The Swellesley Report accepts Letters to the Editor. Letters must be of general local community interest and must be signed. See guidelines for Letters to the Editor here. Please send to: theswellesleyreport@gmail.com
June 10, 2021
We, the undersigned, have come together to express our disappointment and dismay over the Wellesley Public School system’s decision to forgo neutrality on political issues. Its decision to choose sides in such matters is detrimental to our community and encourages separation instead of support for one another. We believe that a united community is our best hope for our children’s future and want to express our commitment and desire for everyone to be treated equally and fairly—both by members of the community and by the community’s school system.
The town’s schools, however, disagree and have instead promoted division. For example, they have chosen to force the schools to hang up “Black Lives Matter” flags on each school’s property. The problem with this decision is not the concept behind the slogan. There is not one of us who knows anyone in Wellesley, or anyone anywhere for that matter, who disagrees that Black people’s lives matter. They absolutely do. The problem is that the flag and the slogan mirror those of the Black Lives Matter, or BLM, political organization and the associated political movement. That organization has publicly proclaimed, on its Twitter feed and elsewhere, that it avidly seeks to destroy the State of Israel and to murder millions of Jewish people in the process. It has stated that it will not stop until both goals have been achieved: “We are a movement committed to ending settler colonialism in all forms and will continue to advocate for Palestinian liberation (always have, and always will be). #freepalestine.” (Israel ended its presence in Gaza in 2005. So, for the last sixteen years, the Palestinian people have been self-governing there.)
According to the FBI’s Hate Crime statistics, anti-Semitism is on a rapid rise in the United States. Just recently, a myriad of hate crimes were committed against Jewish people for the sole reason that they are Jewish. BLM has helped fuel this hatred, and the recent crimes against Jews have been a direct result of BLM’s political and violent rhetoric. Physical assaults against Jewish people have been reported to authorities in, just to name a few, California, Arizona, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Florida. The BLM flags cause a lot of fear for Jewish students, and that should not be tolerated.
Again, we do not seek to take the flags down because we do not believe in the fundamental cause of liberty for everyone. We seek to take them down because they are political in nature and are divisive. The schools have chosen to support some political causes over others. We do not agree with that, and we believe a lot of people don’t either. All students and their families should feel free to support the political causes they deem suitable for themselves. The schools should not be deciding such things for us. Please join us in calling for the removal of the BLM flags, and of all politics, from our schools.
Jie Bai
Gwen Baker
Jim Bishop
Moshe and Geni Bleich
Dick Carls
Loretta Carranza
Bruce Franco
Neal Glick
Ishay and Lauren Grinberg
Lisa Hack
Sylvia Hahn
Stephanie Hubbard
Dianne Impallaria
Pete Jones
Harold Kaplan
Bruce and Jayne Kaufman
Jane Kettendorf
Lorelei King
Charles Kraus
Vicky Lazzell
Ofer and Niki Levi
Dick Macintosh
Linda MacIntosh
Vita Melignano
Debbie Nicoletti
Linda O’Brien
Mark and Sheryl Perechocky
Maria Popova
David Prock
Bill Rich
Peter and Marcy Rosenberg
Arthur and Marina Shektman
Andrew Silk
Lee Silk
Julie Silk
Brad Silk
Christopher Spagnuolo
Ian and Natalie Starr
Gil Stubbs
Sophie Underwood
Aliana and Alexander E. von Richthofen
Taylor Webb
Guy and Maya Yehiav
The former WHS student has a clue and demonstrates the thoughtfulness and courage needed to slam the door on identity politics. Well done!! Your family must be very proud. I know I am.
Until I read your post I thought all hope was lost. I was wrong. As long as there are young people like you, this nation has a great future. God speed.
I appreciate this dialogue. However, some who have posted seem to have missed the point of the letter to the editor, I think. The point is not whether the schools should be pro-Israel or not. The point is that politics — any politics — do not belong in the school system. As a few people have written here, the fact that there is so much disagreement over this one letter and its contents instructs us well. Politics in schools tear a community apart. I don’t think the vast majority of residents of this town want that to happen in Wellesley. There are a lot of ways to support people without alienating, shaming and hurting other people. As my mom always said to my brother and me, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
This makes the most sense of anything that I’ve read on this post. The teaching of racism in CRT in Wellesley seems to be based on “two wrongs make a right”, rather than talking about the wrongs and how we never ever make those right again.
Spot on. Bingo. As one of the signatories of the letter to the editor, I can confirm that you are absolutely correct. So glad to see you summarize our point so clearly. The letter to the editor was a message for unity, not division via identity politics. Our schools desperately need to focus on educational excellence, not political posturing. Please see my comment posted today on the article that was written by the Swellesley Report as a follow-up on the letter to the editor. It reflects your comment.
We all really appreciate you and your colleagues efforts on this Neal, putting yourself out there on such an important topic. So many of us or too afraid to speak up under our own names for fear of retaliation against us and our kids in school. Instead WPS and Wellesley community will try and label us and our kids as racists, when it’s the opposite. It’s sad commentary, but unfortunately a reality living in this town.
Working together, we can change that “reality.” I have a child in the WPS system, too, so I realize the fear for your children that you mention. But let’s turn that on its head. We must fear that our children will be indoctrinated instead of educated, that they will be taught what to think instead of how to think and that they will learn to keep silent and go along to supposedly advance in school and in life. That is a greater fear than someone ignorantly and wrongly attempting to label you or your children or unprofessionally give them a bad grade. Silence is how bad things happen in any country and the key to success of dictators– fascist, communist and the like. Silence sets a very damaging example for our children. I hope that people in Wellesley and in the WPS can recognize and respect dissent, but if they do not it is “on them” and not on you or your kids. I appreciate your kind words, but I also invite you to speak up in your own voice and help get Wellesley schools back on track. I can assure you that you will not be alone.
Please check out the American Jewish Community’s June 8, 2021 Virtual Global Forum 2021 on their website: https://www.ajc.org/. Bret Stephens, Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times, Bari Weiss, Journalist and Author of How to Fight Antisemitism, and Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, Director of AJC Europe, speak about rising anti-Semitism in a session titled “The Mainstreaming of Antisemitism: How Should We Respond?” moderated by Avi Mayer, AJC Managing Director of Global Communication. Their dialogue is enlightening.
Thank you so much for sending this link. It was truly one of the best discussions I’ve heard in a very long time. Listening to everything that Bari, Bret and Simone said confirmed that the isolation, marginalization and actual fear many of us who are Jewish are feeling now is valid.
Jews have every right to be concerned about a political movement espousing the destruction of the only safe place for us. We have a right to be outraged over the constant demonization of Israel. Whether you love it or hate it Israel is in fact the only truly safe place for Jews in the world.
Thank you again for bringing this important discussion to our attention.
You’re welcome, Marcy. My pleasure.
Before moving to Wellesley, I lived in Brookline for 30+ years. A Jewish friend and neighbor once told me that she liked living in Brookline “among her people.” At the time, I did not understand the meaning or depth of feeling behind her statement. Now, I do.
With respect to matters relating to Black Lives Matter, education, and free speech, these are two websites that I have found to be informative: Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) at https://www.fairforall.org and 1776 Unites at https://1776unites.com.
We dont have white privilege Michael but apparently you have white guilt. Guilt never moves any conversation forward
The mere fact there is so much disagreement surrounding BLM, as evidenced by all these comments, proves the point there should be no place for a BLM flag in a public school. Very soon it will be an open embarrassment to our school district, as the tides are changing on this organization.
I could not agree more
Yes. Exactly. Take that damn thing down. Jaime Chissum is a nice guy, but this was a mistake.
As an ex employee of WHS, a place I proudly worked for 13 years; I’m appalled by their position to fly a BLM flag. This is not the WHS I remember. They need to get back to what they were once so good at: education, fostering creative thinking and freedom of thought and expression. The WHS I worked for valued teaching students in a collaborative and caring way, without ideology or political blackmail. Apparently, those days are gone and clearly WPS have lost their way.
As a Wellesley home owner, I also agree with those that signed the letter. Every voice and individual should be treated equally and with respect. The BLM organization unfortunately does not uphold this same belief. Do not give up your freedoms. Take the signs down. Thank you.
I would like to thank The Swellesley Report for having the moral courage to publish this letter to the editor and for providing an open forum for this dialogue. That is what freedom of speech is all about, and that freedom is threatened when one side or the other imposes its political views on others. In my opinion, the Black Lives Matter flags have no place in our classrooms, nor does Critical Race Theory. Instead, let’s focus on the four Rs: reading, writing, ‘rithmetic, and, most importantly, respect.
Thank you to the members of our town who are willing to stand up for truth and not back down to the face of hatred
Can someone walk me through how the quote “We are a movement committed to ending settler colonialism in all forms and will continue to advocate for Palestinian liberation (always have, and always will be). #freepalestine.” is equivalent to the “murder” of “millions of Jewish people”?
Relatedly, no people or supplies are allowed to enter or exit Gaza through the Israeli and Egyptian borders. As someone who believes a nation should have control over its borders, it is evident that Gaza is far from “self-governing”.
Thank you for asking for clarification on these important matters. Since this is not the forum for a history lesson that could teach you about the continuous Jewish presence in the land of Israel for over 3500 years I will simply address the following:
BLM has chosen to adopt the hashtag #freepalestine as part of their support for Hamas during the recent conflict. Far from benign the hashtag is shorthand for: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.” It is a common call-to-arms for pro-Palestinian activists. It calls for the establishment of a State of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, ERASING the State of Israel and its people. The hashtag carries with it a virulent hatred of the country of Israel and its citizens. It means the elimination of an entire country that happens to be the only Jewish country in the world. The hashtag insinuates that Israel somehow usurped land that belonged to the Palestinians. Hence the “settler colonialism” to which BLM refers.
The hashtag is also a rallying cry for terrorist groups and their sympathizers, from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to Hamas, which called for Israel’s destruction in its original governing charter in 1988.
Calling for the elimination of the Jewish state, or suggesting that the Jews alone do not have the right to self-determination, is at best antisemitic. In the extreme it justifies violence towards Jews everywhere as evidenced by the many recent attacks on Jews worldwide. (“Free Palestine” was shouted during many of the attacks)
A few more things: Gaza is not controlled by Israel. In 2005 hundreds of thousands of Israeli families left Gaza. Hamas is in control and they are extremely well funded by very wealthy countries and by many NGOs as well. The fact that Gaza can’t “self govern” has nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with the terrorist government controlling it. If you believe as you say that “countries have a right to control their own borders” why is Israel at fault for defending theirs by not allowing materials used for their destruction into Gaza?
There is never a simple answer when it comes to this region. However it is important to remember that lies told thousands of times are easier to believe than the truth you’ve never heard.
Seek the truth, it can be hard work in a time when it is fashionable and “woke” to marginalize and demonize Israel. It is worth the effort to be part of a truthful discussion.
Hi Marcy,
I support #freepalestine but condemn terrorism of any kind. I am wondering how I am able to express my concern for the demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and bombing of civilian homes in Gaza if a simple message as “Free Palestine” is considered antisemitic.
I strongly believe that Israel deserves to be criticized for its actions like any other country in the world, and it is possible to do this without being antisemitic. I certainly hope you will agree that Israel violates international law and commits war crimes at best and at worse, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. However, this letter and the comments attached seems to me that the political right is strongly opposed to freedom of speech when it comes to Israel.
To be clear, these are conclusions that I have come to through my own study of the issue and not influenced by any “Critical Race Theory” taught at WHS, and I do not believe any majority of my former classmates share this view.
So glad you wrote back. I really appreciate your willingness to engage with me.
I do not agree that Israel commits war crimes or ethnic cleansing or violates international law. How do you define ethnic cleansing or war crimes? What do you know about international law? And also what other countries foreign and domestic policies are you so aware of? I’m curious. If you support #freepalestine please know that you do support terrorism and the annihilation of the State of Israel which is the only Democracy in the Middle East. Have you ever visited Israel? I suggest you do. You will be welcome and you will learn a great deal!
My willingness to engage is made quite difficult by your insistence that I support terrorism of any kind. Sad to see such prevalent PC culture against anyone who dares to criticize the Israeli government. I would be very happy to visit Israel and the West Bank one day, which I am able to as a American citizen, unlike millions of Palestinian refugees who are denied access to their own family homes in the region.
If you are genuinely interested in learning about Israel’s violations of international law and human rights, here is an extensive documentation from Human Rights Watch, which I’m sure you would say is antisemitic and terrorist-supporting because it reaches conclusions you find offensive. https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution#
You can express your concerns directly and specifically, without using slogans or hashtags which presuppose a destruction of a nation state and its’ people.
I would be nice if Israel was criticized like any other nation, but, unfortunately, Israel is held to standards much much higher then any other nation on Earth. No one can live up to those standards no matter how hard they try. To hold one nation to a standard which can not be met a priori while giving everyone else a pass is a definition of bias.
International law is simply an agreement between countries to abide by the terms of treaties they signed bilaterally or multilaterally. I binds only the signatories.
The best example of the laws of war are the four Geneva Conventions. They define what can and cannot be done in the course of a military conflict. Israeli actions in this conflict comply with those rules. It doesn’t matter what CNN or MSNBC say. All Israeli actions are subject to judicial review by their Supreme Court. It looked at the actions taken and ruled them legitimate.
Finally, there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs. If there were, how do you explain the fact that the Arab population is increasing? Should it not be the opposite? Have you ever heard of any ethnic cleansing or genocide when the victim population increased?
Why should I trust a country’s own Supreme Court to determine whether that country commits human rights violations? I’m sure you believe China is not a repressive regime because its Supreme Court says so. I do believe that America and its allies should be held to a higher standard when it comes to international law and military action because it is largely our tax dollars that fund those operations. It is okay not to support international law and human rights, but let’s not pretend the US or Israel act in accordance with them.
I don’t know how old you are or what your life experience is or what your education level is, but on its face it should be obvious to any objective observer that Israel is not China. The concepts of independent judicial review and corrective actions is the same in Israel and the US as well as any other Western democracy. If you don’t trust Israeli Supreme Court, then you also do not trust SCOTUS. They have similar powers.
To apply a different standard to different entities is antithetical to the very definition of the rule of law. It never works out well for the public.
You really are out of your depth on this one.
Though, I doubt we shall ever agree on much of anything.
I don’t know how old you are or what your life experience is or what your education level is, but on its face it should be obvious to any objective observer that international law is different from constitutional law. Although I think SCOTUS is certainly biased in a certain direction, I accept their ultimate ruling on constitutional issues. There is no Supreme Court of international law except the International Criminal Court, which does not have the same legal authority as any national court because countries like the US and Israel can choose not to participate and remain above international law. A cursory Google search would help you find that the ICC is in fact monitoring Israeli actions despite Israel’s failure to cooperate.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/180-israeli-intellectuals-scientists-warn-icc-israel-won-t-probe-war-crimes-1.9780436
To “Former…”
I appreciate your well-thought out comments. How anyone can deny that Israel commits warcrimes is beyond me.
I can deny that Israel commits war crimes. It does not. Name a specific “war crime” you think Israel has committed. And tell us under what specific agreement, which Israel has signed,
its’ actions constitute a “war crime”. If what you say is true, it should not take you long.
You completely missed my point about the Supreme Courts. Regardless, the ICC only has jurisdiction over the signatories to the Rome statutes. I does not matter what they monitor or not. Non-signatories are under no obligation to cooperate or even to respond to them. As far as rules of war, the four Geneva Conventions are the standard, but again, only signatories are truly bound by them.
Kudos to the authors and signers of this letter. I have worked in the Wellesley Public School system since 1995 (save this year). It is not easy to speak up in opposition to this establishment.
Due diligence was certainly not employed by Dr Lussier, the School Committee, or the faculties of the Wellesley Schools. If they had done their homework they would know that BLM is not only anti Semitic, but, also against the nuclear family, the police, and our way of life. BLM could be classified as another terrorist organization for the chaos, destruction, and loss of life that it has encouraged across this country. Will the flags of ANTIFA, Hamas, or Isis be allowed to hang?
I’m afraid this is laying the groundwork for CRT. I urge all parents to be very aware of what is being taught in their children’s classrooms.
It’s all part of the very fashionable CRT (critical race theory) which, if you follow them down the garden path, will have you begging for forgiveness because the hue of your skin is light.
Thank you to the brave signing members. This is the letter that should exist in every single town. Keep our schools clean of politics (and more importantly, critical race theory). Let adults spend their time and beliefs how they see fit but leave the kids out of it.
Separation of state and your virtue-signaling church should be a rule rather than an exception being called for by desperate parents throughout our towns. It’s a sad state of affairs here in MA.
These are all brave citizens who should be proud to have signed the letter. Schools have no business taking sides on contemporary political issues. Regardless of whether or not Black Lives Matter is anti-Semitic, it is completely inappropriate for a school system to pick political winners and losers this way. If this were a conservative rather than a liberal movement, all the people supporting the flags in schools would be outraged. This is indoctrination, not instruction. Leave children alone and to their learning.
As a Jew – the Black Lives Matter flags are good and should stay. I wish more institutions had the courage to fly them, but sadly there are too many Fox News- and hasbarah-addled folks like the signatories of this letter who will attempt to impose their own right-wing politics wherever they can.
The letter is also factually and intellectually dishonest — the statement that BLM wants to “murder millions of Jews” is a sick race war fantasy, and the implication that BLM is somehow connected to antisemitic violence is no more than unsupported sleight-of-hand.
I hope most readers recognize this letter for what it is: a latter-day echo of the White Citizens’ Councils, trying to use Jews as a wedge against advocates and allies of BLM. Not in my name.
You draw a parallel between the undersigned and the White Citizens’ Council, so let me draw a parallel between you and Judenrate. Just like the members of the Jewish Council in the Warsaw Ghetto who sacrificed their brethren in hopes of their own survival, you appease and defend the indefensible, blatant BLM antisemitism. Or, at the very least, choose not to see it. However, despite all of their efforts, the Judenrate members ended up murdered in the same gas chambers which took the lives of all the other Jews. Be careful of your choices.
P.S. I n my experience, people who start their sentences with ” As a Jew” overwhelmingly only remember that they are Jews when it serves their politics. At all other times they conveniently forget their Jewishness.
That’s a remarkably poor analogy given that BLM is not any kind of state institution to appease or collaborate with, holds no formal power, and can only be portrayed as antisemitic by (erroneously and dishonestly) conflating Zionism and Judaism. The letter’s claim that BLM is a “political organization” is even on shaky ground, let alone that BLM is antisemitic (prove it! link to a primary source!). And I would I refer you back to my comment about the race war fantasy, which seems to have a hold on you. It’s not 1933, or 1940 — Wellesley and the world at large deserve citizens that reflect honestly on the facts that define the current historical moment. Which, I would argue, is defined much more by mortal danger to Black and Palestinian people than to Jews.
Finally, you ought to be ashamed of questioning my or anyone else’s Judaism in a public forum. It’s ultimately between you and Hashem, but most rabbis from the Mishnaic era until today would tell you so. It might be worth reflecting on why you feel compelled to do so rather than responding to the substance of my comment — which to summarize was: the letter is wrong on the facts, poorly argued, and is an attempt to impose right-wing politics on Wellesley schools, not remove politics.
My analogy is as valid is yours, at the very least. Appeasement and collaboration does not apply only to state actors. Why would it? As far as Zionism and Judaism are concerned, the state of affairs is nowadays simple: anti-Zionism has become a socially acceptable form of Antisemitism in progressive circles.
As far as ” mortal” danger, the FBI statistics clearly show that Jews are three times more likely to be assaulted than any other minority in this country. The danger to the Palestinian Arabs is largely self inflicted and stems from the thorough corruption of their ruling class.
I feel no shame at all about questioning your relationship to your Jewishness in either a public or a private forum. After all, you opened that door when you started to accuse us of all sorts of mortal sins. Unfortunately, in my lifetime I have seen this phenomenon all too often.
Finally, asking a public school system to stay out of politics is not, in any way, attempting to impose a right wing, or any other, ideology. Such neutrality should be a default position for any school.
It is, likewise, clear to me that we will never agree on anything, and, so, I will simply leave it at that.
With all due respect this is not a right wing issue. I am opposed to the BLM flag, not because I disagree with the statement, but because it directly links to the organization which calls for destruction of institutions with no alternative plan. Noted on the BLM website in their. 2020 Impact Report (pg 33 and 35) are statements that are concerning to me:
“Envisioning a world without police and a
criminal system as we know it can be hard. “
And
“….we also look to our schools
when thinking through our abolition practices
and immediate goals.”
Maybe we should ask why our school resource officer’s picture was omitted from the WHS yearbook this year.? We know very little about what is happening in our schools.
Do I think we should look at how to fix the negative impacts some institutions bring to BIPOC people, definitely. We have a dark history and we should educate students on all of it. What we should not do is stifle discussion in our classrooms. Students will currently not offer opinions due to consistent labeling and fear of grading repercussions, this is not a healthy school environment.
Concerns noted in the resident letter and above are very valid and we should not dismiss them. We create affinity spaces for everyone but these families are being told they are wrong. If they are nervous, or their kids are, we should not be labeling them as having an agenda. Many parents are concerned about what is being taught in the schools as you can see there are differing opinions.
What we are witnessing with this ideology being taught in our schools is that there is no room for dissent which in turn leads to a very unhealthy and divisive view of each other as residents of Wellesley,
The situation of Jews in the United States or in any other country today cannor even remotely be compared with that of the Jews in Germany and Eastern Europe in the Thirties.
Israel today is a nuclar power backed by both political parties not only in word but by over four billion dollars of US taxpayers money, yet those who have been inceasingly outraged by Israel’s trearment of the indigenous people of the land Israel occupies, simiilar to our situation in the US but with a far more recent time frame are label antisemites of self-hating, if Jewish.
That many young black activists, who have faced violence and discrimination at the hands of police in this country should identify with the Palestinians, is not surprising given the images they have seen on social media and independent news outlets of the devastation caused by US provided Israeli bombs in Gaza and tho the ongoing effort to evict lomg time Palestinian residents from their homes in East Jerusalem.
American Jews have two choices They can stick their head in the sand and continue to deny the reality described above or begin to question Israel’s behavior as many have done, viewing their actions as being in the best traditions of he Jewish pursuit of justice. Sadly, it seems that is less likely to happem, at least among those who signed that letter.
What you describe is as far from reality as is possible. Palestinian Arabs are not indigenous to this land. They migrated in over time and in very large numbers in the early part of the 20th century.
Israel is not occupying anyone’s land. I has legal rights to the entire area east of the river Jordan.
Being a long time resident of a piece of real estate does not give you right of ownership, but a duly executed deed does. Have you asked yourself why, out of the dozen Arab families living there, only four were being evicted? Don’t you think that is a logical question to ask? There is a clear legal answer to that. If you are interested, I would be glad to give you that answer.
Hamas bears full responsibility for any and all devastation in Gaza. They started the latest conflict knowing full well what the consequences would be. In fact, this devastation was their very goal.
As far as pursuit of justice, I suspect that my definition of it and yours are very different and are likely to stay that way.
It is quite sad that you are willing to assume things about people about whom you know nothing. I bet you do not know one person who was a signatory to the letter, yet you use hateful hyperbole against them. And this is not a matter of party politics! It is a matter of our children’s education. The flags do nothing to make Black lives better. All they do is cause division and make color the most important characteristic of a person. It is the content of one’s character that should matter and not the color of one’s skin. I guess we now know the content of your character, sir. I say that not because you disagree with the removal of the flags but because of the way you choose to address your neighbors.
I did not say anything that wasn’t specifically based on the letter. The signatories took the time and effort to put an opinion piece in a public forum. Critiques of the letter and their motivations for writing it are precisely what they invited by doing so.
I agree that it is not a matter of partisan politics; certainly Democrats have not covered themselves in glory on this issue. The letter refers rather vaguely to the fear that the flags somehow cause Jewish students — what about WPS’ Black students, whose lives are affirmed by BLM’s very motto?
I challenge you to learn more than one single line of one speech by Martin Luther King Jr. I recommend starting with “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” particularly the parts on “the white moderate.”
Well said, Ethan.
The lack of any citation of fact to back up the opinions laid out by the authors was enough to send me out looking for answers. Rather than just dismiss the assertions, I’d encourage anyone else on the forum to do the same. I think you’ll find it near impossible to find facts that back up the assertions that lead to the opinions expressed here. Others have already posted relevant links to debunk what is being asserted, so I’ll leave the exercise up to the readers. People have to remember you are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
Couldn’t agree more! Thank you for your thoughtful comment!
THANK YOU, Ethan! Very well stated. You speak for many. We ALL need to check our white privilege at the door when entering the schools. Thanks Dr. Lussier, Wellesley School Committee and faculty for prioritizing inclusion!
The sentence below is the basis of the issue. Who are we to decided which group deserves more attention:
“The letter refers rather vaguely to the fear that the flags somehow cause Jewish students — what about WPS’ Black students, whose lives are affirmed by BLM’s very motto?”
Our school officials seem to have decided who is more important. This is the issue with bringing the flag into the schools and denying it is associated with the organization. How does this create a sense of inclusion? Teaching thru the lens of CRT breaks us into groups and has us judge each other. The end result here is non-existent and just divisive.
Thank you Swellesley report for allowing this conversation to continue. It is extremely important.
Mr. Shektman is entirely correct as are the people who joined in on the letter. Please realize that all this racist baiting is being done to destroy this country. Obama and his ilk have used racism as one tool to bring about the New World Order. One day we will wake up and realize that we the people have given away our freedom and all because of fear of being labeled racist . It is a ploy to take our country away from us in favor of socialism, fascism, communism and all forms of a controlled society.
I trust there is more than one Linda O’Brien in town, because I am not involved in this cause.
Glad you chimed in here, neighbor!
Wellesley Public Schools should be embarrassed. Spend more time educating children rather than trying to indoctrinating then. Another painful example of woke gone bad.
There is no question that Critical Race Theory (CRT) is impacting the rise of anti-Semitism, particularly among the extreme Left. CRT, which divides people into oppressors and oppressed, has become the binary lens through which many now view our nation and the world.
When CRT is applied to the state of Israel, for example, it casts Jewish Israelis into the role of colonial oppressors and Palestinians into the role of oppressed indigenous people. This way of thinking – untempered by a deeper understanding of history, culture, and faith traditions – has sparked anti-Semitic attacks against Israel and the Jewish people. It may spark other forms of intolerance as well.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education is quietly incentivizing the teaching of Critical Race Theory in our schools.
Hate has no place in Wellesley or anywhere else in America. Concomitantly, ideologies that promote dualistic thinking – such as Critical Race Theory – have no place in our schools.
But, in fact, the Palestinians ARE an oppressed indigenous people whose land was taken from them by Jewish Zionists whose origins were in Europe with over 750,000 Palestinian Arabs evicted or forced to flee from their homes while over 500 of their villages were destroyed in 1948. What is generally overlooked was that the Jews whose origins were the Middle East, the Mizrachi, and those from North Africa, the Sephardim, whose lives were destined to be severely impacted, were not consulted by the Europeans and had previously expressed no desire to live in a Jewish state controlled by Europeans who had a long history of looking down on them as inferior which the Europeans, the Ashkenazi, had no compunctions about expressing.
The Labour government was so prejudiced against them that all it took was Likud’s Menachem Begin reaching out to them in 1977, to end Labour’s grip on the government and radically move Isael’s politics to the right.
All of this has nothing to do with Critical Race Theory which has been developed based on the fact that white Europeans’ belief in white superiority has been a cornerstone of this country since the first Pilgrims landed on our shores and the indigenous peoples of our land and the slaves from Africa and their descendants have been its victims.
Even Begin repcognized that when responding to those in the US who criticized Israel’s treatnebt of the Palestinians he would remind them about how the US treated the Native Americans.
The topic of the letter to the editor is about the inappropriateness of Black Lives Matter flags in the classroom and the impact of BLM on rising anti-Semitism. Since Critical Race Theory is an integral part of Black Lives Matter, it is pertinent to this discussion.
With respect to oppressed and indigenous people, I have two questions. First, as survivors of the Holocaust, weren’t the original Jewish settlers of the state of Israel a brutally oppressed people? Second, as descendants of the area’s indigenous peoples, haven’t Jewish Israelis reclaimed for themselves land that was originally the land of their people?
I do not condone the violence on either side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but I do, however, stand firmly with the State of Israel.
In fact, the Palestinian Arabs are Not indigenous to the Land of Israel. At least, they are as indigenous there as Turks are to Turkey. During the war if Independence, the Arabs were encouraged by their leadership to abandon their property and flee. They were told that they will be back in a few weeks, as soon as the Jews are pushed into the sea. Those who fled lost everything. Those who stayed kept all of their property and became Israeli citizens. Did you know that even those families who fled, were allowed to return to Israel and regain their properties until 1953? Did you also know that until 1948 the word “palestinian” was used exclusively to refer to the Jews and their institutions? If you referred to an Arab as a “palestinian” in the 30s and 40s you would cause them a great offence? Furthermore, you have to define what you mean by “their land”. The major land owners in Palestine did not live there. Those rich families, who owned the land where the vast majority of Arabs lived, themselves lived in Beirut and Damascus. They sold the land to the Jews at a price far above the market value at the time. So no one stole anything from the Arabs. In addition, about 800000 Jews were expelled from Egypt, Lybia, Morocco, Syria, Lebanon and other North African and Middle Eastern countries. All the property was confiscated and they left penniless. In essence, it was an exchange of populations just like between India and Pakistan that very same year.
As far as the relations between different groups of Jews in Israel, that is a purely internal affair and has to relation to anything we talking about.
Apparently the issue of BLM and antisemitism isn’t as clear cut as the writers of the letter to the Editor seem to believe. Jews and blacks have each suffered a history of unique and utterly horrifying abuse and canards. To pit the two against each other is the goal of the neo Nazi’s. Don’t play into their hands. Putin specifically wants a race war to destroy our democracy. Do not play into his hands.
https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/aug/24/ask-politifact-black-lives-matter-anti-semitic/
https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl/vol24/iss2/2/
This has nothing to do with Neo Nazis, let alone Putin.
BLM’s antisemitism is very clear. One just has to look honestly at the movement and their underlying philosophy.
Closed minds will only see what is preconceived or that which supports their narrative. Read everything with scepticism, fact check using CREDIBLE sources, assuming one knows how to identify credible sources in the digital age. There is much garbage, misinformation, scapegoating and intentional misdirection on the internet. Those who haven’t studied critical thinking and the ability to identify fallacies in the digital age are more apt to search for confirmation bias. Don’t fall prey to false manipulations. The same propaganda tactic is what has plagued Jews for thousands of years.
To summarize, according to you I
1. Am closed minded
2. Unable to discern between credible and false sources
3. Unable to engage in critical thinking because I haven’t studied it
4. Easily succumb to manipulation and propaganda
Do I have it correctly?
Not sure if you are unfamiliar or just choosing to ignore. The BLM has put out 2 statements this month, one calling for support for Hamas in its war against Israel and one calling for the “end of Israel”.
This has nothing at all to do with black/Jewish relationships, which we all hope stands strong and, the BLM which is an org that supports the destruction on my people and my land. Call me a weirdo, but somehow that rubs me wrong and I do not want my children to have to walk by a flag supports a group that calls for their annihilation.
The problem with the internet is that people trust everything they read that supports their narrative, without fact checking. BLM DOES NOT SUPPORT HAMAS
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/05/23/fact-check-black-lives-matter-supports-palestinians-not-hamas/5206977001/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/05/23/fact-check-black-lives-matter-supports-palestinians-not-hamas/5206977001/
For further information on this topic, please check out the independent journalist Bari Weiss. Visit her website Common Sense with Bari Weiss, or read her book How to Fight Anti-Semitism, winner of the National Jewish Book Award. Bari Weiss also serves on the Board of Advisor for the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR).
Totally agree!
Add our names to the list! Dan and Celeste Hedequist. We stand by Israel. Voted for Trump because of his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East, and his strong support of Israel.
Thank you for speaking out and kudos to those brave enough to sign this letter. My guess is instead of taking these concerns seriously these Wellesley residents will be labeled as racists because their narrative does not me that of our DEI director and woke residents.
The DEI program in our schools, funded by taxpayers, is very one sided. There are many forms of discrimination but we seem to only focus on eradicating “white supremacy “ that some believe runs rampant in our schools. Unfortunately, we seem to be creating divides among our students which is very disappointing. This letter points to how dysfunctional and narrow focused DEI work is being pushed in Wellesley. Maybe we should learning from the very public fiasco in Louden County, VA before we make national news again.
This is a warning to the community, school board and any current students/parents of WHS. As a former student (of the class of 2021) I can decisively say that the whole system of education is political indoctrination, and WHS is no exception. In fact it’s one of the worst offenders. It’s so bad nowadays, I think it may be too late to turn back. Our entire school system is being highjacked in an attempt to create a new generation of obedient ideologues. Parents… your kids are and will be indoctrinated if you do not step in and do your part. It is your job to instill values – NOT the school. Talk to your kids about politics before the schools get to them (turning your own children against you). If you care at all about your child’s future, rip them out of the public school system immediately. Don’t make them suffer through what I had to. Schools are ripping away our ability to think for ourselves. Each year we creep closer to a dystopian future and everyone passively accepts it. At WHS English, History, and Health, are the biggest offenders of (marxist) political indoctrination. But its laced into every aspect of our education. Even Math and Science. I want to know how anyone in their right mind would think politics have a place in a math or science classroom? It all stems from the office of diversity equity and inclusion, the school board/administration and those hacks Chisum and Lussier. But it runs even deeper than that. First the teachers are indoctrinated (to accept the orthodox “woke” viewpoints as fact) then they proceed to do the same thing to your kids. In history we were straight up told what to think. Critical race theory and all. There was no alternative, We weren’t given a choice, it was presented as fact. We were given print outs of cherrypicked “evidence” (that heavily favored one side) I was smart enough to gather my own “evidence” so I could make counter arguments (and call my teachers out on their indoctrinastic tendencies). This was something that definitely effected my grade, but I wasn’t willing to swallow my pride, and abandon reason for the easy A. Rather I took the hard road, challenging and questioning their teachings every chance I got. And despite the (politically motivated) cut to my grade, I definitely do not regret it. It’s actually something I’m proud of. But the others couldn’t be bothered to think for themselves, passively accepting the lies drilled into our heads over and over again. The conclusion is always set in stone. Instead of teaching history and allowing students to independently interpret and come to their own conclusions, they skip the critical thinking part and teach us the conclusion (what to think) we don’t need to be told WHAT to think, we need to be taught HOW to think. Because nowadays it seems as though the vast majority of students are political zombies, passively accepting their own indoctrination. This safe space generation is going to be wildly unequipped for the real world come collage graduation. Remember…. Think for yourself – and always – ALWAYS question authority. There is still hope – still light at the end of the tunnel If we make our voices heard. The silent majority will be silent no longer. Write the school board, write Chisum & Lussier, sign petitions, file lawsuits etc… do whatever you can so we can put a stop to this.
AWESOME statement! Plenty of parents are taking their children out of this abusive space.
Thank you for your perspective.
I really appreciate this community of people speaking up on so many of our behalf. The Anti-Semitism that runs rampant in our town and in our schools has long been ignored and continues to be. If we are truly working toward an inclusive society, the contradictory teaching and double standard teaching of DEI in Wellesley has to end.
The BLM flags must absolutely come down. If any of the teachers or members of the School Committee wish to display the flags on their own property, they can do so and no one will say a word. But public schools have no business in politics.
Spot on!!!!
Thank you to all of you. This is happening in Portland, Maine too. It is very sad.