Jewish elementary school children in upstate New York were told that their parents were “complicit in genocide” and “baby killers” by protestors who also blocked the road last week, according to a New York Post report.
Bryce Gruber, a mother of children at the Woodstock Elementary School, told The Post, “They were screaming at the kids and anyone who tried to get across or got near them.”
Gruber, a mother of five, shared on Instagram that she struggled to explain to her children why the protestors were shouting such things at them. She also revealed that, as a result of the protests, the children were unable to go outside for recess.
"No one reached out"
While Gruber expressed disbelief that a protest occurred in her small town of 6,000 people, she was most concerned that her neighbors came out in support of it.
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“They were cheering them on, shouting, ‘We love you,'” Gruber told The Post. “That was the worst part.”
Gruber confronted the protesters, including a man who had been recording her and her 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter. She alleges that he threatened to upload their images onto a “Zionist Jew watchlist.”
The mother also claimed that no one reached out to the town’s Jewish community to check in in the aftermath of the protest.
The demonstrators called “Hudson Valley Neighbors,” had formed a human chain and blocked Route 375 to the Ametek Rotron building - a manufacturing plant - believing the company to be involved in producing parts of weapons for Israel.
The protesters held a banner saying, “Ametek Rotron Manufactures Genocide.”
The Town Supervisor, Bill McKenna, told reporters that demonstrators had a right to protest but not to block access to private property. Several protesters were subsequently arrested, according to The Post, and taken to New York State police headquarters.
The Jerusalem Post reported that schools in New York have experienced an uptick in antisemitism, with documented incidents of Jewish students and staff being targeted with swastikas and other antisemitic slogans and images.
In one Brooklyn high school, a Jewish teacher was threatened with swastikas and "Heil Hitler" hand gestures from students.
Such incidents are allegedly in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Code.