Antisemitism Hits Hard Nationally and Locally
As many Republican leaders stay silent about Donald Trump’s recent dinner with antisemites, echoes are being heard in far less public ways, even in the court systems designed to protect children.
In New Jersey, antisemitism is hitting children and families even harder, and according to Anti-Defamation League, the state has the 2nd most antisemitic incidents in America.
One especially challenging case involves a Jewish father, U.S. citizen, Mr. Konstantinovski, whose ex-wife is a Russian citizen and shares 50/50 custody of their son. The boy’s mother is not Jewish and has expressed antisemitic hate speech while breaking a restraining order placed on her for domestic violence and subjecting the father — whose son shares his Jewish faith — to hate speech using the software messaging system provided by New Jersey Family Court. Neither the court nor the Court’s appointed parent coordinator, Ms. Romanova, Esq., has intervened.
In many U.S. states, family court judges appoint a psychiatrist or psychologist as the parenting coordinator to mediate custody situations. The American Psychology Association (APA) guidelines for parenting coordinator roles in challenging cases doesn’t recommend attorneys be appointed in that role, but New Jersey does appoint attorney parent coordinators, and did so in this case.
Domenick Carmagnola, President of Carmagnola & Ritardi, LLC, formally petitioned the court on behalf of the New Jersey State Bar Association in April of 2021, citing the urgent need for a standardized approach to parent coordinators. Carmagnola’s petition is still waiting a year later.
Jewish American families navigate these kinds of challenges regularly in the face of a nationwide judicial system that historically has also considered fathers to be less important in custody cases than biological mothers.
Studies show stress and anxiety caused by hate speech—verbal violence—triggers similar thoughts and emotional reactions as the brain’s response to physical violence. Children are less prepared than adults to process exposure to hate speech. On December 2, 2022, Sanjay Gupta, M.D., Chief Medical Correspondent for MSNBC, reported that a just-released study of children (under 18) revealed that the longevity of a child’s life can be shortened by exposure to internalized stress, anxiety which causes the brain to age faster than normal.
Where’s the inclusivity for which America is touted? Speak up about antisemitism, and stop tolerating it in communities and institutions in order to heal families and the country’s division.
Neptune100
Troy Hoffman
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