The Wissahickon School District in Montgomery County is facing criticism from several local Jewish parents in connection with a booth run by the Muslim Student Association at the district’s annual Language and Culture Fair on Nov. 24.
District Superintendent Dr. Mwenyewe Dawan released a letter to the community acknowledging concerns from parents that “certain images and activities at the fair were antisemitic,” and some Jewish students felt “unsafe or marginalized.”
Dawan shared that the district had received complaints about several elements of the MSA booth. Those elements included the presence of a Palestinian flag at the table, students running the booth offering other students the chance to wear a keffiyeh and one student wearing a stole that bore the phrase, “Jerusalem is ours,” written in Arabic.
Dawan explained that upon receiving these complaints, the school system conducted an investigation over the Thanksgiving break.
“After members of our administrative team conducted interviews with students and staff, we have determined that some information reported to us is accurate, while some is not,” Dawan wrote. “We are deeply sensitive to perceptions that can cause fear, anger, hurt or marginalization.”
The controversy surrounding the booth has stoked tensions in the community, with Dawan writing that there have been reported threats toward students and staff, resulting in some Muslim students reporting feeling unsafe.
Political or Cultural?
One of the major complications with the booth is the gray area between culturally important symbols and political ones, such as the Palestinian flag.
Jason Holtzman, chief of the JCRC of Greater Philadelphia, said his organization is aware of the issue and said that the Jewish students at the fair felt that it was “less of a cultural celebration and more like political messaging.”
He said seeing the Palestinian flag or the keffiyeh at a time when they have become political symbols left the students “understandably” shaken.
“I believe this is a sensitive and complicated situation, and it’s important to acknowledge that two things can be true at once. So, number one, students absolutely have right to celebrate their culture and identity, and number two, schools have to be places where no student, whether they’re Jewish, Muslim or any other identity, feels intimidated, marginalized or politically pressured,” Holtzman told Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.
Dawan wrote that “for many elements of the fair, multiple realities can coexist. A symbol that may reflect cultural pride and belonging for some may evoke pain, fear, or political association for others.”
The superintendent added that the school staff will facilitate conversations with students to understand the different perspectives and impact of these symbols.
Dawan’s letter addressed the reported complaints, starting with the stole reading “Jerusalem is ours.” She said that the student told administrators that the slogan was to express “cultural and religious identity.”
Dawan said that the district acknowledged that the use of the phrase was “hurtful or exclusionary” to Jewish students due to the “profound historical, spiritual, and emotional ties that the Jewish people have to Jerusalem.”
Dawan then addressed allegations that the MSA booth used cash prizes to incentivize students to play the games at the booth.
She said that multiple student groups used games to get their fellow students to engage, and administrators learned that when the MSA booth ran out of chips for small prizes they briefly handed out a “total of $3 in game prizes until someone was able to replenish their candy supply.”
Dawan said concerns were raised that the MSA was trying to entice students to view political content but based on interviews with the students, administrators did not believe that was their intent.
The final major concern raised by parents was that Dawan showed favoritism to the MSA booth while visiting and did nothing about the offending symbols.
Dawan responded that she spent around 20 minutes at the fair, stopping by each table to greet students, and did not engage with any of the content.
In the aftermath of the event, local parents sent a letter to Dawan listing several things they want to see from the district.
One request was clear guidelines around political content at school-sponsored events and another was for a listening session between Jewish parents and the school district.
Holtzman said so far, the district has only offered to meet parents individually.
The district said it will develop a more comprehensive process to ensure that students groups carefully review the content of displays and activities to consider a wide range of perspectives.
Holtzman said that holding events like the Language and Culture Fair is tricky amid the highly charged political situations around the globe.
“The world we’re living in right now is a very, very difficult world. There are a number of wars happening, conflicts happening. In our country right now, with the political situation, there’s incredible polarization,” Holtzman said. “It’s hard for people to talk to one another if they disagree with each other. And I think with that state of affairs being the way it is, it makes it much more difficult to have these types of cultural events in a way where somebody won’t walk away feeling offended or attacked.”
He added that the JCRC will offer the school district educational workshops for the faculty, which will cover topics like civil discourse, antisemitism and how symbols can gain political meaning during conflict.
Grow up. Separate what Israel is doing as a state. This is not antisemitism shown by these students.
If we say everything is antisemitic, we will only alienate more people and increase peoples’ antisemitism overall.