A Massachusetts middle school principal has become the center of controversy after he reportedly issued an apology to students who "felt unseen" during a Holocaust education lesson.A screenshot of the email, shared online by the advocacy organization StopAntisemitism, sparked criticism.In the email, Diamond Middle School Principal Dr.Johnny Cole said the lesson was aimed at teaching the students to recognize hate and to speak out against it, something he called "an important goal." However, Cole then said that he was writing the email after some students' families had expressed that the lesson left them feeling "unseen."RECORD ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS IN CANADA FUEL CRITICISM OF CARNEY GOVERNMENT RESPONSE'Arbeit Macht Frei' sign at the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland.
(Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)"Some of you felt like your own history, your identity, or your community was left out or erased.Some of you left that session feeling less safe, not more.
We have heard this from families, and we believe you," Cole wrote."We are sorry.Not because the topic was too hard; hard conversations are part of growing up and part of what we do here at Diamond.
We are sorry because every one of you deserves to walk into this school and feel that who you are matters — Arab students; Jewish students; Lebanese students; Muslim students; Palestinian students — every student.And in this case, we missed the mark and did not achieve what we hoped to do," he added.Cole said that the school was working with teachers and families to "build something better" that "includes all of our communities and all of our histories." He added that some students would be consulted in the building of the new program.Critics slammed Cole's apology, with many of them saying that Holocaust education was not supposed to be comfortable."The lessons of the Holocaust are essential to understanding how antisemitism develops and manifests in modern society, and those who...