In an era of surging antisemitism across American campuses and communities, the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) has launched a targeted educational initiative in San Diego County, partnering with the education technology platform PeerK12 to sponsor a high school essay contest tied to Jewish American Heritage Month. The program invites juniors and seniors to research and write about Jewish American history and contributions, offering up to $30,000 in scholarships — a deliberate investment in the next generation's understanding of Jewish identity, history, and the corrosive threat of Jew-hatred. The initiative stands as a direct and principled response to a national crisis: antisemitic incidents in the United States reached record levels in the aftermath of Hamas's October 7, 2023 massacre against Israel, and California has consistently ranked among the states with the highest concentration of such incidents. At its core, this program reflects a broader strategic reality — that education is one of the most powerful weapons against hatred, ignorance, and the normalization of antisemitism.
The Combat Antisemitism Movement and Its Mission
The Combat Antisemitism Movement is a global coalition of Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, founded in 2018, dedicated to the unified fight against antisemitism in all its forms — from overt neo-Nazi violence to the more subtle, institutionalized delegitimization of Israel that has become fashionable in progressive academic and political circles. CAM operates on the conviction that antisemitism is not merely a Jewish problem but a threat to the democratic values that underpin free societies. The organization mobilizes governments, civil society organizations, faith groups, and educational institutions to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism — a definition now endorsed by dozens of countries and hundreds of institutions as the gold standard for identifying and combating Jew-hatred. CAM's decision to bring this initiative to San Diego is not accidental: San Diego County is home to a vibrant Jewish community and has witnessed a troubling uptick in antisemitic incidents, harassment, and vandalism — particularly in the years following October 7.
Jewish American Heritage Month, observed every May by Presidential proclamation since 2006, serves as the backdrop for this contest. The month was established by Congressional resolution to formally recognize the extraordinary contributions of Jewish Americans to United States culture, science, law, politics, arts, and commerce. By embedding the scholarship contest within this national commemoration, CAM and PeerK12 signal that the fight against antisemitism is not purely reactive — it is also proactive, rooted in affirmation, pride, and rigorous historical literacy.
The Alarming Context: Antisemitism in California and Across the U.S.
The need for initiatives like this San Diego contest cannot be overstated. According to the Anti-Defamation League's 2023 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, the United States recorded 8,873 antisemitic incidents in 2023 — the highest number since tracking began in 1979 and a 140% increase over the prior year. California led the nation in total incidents, with thousands of documented cases ranging from physical assaults and vandalism to harassment on college campuses. The explosion in antisemitism was inseparably linked to the global reaction to Hamas's October 7 attack — in which approximately 1,200 Israelis were murdered and 251 taken hostage — and the subsequent wave of pro-Hamas demonstrations that swept American university campuses, many of which devolved into open calls for the elimination of the Jewish state.
San Diego, home to institutions such as UC San Diego and San Diego State University, was not immune. Reports of Jewish students being harassed, excluded from campus spaces, and subjected to antisemitic slurs multiplied in the months following October 7. High school students in the county were also exposed to antisemitic social media content and, in some cases, confronted with denial of Jewish history directly in educational settings. Against this backdrop, CAM's scholarship contest targets young people at exactly the inflection point — before hateful narratives have the opportunity to harden into ideology.
Key Facts About the Initiative
- The Combat Antisemitism Movement partnered with PeerK12, an education technology platform designed to connect students with scholarship opportunities, to administer the San Diego Jewish American Heritage Month Student Contest for high school juniors and seniors across San Diego County.
- Participating students are eligible to win up to $30,000 in scholarships by submitting essays on Jewish American history and the contributions of Jewish Americans to the United States — directly countering historical illiteracy and erasure that fuel antisemitic sentiment.
- Jewish American Heritage Month was formally established by a Congressional resolution and Presidential proclamation in 2006, and the ADL provides K-12 educational resources annually to support schools in observing the month with age-appropriate, historically grounded curricula.
Analysis: Education as a Counterterrorism and Counter-Hatred Strategy
What makes the CAM–PeerK12 San Diego initiative particularly significant is its strategic premise: that ignorance of Jewish history is not a neutral condition but a vulnerability actively exploited by antisemitic actors, from Islamist propagandists to white nationalist agitators and far-left anti-Zionist networks. Research consistently demonstrates that students who learn about Jewish history, including the Holocaust, the long arc of Jewish persecution, and the remarkable contributions of Jewish Americans to democratic life, are measurably less susceptible to antisemitic conspiracy theories and hate speech. This is not incidental — it is the pedagogical argument that undergirds programs from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to the Jewish Virtual Library's resources on Jewish American Heritage Month.
CAM's choice to offer substantial scholarship funding — up to $30,000 — also signals a sophisticated understanding of what motivates high school students. By attaching meaningful financial incentive to historical research and essay writing about Jewish heritage, the program reframes Jewish identity and history not as niche or marginal topics but as worthy of serious academic effort and reward. In a media environment saturated with anti-Israel narratives, social media disinformation, and the normalization of phrases like "from the river to the sea," this contest positions Jewish American history as something worth knowing and defending.
Significance: A Model for National Replication
The San Diego initiative arrives at a pivotal moment for American Jewry and for the broader democratic project. The United States government itself has responded to the post-October 7 antisemitism surge: Congress passed the Countering Antisemitism Act, which among other provisions formally enshrined May as Jewish American Heritage Month in federal law and required the Department of Education to designate a senior official to advise on countering antisemitic discrimination in higher education. CAM's San Diego contest sits within this national arc of accountability and education, demonstrating that civil society organizations need not wait for government action to make a difference at the community level.
The program also carries a message for Jewish communities across the country: defiance through education is not passive. By encouraging young people to learn and articulate the story of Jewish Americans — their struggles, triumphs, and irreplaceable contributions to the American experiment — CAM is building the kind of informed civic culture that inoculates communities against the scapegoating, erasure, and dehumanization that precede and enable antisemitic violence. San Diego's Jewish community, facing the same headwinds as Jewish communities from New York to Los Angeles, now has an organized, well-funded, and inspiring counter-narrative to offer its youth. If replicated across the country, this model of scholarship-driven heritage education could serve as one of the most effective grassroots tools in the American arsenal against rising Jew-hatred.