A Jewish student in San Francisco is taking legal action against her school principal, two former teachers, and the school district, alleging what she describes as pervasive and unrelenting antisemitic bullying and discrimination over the past two years.
Lawsuit Details
Eden Horwitz, a senior at San Leandro High School within the San Leandro Unified School District, and her mother, Montana Horwitz, filed the lawsuit claiming the harassment led to panic attacks and a decline in academic performance, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The lawsuit alleges that Horwitz faced taunting, antisemitic rallies, and anti-Jewish content in her coursework. “After October 7, I felt very targeted by my peers, and the teachers either would agree or look the other way,” Horwitz told NBC Bay Area. “I just felt completely alone.”
School Response
The filing contends that the defendants not only ignored Horwitz’s complaints about antisemitic bullying but also penalized her for raising the issue. Horwitz was a student at the school’s Social Justice Academy, which focuses on human and civil rights. The lawsuit claims the academy became sympathetic to Palestinians after the October 7 attacks and the subsequent Israeli war in Gaza.
Classmates allegedly demanded that Horwitz “answer for her entire people, wielded ‘Zionist’ as a slur, and held her personally responsible for ‘genocide’ — all because she is Jewish,” the lawsuit states. “Peers with whom she had maintained long-standing relationships dating back to elementary school terminated their friendships with her.”
Horwitz claims teachers and administrators were “deliberately indifferent to the reported discrimination,” even after she complained about the harassment.
Legal Demands
The lawsuit seeks mandatory training for all staff and students on antisemitism, closure of the Social Justice Academy until it stops teaching alleged antisemitic content, and a public statement denouncing antisemitism. Horwitz was expelled from the academy in 2025 for failing to meet academic and attendance requirements, which the lawsuit attributes to the harassment she endured.
Attorneys representing Horwitz and her mother stated that the lawsuit aims to force “systemic change” in the school system.
“This case exemplifies a disturbing trend: schools that champion social justice while turning a blind eye to antisemitism,” said attorney Jerome Marcus of the Deborah Project.
According to the SF Chronicle, dozens of court challenges and administrative complaints have targeted Bay Area schools in recent years, involving both antisemitism and Islamophobia.
