(Jewish Gr.) Anti-Semitic bullies targeted me in school. Now I'm fighting for other Jewish children.

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

My name is Melanie. I am one teenager giving voice to the challenge that Jewish children all over my home state of Connecticut and all over the country are facing. I was a victim of hate who became a leader representing students and their families.

Several years ago, I had no hope. I was experiencing vicious anti-Semitism that no child should have to deal with. I tried to trust my principal and teacher, but they told me to develop a thick skin and it wasn’t their fault I was Jewish.

I walked into my fourth-grade classroom one morning and did what I did every day, but something was different. I glanced over and noticed two classmates looking at me and laughing. By the end of the day, I found out they were laughing at me because I am Jewish.

But it didn’t stop there. The teasing and name-calling continued for months. I was called a poor and dirty Jew if I brought matzah to school on Passover or dreidels to share with my friends on Hanukkah. I was told I belonged in the Holocaust, in the ovens. One day I got a bloody nose to go along with it. When, one day in class, I finally found the courage to yell and demand that they leave me alone, I was sent to the office for disrupting the class.

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