeat relevant documents across units to increase retention, while high school teachers described semester-length research assignments and explicit media-literacy instruction.
No new district-wide mandate or written curriculum was adopted tonight; presenters said specifics about scope, timelines and oversight remain under discussion and that materials and a teacher training schedule would be shared with the district and the board in coming weeks.
