The war in Gaza that has been an ideological flashpoint around the world is continuing to create divisions in the South Orange-Maplewood community.
The last two meetings of the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education have been extended by emotional public comments about postponed free trips to Israel for CHS educators sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest New Jersey. And, now, a leading local rabbi is responding, urging those who disagree to listen to one another and engage in civil dialogue.
At the June 25 Board of Ed meeting, several speakers, some wearing Palestinian keffiyehs, protested the Board’s previous approval of the free trips to Israel, attending in response to public comments at the May 21 Board of Education meeting by Jewish Federation officials and several Jewish parents who defended the trips after seeing discussion online about them that they found concerning and antisemitic.
The speakers on June 25 who objected to the trips — half of whom identified themselves as Jewish — said they are morally opposed to Israel’s killing of more than 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis with 250 taken hostage. They asked that the district not allow the trips or take money from organizations that support Israel.
Mindy Greenspan at the June BOE meeting.
“I am here representing a local group of several hundred parents and residents in SOMA who are committed to the end of the genocide in Gaza, and to unbiased education about Israel and Palestine in our schools and towns,” said Mindy Greenspan, the parent of a 2006 Columbia High School graduate.
(A United Nations commission and several humanitarian and human rights groups have described the situation in Gaza as genocide, and the United States government, the Israeli government and Jewish advocacy groups reject the use of the term, saying Israel has a right to defend itself).
After watching the June BOE meeting, Rabbi Daniel Cohen, who is retiring from Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel after 34 years and moving to Israel, mentioned the meeting in a broader piece on Substack, saying “speaker after speaker attacked a proposed educational mission to Israel sponsored by our Jewish Federation. The trip never even happened.”
The trip, he wrote, was “modeled after educational missions that Jewish Federations around the country have sponsored for years, giving educators the opportunity to see Israel firsthand and engage with its complexity. Yet opponents condemned it as propaganda, once again relying on familiar accusations of genocide and apartheid while attacking district leaders who had simply been willing to consider the opportunity.”
At the BOE’s May 21 meeting, Superintendent of Schools Jason Bing addressed the trips, which were originally scheduled for January but rescheduled for April and then postponed.
“Several of our staff members have accepted educational training opportunities on a personal basis, and plan to take personal days during that time. While the district has not endorsed those trips, neither are we in any position to forbid the actions of our employees in their personal capacities,” Bing said at the time, adding that the district’s educators are highly educated critical thinkers who can “engage with diverse perspectives without being ‘captured’ by any single narrative.”
Jewish Federation of MetroWest NJ CEO Meredith Dragon at the May BOE meeting.
At the May meeting, Jewish Federation CEO Meredith Dragon said the trips – which were launched after the October 7 attacks – are educational in nature and meant to promote understanding of a complicated conflict.
“The purpose of these trips is not political indoctrination,” she said. “It’s exposure, learning, dialogue and understanding. What is deeply troubling is the growing suggestion that educators should be prohibited from participating in these opportunities, simply because they involve Israel or because they are sponsored by a Jewish organization.”
Residents objecting to the Federation-sponsored trips said they don’t see the trips as educational but rather as propaganda and public relations vehicles for Israel.
“These trips are part of that PR strategy,” said David Letwin, a member of the SOMA Collective for Palestine and a co-founder of Jews for Palestinian Right of Return. “At the same time, and across the country, Zionist organizations and individuals, in alignment with the Trump administration, are desperately smearing anyone who speaks out against Israel’s serial injustices, and demonizing any form of advocacy for Palestine as anti-Jewish.”
At the May meeting, Dragon also addressed what she said was the mischaracterization of the Jewish Federation in local community discussions online.
“The Federation is a community service organization, and every day, we support seniors, we feed families in need, we provide mental health services, respond to disasters, combat hate, in all forms,” she said. “We support education, strength and civic life across the broader community, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, and our mission is humanitarian, educational and communal.”
At the June 25 meeting, tensions in the room rose when former CHS English teacher of 25 years, Stacey Lawrence, who is also Jewish, admonished the board in an emotional speech in which she emphasized that among the thousands killed in Gaza, “17,000 are children.” (That number has been updated; the most recent estimate is more than 20,000).
“I am absolutely floored and disgusted that this district would consider sending our teachers and our administrators to a country that is currently committing a genocide,” Lawrence said.
Stacey Lawrence at the June meeting.
Shortly after Lawrence went over the two-minute allotment of time, her microphone was turned off when she began shouting at the Board, and though people in the room could hear her, the livestream went silent for the next couple of minutes. After she finished, the board took a “five-minute reset” break.
After the break, the board heard from Dr. Khadijah Costley White, who in April had posted about the Israel trips in several Facebook groups asking if anyone knew why the district was sending staff to Israel and who was paying for it. Discussion ensued on those posts, and those discussions prompted the Federation and several parents to speak on the topic at the May meeting.
On June 25, White told the BOE that she first learned about the Holocaust as a student in the district. When another student asked why they had to learn about the Holocaust, she said, they were all told then that students needed to understand it so that they would “learn how to never let this happen again, not for anyone.”
Dr. Khadijah Costley White at the June meeting.
“So that is the education I brought when I said, ‘Why is our school district supporting and approving a trip to a place that is committing a genocide,” she said. “That is not just me, but according to Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, Genocide Watch, Human Rights Watch, United Nations, all sorts of groups. I asked, ‘Why is that happening here?’ And after that, my reputation has been attacked. I’ve been kept off the PTA. I’ve been called antisemitic. I’ve been called anti-Israel. And that’s after over 20 years of working on race and power in my professional career.”
“The BOE cannot fix the Middle East,” she said. “But you can choose not to do favors for organizations that leverage soft power for a country committing genocide. It is literally the least you can do.”
Leila Saad at the June meeting.
A Palestinian mother with three daughters in the district, Leila Saad, said her daughters have not felt the same sense of belonging in their schools in the last three years that they previously felt, adding that they have been “crushed” by seeing the death and destruction occurring in Gaza and disappointed in the lack of response from the district.
“While my daughters and I tried to process the news together, in school the topic was ignored by educators, or worse, shut down,” she told the BOE. “One of my daughters raised Gaza in her [AP US History] class. A dispute ensued. Not only was the teacher completely unprepared to lead a constructive conversation. He turned to my daughter and accused her, in front of the entire class, of being a terrorist. We never felt more alienated.”
Jewish parents, who spoke at the May meeting, were concerned at the time about the level of discourse online about the trips. Some said that growing anger toward Israel is creating increased division, and an increased fear of antisemitism spreading locally, after antisemitic graffiti was found at CHS last fall.
“Children in our schools know what is happening in this community. They hear the rhetoric online. They see the hostility, they watch adults publicly shame and stereotype people over Israel and Palestine,” Loren Levy of South Orange said at the May meeting. “Jewish students are watching adults dismiss identities and experiences connected to Israel, while other students are learning that disagreements should be met with exclusion instead of empathy and conversation. That has real consequences. It creates fear, silence and division inside our schools and friendships. It teaches students that some identities deserve less understanding than others.”
Parent Loren Levy at the May meeting.
“Supporting the existence of Israel does not make anyone anti-Palestinian. Wanting dignity and safety for Palestinians does not make anyone antisemitic,” Levy continued. “Most people in this community understand that suffering exists on all sides, but when influential voices encourage hostility and ridicule, it poisons the environment for everyone.”
Speakers at both the May and June meetings – and on both sides of the issue – said that personal politics has no place in the classroom.
Bing told the Village Green that the district “holds its educators to the highest standards of academic integrity and professionalism.”
“The district regularly reviews its curriculum to ensure it remains inclusive and grounded in verifiable historical facts, free from political bias, and consistent with the universal standards of dignity we apply to every culture and conflict,” he said. “Being in education today means navigating unprecedented challenges, from escalating classroom demands to the emotional weight of supporting students through turbulent times.”
He went on to say, “Recognizing the immense strain this places on our staff’s mental health and professional growth, our district is deeply committed to supporting every opportunity for teachers to connect with peers statewide, nationally and globally. Engaging in these professional exchanges allows educators to share vital experiences, trade innovative strategies and find community. The fostering of these local, national and global connections is essential during these very challenging times.”
In Rabbi Cohen’s Substack piece, titled “Leaving SOMA after 34 Years – A Love Letter – and a Challenge,” he wrote, “the tragedy facing our community today is not that people disagree. Communities should disagree. Democracies depend upon disagreement.”
“The tragedy is that a relatively small but very vocal group has come to believe that disagreement itself is offensive and that those who hold different views should be shamed rather than heard, ostracized rather than engaged. They do not seek conversation; they seek conformity. They do not persuade; they condemn,” he wrote.
“But I remain convinced they do not represent the best of South Orange and Maplewood. For thirty-four years I have known another SOMA, a community of generous people who volunteer, who care deeply about one another, who show up in moments of crisis, who build friendships across differences, and who understand that living in a diverse community means learning to listen as well as to speak.”
To see the full “public speaks” portions of the June 25 and May 21 meetings, watch the livestreamed recordings embedded below.
“Public speaks” for the June 25 meeting begins at about the 3:38:00 mark:
The “public speaks” portion of the May 21 meeting begins at about the 2:52:00 mark.
