Controversy arose at a Lower Merion School Board meeting in September when board member Kimberly Garrison said during the session that “Jewish people have been racially classified as white in this country,” continuing that this assertion “is fact, and is not an antisemitic statement.”
Despite pushback from a Jewish member of the board as well as from Jewish members of the audience, Garrison refused to rescind or alter her statements.
Jewish board member Abby Rubin countered this, saying that Garrison’s statement was untrue. Board President Dr. Kerry Sautner said in a written statement released a week after the Sept. 6 meeting that the conversation was “unhealthy and damaging with antisemitic statements and racist implications.”
Garrison stated at the following meeting on Sept. 13 that she is not racist nor antisemitic, and that labeling her as such is dangerous.
“Labeling me as antisemitic is not only untrue, but also defamatory in this political climate, especially as a Black woman. To call me such is to weaponize the term in order to stop any authentic and constructive dialogue — and to intimidate me into silence,” she said.
David Caroline, the parent of a student in the school district, was present at the Sept. 6 meeting. The Carolines, who are Jewish, felt alienated by the comments from Garrison.
“I don’t know her, and I always am slow to accuse someone of being an antisemite — maybe she is just miseducated and said something antisemitic,” he said. “Her comment is the type that reveals underlying negative sentiments toward Jewish people. What was her goal in making that comment? What was she hoping to accomplish?”
Garrison, who declined to be interviewed for this story, was specifically addressing a proposed equity policy in the district.
At the Sept. 6 meeting, the board was discussing how to ensure the school district’s equity policy adheres to a recent Supreme Court decision that banned affirmative action. Rubin proposed widening the parameters for which students should be protected from historically marginalized groups to all marginalized groups.
This is when the controversy started. Garrison stated that she knows about Jewish history, and that there was a time when Jewish Americans joined the umbrella of white Americans, which in her mind exempted them from being included as a protected group in the equity policy.
She cited a Pew research study that says nearly all Jewish Americans identify as white.
Caroline said that her comments missed the mark because they ignore the reality that Jewish Americans face on a daily basis.
“The needs of the Jewish community might be different than the needs of the Black community, and it’s not about saying that [one or the other] don’t have needs. It’s just about saying, we are concerned about our needs being addressed,” he said. “To make an inflammatory comment like the one she made, it just changed the discussion.”
Caroline said that he accepts the idea that many Jews may benefit from white privilege, but added that something that unites all Jews — Ashkenazi and Sephardic, white and Black — is experiencing antisemitism.
“All of us have to reckon with that, regardless of our skin color,” he said.
He added that he was shocked to hear someone express the opposite, especially from an individual in an official capacity.
“[Board Member Rubin] started talking about her own experience as a Jewish person and a Jewish parent in the district when Ms. Garrison made her comments. I wasn’t even 100% sure that she was a board member at first — I needed clarification. I thought, ‘Did I actually just hear that from an elected board member?’” Caroline asked.
Overall, he said, this shows that antisemitism needs to be taken seriously by more than just Jewish members of the community.
“You’re being asked to listen to a community that’s telling you that your comments were hurtful, and instead of listening, you’re just doubling down,” he said of Garrison. “You’re saying that you stand by what you said because of research. Listen to the hurt that the constituents of your community are saying they experienced because of your words.”
