meanwhile the US and New Jersey continue to see a staggering rise of anti-Semitic and islamophobic incidents since the war broke out the US Department of Education confirmed on Friday it opened a federal civil rights investigation into Teck public schools for what it calls discrimination involving shared ancestry adding the district to a list of other educational institutions being investigated since October 7th including Newark Public Schools and ruter University Newark the Teck announcement comes after high school students staged a walk out in November in support of Palestinians despite those tensions though two tck high school students one Jewish one Muslim are working to bring their Community together by helping them better understand the conflict senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports as part of exploring hate our ongoing series of reports on anti-Semitism racism and extremism I posted and I was like who would be willing to help me with an educational event and Leora had slid up and she was like really passionate about it I had a lot of peers who were posting things on social media who had never like heard of Israel and Palestine before so I thought I wanted to like let them learn in a space that wasn't just social media so they could ask questions without getting into like heated conversations so when Leora pen messaged Roa albat raish on Instagram the two created a plan to hold an educational discussion for their peers who attend Tac high school they called it through a deeper lens and held it at theth IAL culture Society of Bergen County in October with all the past tension in the town I was really scared that this would end really badly but how we started it was we had a ruers professor give a piece that kind of looks at things in the Deep history of it like the Deep trauma of what's going on like for example we looked into the neck B and then we looked into the Holocaust and we kind of gave everyone basic just basic information that everyone really needs to know the students say the diversity of Teck made it ripe for a conversation like this but they needed a framework to make it safe p and Drew on a program they attended this summer where they engaged with people who have extreme views on a number of issues from guns to abortion we made everyone sign a contract at our thing that you couldn't even like start really yelling you could have a passionate conversation but yelling was not allowed because it was a safe space to feel uncomfortable it's not really legally binding but it it meant that in the back of their heads they were reminded to be uncomfortable um to listen to the other person not to yell when you feel angry and upset the event was such a success that they held a second one a month later called a lens for all specifically for adults in the community who they believe often steer the opinions of their children it's really important to be able to recognize that the way you feel for your opinions others feel for theirs so if you're not going to change you can't expect change within the other side so are you willing to change your opinion is that what you're saying well I won't be willing to change my opinion because I feel like I'm pretty strong with mine but I'm willing to understand others to sympathize with others which is like really important like you're not being asked to change the way you feel towards yours but you have to be able to have respect for the others as well the goal of like the conversation wasn't to change people's opinions I think it was to change how we view others opinions did you find that you were able to facilitate conversations through other people's discomfort what did that look like so I know there was a couple tables at both of our events where there were strong difference and opinions and that kind of like I heard a lot of people that came to us after it and they were like I felt uncomfortable with this part but I personally feel like the minute you start feeling uncomfortable is the minute you start learning something new about the other our conversations here are not going to change what's happening in Israel Palestine but we want to change the situations around here so that in the future and for the long term people have the ability to have these conversations online as well but with everyone the events aren't part of the TX School District but staff member Connie Le says the district supports their efforts I haven't met a you know very many students who have the passion or who have the um incentive to try to bring about the change that they totally believe in um which makes me so proud of them and I get emotional thinking about it and I hope that they are able to you know be the example to all the other youth in this um not just this school but the nation Leora and Roa are now starting a nonprofit called the deeper lens where they're going to take this program that they've developed and offer it out to other school districts or Community organizations that want to have similar uncomfortable conversations within their own communities in tenek I'm Joanna Gagiss NJ Spotlight News funding for exploring hate is provided by Charlotte and David Ackert Support also is provided by the tiger Baron Foundation Nancy and Morris W. offit and Josh Weston