Principal ripped after apologizing to students for lesson on recognizing antisemitism

A middle school principal in Massachusetts reportedly sent an email to seventh-grade students apologizing for an educational session on antisemitism after he said families told the school that the lesson made some students feel “unseen.”In a letter circulating on social media attributed to Johnny Cole, principal of William Diamond Middle School, a public school in Lexington, Mass., he wrote, “A few weeks ago, your class participated in a session about antisemitism, connecting the learning you had done in social studies class about the Holocaust to the modern world.”“The goal was an important one: to help you recognize hate, understand where it comes from and encourage you to speak up against it,” he wrote.“We have learned from speaking to some of your families that the experience did not feel that way to you,” Cole stated.“Some of you felt unseen.

Some of you felt like your own history, your identity or your community was left out or erased.”“We are sorry,” he wrote.“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.” (JNS sought comment from Cole.)Deborah Lipstadt, former US antisemitism envoy, stated that the principal’s email is emblematic of “the toxification of Jewish history, life and community, making it untouchable.”Trisha Posner, founder of AntisemitismWatch, agreed, stating, “This is how they will try to erase Jewish history.”“First, they denied it,” she wrote.“Now, they try to avoid teaching it because Arab and Muslim students are offended.

In this way, they can push the false narrative of genocide in Gaza and ignore the real Nazi genocide of European Jewry.”The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis condemned the principal’s apology and urged...