Gaza war lands direct hit on Australian Jewish day schools

A new front in the Gaza war opened in Australian Jewish day schools last month when the Emanuel School in Sydney invited two members of the Israeli-Arab peace organisation Standing Together to speak to Year 12 students.

In a microcosm of the battle for hearts and minds that has accompanied the Gaza conflict, the Standing Together presentation on November 12 set off a chain reaction of outrage, apologies and criticism across the school’s community, spanning students, teachers, the school board, advocacy groups, and even former students from the school.

Collectively, the incident has ignited difficult questions about the responsibility of Jewish schools to their students regarding discussion about Israel and the Middle East.

Standing Together describes itself as “a progressive grassroots movement mobilising Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel against the occupation and for peace, equality, and social justice”. Its visit was sponsored by the progressive New Israel Fund.

The two speakers, Nadav Shofet (Jewish) and Dr Shahd Bishara (Arab), had been invited by the school to speak about the group’s efforts to build bridges between Israel’s Jewish and Arab communities.

Their presentation also veered into robust criticism of the Israeli government, and its conduct of the war, including the claim that Israel “was on the path towards a fascist state”. The speakers also criticised Hamas and Hezbollah during their addresses, and called for the release of the hostages, and a hope for coexistence and peace.

However, this summary does not capture the nuances of the session that caused such outrage. The Jewish Independent understands that the two speakers arrived about 20 minutes late and, short of time, cut the time allotted to their discussion of peacebuilding and co-existence, according to parents of students in the room. As a result, the session was dominated by criticism of Israel, which was delivered with what parents described as inflammatory language.

In addition, criticism of Hamas and Hezbollah was made in passing rather than being addressed head-on during the discussion of the war, parents told TJI.

Many students felt misled and uncomfortable both at the lack of time given to peacebuilding and the critique of Israel, and started checking their phones for more background about the speakers. They discovered Dr Bishara had posted tweets that used the phrase “from the river to the sea”, which set off alarm bells - which they shared with their parents.

The school’s management reacted strongly, and immediately, to the presentation, distributing a letter of apology to all parents, dated the same day as the talk. “We are incredibly disappointed by some viewpoints expressed during the presentation,” the letter said.

“We provided a very clear brief: we asked that the speakers talk about their vision for coexistence in Israel, which is their main work. We wanted to hear about the dialogue they facilitate between Israeli Jews and Israeli Palestinians who seek a vision of reconciliation. The speakers did not adhere to the agreed brief. They expressed strong criticism of the Israeli government and the war (neither of which were part of the agreed brief).

“The Emanuel School stands in strong support of Israel at this time, and always,” the letter concluded.

NIF Australia has disputed the school’s account of the brief. “It's regrettable that there appears to have been a misunderstanding but it would not have been possible to agree to have guests visiting from Israel 14 months into a devastating war, who did not discuss it upon arrival in Australia,” NIF’s executive director, Michael Chaitow, told TJI.

Several parents contacted the ultra-conservative Australian Jewish Association (AJA), a private advocacy group which does not recognise the right of Palestinians to their own state. The AJA publicised the talk, the fallout and the school’s letter to parents. The head of the AJA, Dr David Adler, labelled the Standing Together presentation as “propaganda”.

“We take responsibility for breaking the story at the request of some parents and senior students who contacted us,” Adler told the Australian Jewish News. “The last thing we need at the moment is more anti-Israel propaganda, especially within our Jewish schools.”

NIF Australia accused the AJA of mounting a “concerted attack” by making the incident public. “It helped spread a wilful distortion of what was said to students, further fanning unwarranted and unhelpful division by accusing the school of mishandling the event,” Michael Chaitow told The Jewish Independent. The AJA was approached for comment but did not respond.

The uproar over the presentation did not end there. While the school’s letter of apology was intended to quell disquiet from parents, it had the opposite reaction on former students of Emanuel.

A group of alumni, from 2003-23, sent their own letter to the principal, Andrew Watt, which TJI has seen, expressing their “concern regarding Emanuel’s recent apology for hosting speakers from the grassroots organisation Standing Together.

“Emanuel’s website states: ‘as a pluralistic Jewish school, we affirm that there is more than one authentic way to be Jewish, and embed this in all we do’,” the letter said.

“Yet the decision to apologise for offering students an opportunity to hear from Standing Together suggests a troubling departure from this commitment to pluralism… The apology risks isolating students who hold different views, sending a clear message that only certain perspectives are acceptable.”

The alumni letter directly addressed the school’s response to war in Gaza. “Emanuel has rightly commemorated the horrific attacks of October 7, a day that has traumatised out community. However, its subsequent silence on the catastrophic war in Gaza cannot be justified.

“In the year since, over 44,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed. Schools have been destroyed, entire generations wiped out, and whole neighbourhoods reduced to rubble. Yet Emanuel has chosen to acknowledge only one side of this immense human tragedy.”

“We write this letter not as critics seeking to diminish Emanuel, but as alumni who carry forward the values our school instilled in us,” the letter said. “The very fact that we feel compelled to speak out testifies to the success of our education and the lasting impact of these lessons.”

TJI has been unable to clarify whether the authors of the alumni letter were aware of the content and tone of the presentation when they wrote their letter, or were responding only to the fact of the school’s letter of apology.

The principal of Emanuel, Andrew Watt, declined to comment but addressed the alumni letter in the school’s weekly newsletter. “In the current climate it is especially important to provide opportunities for our students to develop the requisite knowledge and skills to stand up as proud Jews with the ability to engage in robust discussion and debate around the conflict in the Middle East.

“From time to time, external speakers are invited to speak to our staff and students. The guidelines… when inviting guest speakers are there to ensure that the topic has relevance to curriculum objectives, is consistent with the school’s purpose, goals and ethos, the presentation remains on topic and is supervised by a teacher.”

The Standing Together speakers were due to give a presentation the next day, November 13, at the King David School in Melbourne but the invitation was withdrawn and the session cancelled. This prompted a letter of concern to the school from the progressive community group Emet, whose ethos aligns with that of Standing Together.

“We understand that King David intended to host speakers from Standing Together, but cancelled following statements made by the Australian Jewish Association (AJA) mischaracterising Standing Together and the Emanuel School’s intent in inviting its members to speak to students,” the letter said.

“We and many people in the Jewish community (and King David community) support the mission of Standing Together and similar organisations… Cancelling the platforming of progressive voices in fear of potential backlash raises deep concerns for us about the tolerance and direction of our community.” Emet also wrote to Emanuel to support its decision to host the presentation.

This range of responses to the presentation by Standing Together has highlighted long-running questions about how Jewish schools handle education about Israel. In briefing the Standing Together speakers via NIF, Emmanuel claims it stated from the outset it did not want discussion of the war. As stated above, NIF has disputed the school’s account.

This furore may technically have been a question of allegedly straying from the brief, and the right of a school to insist on the framework for visiting speakers. Yet is also brings into focus the unspoken taboo that hangs over Jewish day schools about robust discussion of the Middle East, including criticism of the Israeli government, as distinct from the state.

This is a conflict that will endure long after the war in Gaza ends.