It is laudable that Diamond’s principal brought in a firm to educate students about antisemitism in a time where lies on the subject continue to be spread by social media, the major news outlets, and leading politicians.  Antisemitism is and always has been based on lies and hate of the other, and the desire to find someone else to blame for people’s troubles.  What has worked to distract people from real issues and provide easy answers as to who is to blame for our trouble, is often the tried and true, “It’s the Jews”.  

I understand that many Palestinians have very strong emotions about the war in Gaza and decades of conflict in the region, but I understand this was a lesson about antisemitism, not about the war, whether Israel’s army is good or bad or the like. Antisemitism is wrong no matter what Israel does or does not do. Hating any Jew because of what some Jew did is as wrong as it would be for me to hate all Palestinians or Muslims because of what Hamas did on October 7th, or the surprise and unprovoked attacks on Israel on the Jewish holiest holiday in 1973, or so many other wars and incidents.

That is what the Diamond Principal and the school administration got wrong and your context gets wrong.  The message it implies to me, is that there is a valid reason to be antisemitic and hate all Jews. Our school system and its administrators failed the test and your context provides the details of that failure.  History clearly shows where the current wave of antisemitism leads.  The school system needs to teach the Holocaust because that is where antisemitism leads.  It can happen here.  As a Jew in Lexington, the actions of the school system and administration has made me feel less safe.

Phil Shevrin

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