Petition seeks action against anti-Semitism
Almost 5,500 people have signed a new petition calling for Marin school and law enforcement officials to take quick steps against those involved in recent anti-Semitic postings on social media targeting Marin Jewish students.
“Immediate action is required to prevent the verbal and physiological abuse from progressing into a physical,” said petition organizer Samantha Glickman in a note on change.org where the petition was posted. “I don’t want to be a statistic in a national news story headline about a district that failed to take preventative measures.”
Last month, several Instagram accounts linked to the Tam district’s Redwood High School in Larkspur called out names of various Marin students they said were Jewish. The accounts, which have since been taken down, asked followers to identify more names, because they said they were “compiling a Google doc” that listed all the Jews.
The latter is a particularly chilling evocation formany Jewish people of the lists made in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust of Jews whowere set to be rounded up and killed.
“We are frightened because our names could be on that list,” Glickman said. “The list of Jewish students paired with the image of the swastika and the bullet produces an uncanny resemblance to the use of lists during the Nazi Regime. The idea of going back to school with a student whose beliefs align with those of Nazis is inconceivable.”
The petition notes that Marin school officials have quickly addressed other recent protests over racism or bigotry involving non-Jewish ethic groups — such as the controversy over changing the name of Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo because of Drake's alleged ties to the slave trade.
But no action has been taken yet to stop the Redwood anti- Semitic Instagram postings — even though some school students say they brought it to school officials' attention in March.
“Too often is anti-Semitism swept under the rug by Redwood and the Tam District as a whole,” she added. “This form of hatred is of the same importance as racism, misogyny and bigotry — yet it is treated as inferior.”
On Wednesday, Marin leaders in education, religion, law enforcement and community activism will conduct an online forumon the controversy.
“We came together as a county in order to share information and provide resources for combating anti- Semitism,” said Tara Taupier, superintendent of the Tamalpais Union High School District and moderator of the event. “We, as a district, continue to work with law enforcement who is still actively investigating the incident.”
Taupier said the list of panelists for Wednesday's forum includes Rabbi Stacy Friedman of Congregation Rodef Sholom; Earl Titman, supervising investigator for the Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force; District Attorney Lori Frugoli; Jamie Nuñez, Bay Area regional manager with Common Sense Media and Seth Brysk, regional director at the Anti-Defamation League.
The webinar is set for 5 to 6:30 p.m. Information on the event is available at tamdistrict.org. To send questions in advance of the webinar, email superintendentsoffice@marinschools.org.
Les Bernstein of Mill Valley, a prominent Marin poet and grandparent of a student at Redwood, said she had “over 100 posts of outrage” inresponse toher comments about the anti-Semitic incidents and petition on Nextdoor. Some people later emailed her and said “they supported the petition, but that they didn't want to put their names on a list that outed them as Jews,” Bernstein said.
“My granddaughter attends Redwood High,” Bernstein added Tuesday in an email. “Although she is currently home schooling, she is concerned about going back to school when it is again possible. She said: ‘I do not want to walk the hallways and not know who is near me that hates me and wishes me harm.'”
Bernstein added that even if the person behind the antiSemitic Ins tag ram accounts is a minor— as is suggested in the petition and by others in the community — “it is a hate crime and must be treated as such,” she said. “I don't wish to be punitive, but I also do not want to allow this person to hide behind anonymity. He or she needs to be responsible for their actions. He or she needs be educated on the dangers of prejudice and the harm it causes.”
Redwood school officials have declined comment on reports that they were alerted to a possible suspect — a student at the school — in March. Principal David Sondheim has said he has turned over all information to the Central Marin Police Authority, which is conducting the investigation, along with the Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force.
Some Marin Jewish parents say the issue of not taking anti-Semitism seriously as a hate crime spills over into educational policy.
Currently, both Marin and California schools are seeking to adopt anti-racism curricula and to make ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement.
However, Jewish studies — which many people think could help ease bigotry by offering true history and clear information about Judaism as both a religion and an ethnicity— have been left out of those discussions. Efforts are being made both locally and statewide to remedy that omission.
“From the start of this process, our position has been that ethnic studies education is a powerful classroom tool to advance justice for marginalized communities,” said Tyler Gregory, executive director of the JCRC of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, Sonoma, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, in a written statement.
“We believe that the interests of our Jewish community and those of the ethnic studies groups are aligned, and we look forward to working in coalition with them to advance our shared values in the classroom.”