Maggie Baker
The Star of David on a golden necklace.
*Editor’s Note: This article will be referencing and quoting slogans alleged to be antisemitic.
After two walkouts for Palestine and two School Board protests, EHS’s Jewish community is speaking out about feeling unwelcome in Edina.
The Jewish community’s reaction
EHS walkouts on Oct. 24 and Nov. 18, had the intention of advocating for the liberation of the Palestinian people. However, to the Jewish community, the walkouts’ inclusion of the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” encapsulated antisemitic sentiments present at the demonstration.
The Anti-Defamation League alleges the slogan is “hateful and antisemitic,” which the Edina administration took into account following the protests, resulting in two suspensions.
“From my understanding, students were given warnings, and they proceeded to use hateful speech anyways,” Maria Loucks, a Jewish parent in the district, said. “Only the Jewish community can decide what’s antisemitic. You don’t get to decide for us—if someone tells you, ‘Hey, this is offensive,’ you don’t get to just ignore them.”
“We’re relieved that the Edina school district seems to agree with the principle of allowing marginalized communities to define what oppression against their community looks like,” Sami Rahamim, the communications director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), said. Though Rahmim doesn’t have a “position on specific consequences” regarding the suspensions, he believes that comprehension is the best remedy. “Ultimately, what we think students really need is deeper education, and uplifting the humanity of everyone involved.”
After a School Board meeting protest on Dec. 11, some residents expressed insecurities about safety in Edina. The protests followed a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education regarding the aforementioned suspensions and was set up as a community call by the Council on Islamic American Relations’ Minnesota branch. The meeting adjourned early after protestors interrupted to bring up concerns about suspensions and silencing protestors, leaving multiple items undiscussed.
This particular School Board meeting was set on the fifth day of Hanukkah, so many from the Jewish community did not attend. Those who did attend reported being shocked. “They were yelling, disrupting, just absolutely without order,” Loucks said. “Someone asked this seven-year-old boy whether or not he liked killing babies. I mean, that’s a kid! He doesn’t know anything. He hasn’t done anything outside being Jewish.”
Killing and eating babies is an antisemitic charge called blood libel, which goes back thousands of years and paints Jewish people as to blame for the death of Jesus.
Reconciling Jewish identity within the community
Sophomore Harrison Eyngorn, head of the Jewish Student Union, believes that understanding is necessary to resolving disputes. “The key is the recognition of other people’s perspective,” he said. “The chant can easily take on many different connotations with people’s different perspectives…So it is a matter of asking people and inquiring about what they understand because it can take on different meanings.”
As a general matter, calling out antisemitism is not an easy task. “We’re a small community,” Loucks said. “It’s not easy to stand up for yourself when you’re surrounded by people who haven’t experienced what you’re going through.”
“There has been a sharp rise in antisemitism globally,” Rahamim said. The ADL reports an “unprecedented” over 300% rise in antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7. “How do you expect a kid to react to that?”
According to the JCRC, students are afraid to be Jewish in the first place, much less call out antisemitism. “The JCRC did visit the [Jewish Student Union] at Edina, and they reported a series of antisemitic incidents that they had experienced at the school. And I can tell you, around the Twin Cities, Jewish students are feeling afraid to be public in their Jewishness,” Rahamim said. “They’re afraid to wear [the star of David], they’re afraid to have Hebrew on their water bottles, and that breaks my heart.”
It’s not just students that report fear regarding the situation. “Adults are afraid to [show signs] that they support at all,” Loucks said. “They’re afraid that they will get targeted, and someone will do something to their house.”
As an organization, the JSU has attempted to stay out of the topic. “[The JSU] is choosing not to take action, but it has definitely affected us,” Eyngorn said.
Creating a safer environment at EHS
Students emphasize finding community as a safety mechanism. “I haven’t experienced any [antisemitism] regarding the [Israel-Hamas] conflict, but I know other people within our community that have, and the biggest thing I think is finding safety,” Eyngorn said. “Once within that safety, then expression and education [are] supported.”
The JSU has been a key element for education and discussion surrounding the walkouts. “[The JCRC] has been working with Jewish students and parents in Edina for really, several weeks now […] over the concerns of antisemitic rhetoric and the potential for that to escalate,” Rahamim said. “We had a presentation with the Edina JSU to talk about [the slogan] among peers, which was very productive.”
Though support is key for Jewish students, Eyngorn pushes back on the idea that it’s a sustainable solution. “It’s not the JSU’s responsibility [to take action], it’s the administration’s,” he said.
Rahamim too calls upon the administration to protect Jewish students. “We expect our school leaders, teachers, Student Council, [and] administrators to be taking steps to educate about Jewish identity and antisemitism,” he said. “What I hope would take place as part of the consequences [for antisemitic conduct] is education, learning around why what was said has a hurtful impact, why the impact on Jewish students is to feel fear and be threatened.”
Others feel that change is also necessary on the protester’s part, to have more productive and welcoming discussions. “I think as a society, we need to figure out a way to actually dialogue about stuff and have actual discussions in a calm, civilized way,” Loucks said. She believes it’s also important to not entertain what she views as unproductive conduct. “You can feel free to make an argument, have your views, but if you’re just chanting and working yourself up into a frenzy and intimidating people—that should not be something you’re rewarded for… To me, it’s absolutely frustrating and disingenuous, and it shouldn’t be incentivized.”
What everyone in the Jewish community agrees on is making sure to have a collective effort for the inclusion of Jewish students. “Everyone needs to think about how to make an argument in a thoughtful way,” Loucks said.
“It’s on every level,” Rahamim said. “[Student’s] Jewishness should be something that’s embraced as part of the school’s commitment, that diversity and equity and inclusion, that Jews should feel like they belong,”