Dealing with school play anti-Semitic aftermath

JEFF KATZ

On Monday, representatives of the Board and King David met with the principal of Edenvale High to discuss what happened and determine the best way forward. 

There are always two sides to any dispute. Every reasonable effort must be made to ascertain the facts before deciding on what course of action to take. So far as the inter-school play event is concerned, it cannot be established with any certainty whether “Heil Hitler” or similarly offensive comments and gestures were made during the actual performance of the King David play itself, nor which school the alleged culprits belonged to.

What has definitely been established is that one particular Edenvale learner did indeed make the above offensive comments and gestures, both before and after the performance of the King David play. He has since expressed sincere contrition and apologised for his behaviour.

So far as the response of Edenvale High was concerned, we welcomed the principal’s strong commitment for his learners to participate in tolerance and sensitivity training with the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, as well as his unequivocal condemnation of anti-Semitism and sincere apology regarding the incident.

Since the meeting, a letter to the Edenvale parents has been sent out, strongly condemning the incident and acknowledging the hurt caused to the Jewish community. However, it was also suggested that the matter had been “blown out of proportion” and that while the learner in question had indeed behaved inappropriately, he had not intended to cause offense to the Jewish students.

In our subsequent interaction with the Edenvale principal, we have raised our concern with this perceived playing down both of the gravity of what occurred and the extent to which the errant learner was in fact culpable.

We asked that an unequivocal apology for what occurred, be sent to King David Victory Park. This has since been done, with Edenvale having unconditionally apologised for the offence caused and putting on record its strong condemnation of any form of anti-Semitic or racist behaviour.

The letter further confirmed that the school had agreed to work with the SAJBD and the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre on an education and sensitivity programme at the school and we look forward to working with Edenvale High in this regard.

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