In an unprecedented move, an internal report about antisemitism at the prestigious and historically significant New York prep school, Collegiate School (founded in 1628), has been released, revealing that some faculty members blamed “wealthy and influential” Jewish parents for tensions following a terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7. This revelation sparked concern among Jewish parents who signed a letter to the head of school David Lourie and Board of Trustees president Jonathan K. Youngwood expressing their disappointment in the school’s internal response to the incident.
The report, compiled in March and released on May 17, acknowledges that faculty members came perilously close to invoking one of the oldest and most pervasive antisemitic tropes. A frustrated Jewish parent told The Post that people had lost confidence in the school due to a lack of morality clarity, anger, and a breakdown of trust.
The findings were released following a letter from over 100 Jewish parents in November 2023, which expressed concern that the school’s response did not meet the gravity of the situation. These parents criticized the nine-page report for being a far cry from the more than 400 pages dedicated to “combat[ing] within Collegiate the institutional and other racism that pervades so much of our society” in a 2020 report.
In addition to these findings, the report also included companion findings about Islamophobia at the school and revealed two previously unreported antisemitic incidents perpetrated by faculty members. In one instance, Middle School English teacher Dwayne Alexis was relieved of his teaching duties after presenting controversial lessons on the Middle East to his 7th-grade civics class and 6th-grade world history class following the terrorist attack. Allegedly, Alexis accused Israel of “committing genocide” shortly after the attacks and forced students to watch a video of Israel’s defensive war in Gaza without context. A person familiar with the incident said that Alexis only mentioned the word “genocide” as one of many viewpoints about the conflict.
In another case, two upper-school teachers were reprimanded after asking pressing questions of a speaker at a school Holocaust Assembly. One parent familiar with the incident explained that a Holocaust survivor was invited to speak at the assembly, and a teacher took it upon herself to question him about various topics related to the event, including whether the swastika could be considered a symbol of peace.
Collegiate School, one of New York’s most prestigious private high schools, has a long list of notable alumni, such as actor David Duchovny and rapper Lil Mabu. The school, with tuition fees for the most recent academic year running at $63,400, has been described by one disgruntled parent as “a training camp for Columbia.
