The Beverly Hills Unified School District\u2019s Board of Education approved a proposal Tuesday night to display the Israeli flag on all campuses and district facilities in recognition of Jewish American Heritage Month in May.<\/p>\n
The proposal is part of a resolution to combat antisemitism<\/a> that also calls for educating students about Jewish history and commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Oct. 7 as a Day of Remembrance of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. <\/p>\n The resolution passed in a 3-2 vote, with board President Rachelle Marcus voting no due to fears that displaying the Israeli flag would make schools a target. Board member Amanda Stern voted no because she does not believe \u201cpartisan material\u201d such as a national flag belongs in a public school resolution.<\/p>\n The resolution was introduced earlier this month and sparked fierce debate over whether it is appropriate to dedicate so much time and so many resources to recognizing a specific ethnic and religious group in a public school setting. <\/p>\n It has also raised concerns that displaying the Israeli flag doesn\u2019t simply signal support for the Jewish people but also represents support for the Israeli government and its actions in Gaza, where more than half a million people<\/a> are living in famine amid the ongoing war. <\/p>\n \u201cThis proposal conflates Jewish faith and identity with the political actions of a foreign government and undermines the inclusive and respectful environment that public schools are meant to foster for all students, regardless of their background,\u201d Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement. \u201cIt is deeply insensitive and distressing to Palestinian students who have lost countless family members to Israel\u2019s violent military campaign and the man-made humanitarian crisis in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n All five members of Beverly Hills Unified\u2019s Board of Education had initially expressed their support for the resolution during an Aug. 5 meeting but decided to revise some of its wording before bringing it back for a vote Tuesday night. <\/p>\n In particular, they changed phrasing saying that the purpose of displaying the Israeli flag is to signify support for the Jewish state to say the purpose is to signify support for the Jewish community. <\/p>\n During the Aug. 5 meeting, public speaker Daniel Lifschitz said he supported the spirit of a resolution to combat antisemitism. However, he raised several concerns around its language, especially how it completely eliminates \u201cany distinction between anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment.\u201d<\/p>\n Board member Russell Stuart responded that people have different opinions about whether it is possible to be against the country of Israel without being against the Jewish people, but he emphasized that the purpose of the resolution is to make Jewish students feel supported.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the end, our job is not to solve geopolitics,\u201d he said. \u201cOur job is to make sure that our students in our school district come to school and feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrea Grossman, who attended Beverly Hills Unified schools and sent her three children to schools in the district, said during the Aug. 5 meeting that she read the resolution with concern and dismay. She feared the resolution would \u201cignite rather than discourage antisemitism\u201d and thought the setting was inappropriate.<\/p>\n \u201cBeverly Hills is a public school district in a diverse city with more than one religion, with more than one ethnic group,\u201d Grossman said. \u201cYour resolution would be appropriate in a Jewish day school, in a private school, not funded by taxpayer dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n In Tuesday night\u2019s meeting, board member Stern said she recognized that a number of community members had come forward to say that opposition to antisemitism did not equal support of Israel\u2019s policy and military decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to keep this as a resolution against antisemitism. … I grapple with conflating this with Israel,\u201d she said. \u201cI love Israel, but I don\u2019t think it belongs here.\u201d<\/p>\n A public commenter said earlier this month that it is unfair to focus so heavily on the atrocities faced by the Jewish people and not provide the same recognition to other persecuted groups, such as Armenians, Uyghurs and Black people in the United States. <\/p>\n In Tuesday night\u2019s meeting, board President Marcus, who voted no, said she believes the resolution can accomplish its goal of educating students about antisemitism without displaying an Israeli flag.<\/p>\n \u201cI fear [for] the safety of the students in the school,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to put something on the front of the school that will make us targets of any kind.\u201d<\/p>\n The Anti-Defamation League reported 9,354 antisemitic incidents<\/a> across the United States in 2024 \u2014 a 344% increase over the last five years and the highest number since the organization started tracking incidents in 1979. L.A. County saw a 91% increase in anti-Jewish hate crimes<\/a> from 2022 to 2023, the latest year for which data are available.<\/p>\n Board member Sigalie Sabag emphasized the importance of passing the resolution against this backdrop of hate.<\/p>\n \u201cThis resolution affirms a commitment to educating about Jewish history, accurately remembering the tragedies the Jewish people have endured, and standing publicly against the growing darkness of antisemitism,\u201d she said on Aug. 5, \u201cwhich, make no mistake, has reached a critical tipping point.\u201d <\/p>\n A spokesperson for the district said in a statement that the Israeli flags will not be mounted on a flagpole, but displayed in different locations around campuses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Beverly Hills Unified School District\u2019s Board of Education approved a proposal Tuesday night to display the Israeli…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":179227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[101385,12648,1582,276,41512,70,99,101383,38322,2961,224,5337,38612,6514,101384,30067,22012,67063,15689,5174],"class_list":{"0":"post-179226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-andrea-grossman","9":"tag-antisemitism","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-concern","13":"tag-gaza","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-israeli-flag","16":"tag-jewish-people","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-meeting","21":"tag-proposal","22":"tag-public-school-setting","23":"tag-purpose","24":"tag-resolution","25":"tag-school-district","26":"tag-student","27":"tag-support"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115099738129565541","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}