North Shore Hebrew Academy, a high school located in Long Island, NY, experienced a horrific reminder of the hatred towards Jews that somehow still exists in modern times. On December 14th, the school’s website was modified by hackers to display a video of Nazis marching and anti-Jewish slurs. Upon opening the site, a song played that included the words, “Let the Jews die.” Other sections of North Shore Hebrew Academy’s website showed images of swastikas that replaced the school’s logo. It also depicted the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and Nazi rallies. Under the school’s description, the hackers labeled it “North Shore Concentration Camp”; another part of the site called the school the “North Shore Hebrew Death Camp”.

The anti-Semitic attack occurred early during the eight-day observance of Hanukkah, but the website was taken down by Monday. Different pages of the site also included pictures of Hitler, and the About Us page read, “The k–e race”. In another area of the website, the message “May Allah save your soul” was posted. However, defacement of the site wasn’t the only goal of the hackers. They also managed to compromise the personal data of the high school’s students and staff members, including credit card information and home addresses. The hackers sent emails to the students with a link to a page of the school’s website titled “Field Trip to Auschwitz”.

Due to the cyberattack, all classes in North Shore Hebrew Academy were canceled to prevent the disclosure of any other information. The hackers received access to the school’s entire computer system; the parent portal system, Google classes, and the mailing list were all exposed for the hackers to access. The Nassau County Police are investigating the situation and searching for how the infiltration happened. Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone mentioned, “It’s unfathomable that in this day and age, children on Long Island have to endure these ugly attacks.”