Rockville Centre Letters to the Editor

Education about hate is key

To the Editor:

Your editorial on the decision by South Side Middle School to remove artwork depicting Nazi symbolism (“Students learn the power of art to provoke,” June 29-July 6) as part of an art class assignment, misses the crux of the incident. While the art teacher’s endeavor with the assignment may have been worthy and laudable, the school missed the opportunity to use the artwork appropriately by failing to provide any context.

It is important to acknowledge the impact the image of the swastika may have on Jewish and non-Jewish students. When discussing the swastika or Nazi imagery, educators should provide students with an opportunity to reflect on and understand the meaning of symbols closely associated with the murder of 6 million Jews and millions of others. Lessons in anti-bias education must be taught with careful consideration, and with methods that promote self-awareness, critical thinking and empathetic reflection.

We look forward to working with the school and community to promote respectful, inclusive school environments. However, we should hardly be surprised when 12-year-olds react with shock, fear and genuine hurt when seeing the swastika displayed on their school wall.

Evan R. Bernstein
N.Y. Regional director, Anti-Defamation League

Taking down art protected students

To the Editor:

“Students learn the power of art to provoke,” misrepresented facts and drew inaccurate conclusions.

The issues presented at the June 21 school board meeting had nothing to do with censorship or whether the Holocaust and its symbols should continue to be taught at the middle school. The meeting did not focus on the students in the art class. Rather, it focused on the teachers and administrators at the middle school, who have acknowledged that they were wrong and did not do the right thing regarding the students’ drawings. The decisions taken do not limit students from expressing their ideas, their freedoms or creativity. It wasn’t about censorship or capitulating to fear and anger.

Removing the artwork does not pretend that the swastika does not exist. As the article, but not the editorial, noted, the curriculum teaches the subject matter in many ways, and invites Holocaust survivors to tell their story — concluding with the message, “We shall never forget!”

During the meeting, the curriculum was explained in great detail. It is clear that the symbols tied to the Holocaust are taught very professionally, with carefully prepared lesson plans in social studies, English and art classes, as are the symbols of slavery and other hate-related groups. We fully support our schools and these important programs and efforts.

That, however, does not equate to displaying swastikas, as part of students’ art assignment, or any symbols that are associated with those evil historical events, in the school’s hallways. In fact, the swastika is such a repugnant and hateful symbol that the decision to hang the pictures may have actually violated the New York Penal Law, which specifically states that in certain circumstances hanging a swastika is a felony.

With regard to the community’s concern that other students would start committing hate crimes, two such incidents were discussed at the meeting (not mentioned in the article or the editorial), and at least one other has occurred since the meeting. There has been swastika graffiti in the middle school that has resulted in ongoing police investigations; middle school students have been caught writing concentration camp numbers on their wrists; and four eighth-grade students were not allowed to participate in the middle school graduation after it was discovered that they were writing swastikas in yearbooks.

People who have been taught to hate and who harbor prejudices require very little incentive to act on their misguided beliefs. Our schools have taken the necessary steps to quickly condemn and punish such behavior and protect the student population.

Evil, bigotry and prejudice must be brought into the light so they can be combated directly and forcefully within the context of the unique freedoms we enjoy as a nation. The editorial implies that the school board, the superintendent, the principal and the parents are all wrong. While the editorial performs a service to the community — bringing to light an unfortunate incident that was dealt with properly — its facts are incomplete and its conclusions are wrong.

The Jewish Council of Rockville Centre
The JCRVC is composed of members of the three Rockville Centre synagogues.

Swastikas shouldn’t be displayed

To the Editor:

I am writing in response to “Students learn the power of art to provoke.” Yes, it is more education and more speech that is required, per Justice Brandeis, to understand what the swastika represents. A good example is the Holocaust education and discussion provided to students and teachers by Ray Fischler, who lost his entire family to swastika-wearing Nazis during the Holocaust.

If there was better understanding and sensitivity to what seeing a swastika in our schools means to members of our Rockville Centre community, the artwork would not have hung for several weeks without an outcry. The students would not have used swastikas in their artwork, and you would not have written the editorial, which demonstrates your lack of sensitivity and arrives at misguided and wrong conclusions.

Museums depicting degenerate art do so within the context of an exhibit, with brochures, videos and educational material providing background, proper context and framework. While I have no doubt that there was no ill intent, and the objective of the students and teacher was to show the depravity, repugnant ideals and abominations of Nazism, it is important to understand the outcry, and why Superintendent William Johnson, the school board and SSMS Principal Shelagh McGinn were right in removing the artwork.

Seeing a swastika elicits a visceral, deep-seated anger — as it should in every civilized person. My mother and grandmother, by sheer miracles, survived Auschwitz and six Nazis labor camps. They were rescued by the Russian army the night before they were to be gassed and their bodies burned in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. There were swastikas on every gate, hat and guard. My mother saw her 6-year-old brother picked up by his feet and his skull crushed as his head was smashed against a concrete wall by SS officers wearing swastikas. Seventy five years of nightmares, seeing swastikas in every one of them.

It is not a matter of censorship. We must hold evil up to the light through education and open discussion. Portraying hateful symbols in our schools without it is unjustifiable.

Herb Friend
Rockville Centre

Taking down swastikas wasn’t censorship

To the Editor:

Regarding the article “SSMS student art stirs debate,” and the accompanying editorial, I would like to address several issues, other than those regarding the heinous act of hanging a swastika or the ensuing incidents involving several students in the middle school.

First and foremost, although there were three rabbis at the Board of Education meeting, and Rabbi Marc Gruber was the only one to address the board, it was natural that his remarks were quoted. However, it must be made clear that no inference should be drawn that his remarks speak for the entire Jewish community of Rockville Centre, and he was not there as its representative.

Secondly, since the incident, I have spent much time investigating what is referred to as German degenerate art, and have found very little evidence of swastikas featured prominently. Frankly, there are more Stars of David featured than swastikas, and it is in the photos taken at the exhibits in which one can see Nazis wearing swastika arm bands.

Third, and most important, the editorial raises the ugly concept of censorship. However, speech in the U.S. today is being heavily censored, and new forms of it are rolling out every day. College students need “safe places” to avoid any speech that may make them uncomfortable, “he/she” is discriminatory, while “husband/wife” is degrading. Flying a confederate flag, another symbol of hate, is considered a perversion. The mere question “Where are you from?” is deemed racist. Scientists who refute “climate change” are vilified and censored. That is censorship.

Should there not be a level playing field for Jews who feel real, genetically ingrained angst at the sight of a swastika? Apparently not. I guess, as Bill Buckley said, we can all have an opinion as long as it is the same as yours.
I am sorry that the Herald is “saddened” by what you call censorship, and offended that you believe I am incapable of “understanding the art or its context,” even after having listened to my grandmother’s stories of life prior to escaping Europe. I am, however, more saddened by the loss of 6 million relatives in the glorification of the swastika.

Marc Zeloof
Rockville Centre

Safety isn’t concern of basketball hoop dissenters

To the Editor:

As evidenced by Rockville Centre residents Jack Brull’s and Burton Diamond’s letters to the editor this month (“Basketball hoops are eyesores,” June 16-22, and “Get rid of basketball hoops,” June 23-29), curbside basketball hoops are a major issue that confronts us all in the village, but seems to have escaped most residents. 

Diamond and Brull complain that the village is not enforcing the local code that these hoops appear to violate. They call the hoops “eyesores.” On whether a basketball hoop is beautiful or an eyesore, I really have no opinion, and maybe would even concede the point. 

However, they then label the hoops “dangerous,” and make it seem that their opposition to them is motivated by safety concerns for the children of Rockville Centre. Diamond writes that the village should be held liable if some reckless driver were to come barreling down a street and strike a kid playing ball. No, Mr. Diamond — that driver should and would be held responsible. 

Like most residents who have seen and discussed these letters with me, I suspect that their opposition to the backboards has nothing to do with aesthetics or safety, and everything to do with the noise and often boisterous energy that groups of children bring to the streetscape when they are doing what kids should be doing: playing outside. 

As today’s parents know, what is far more dangerous to our youth than any basketball hoop or hockey net are health issues directly correlated to youth inactivity. Obesity and diabetes in our children are two ailments that have grown rapidly in the past few decades due to lack of exercise and too much screen time. Show me a kid chasing a ball or a puck, and I’ll show you a healthy, strong kid who is staying out of trouble. 

In a South Shore, kid-centric neighborhood where schools and families come first, the village is correct in exercising its discretion by following the spirit of the law, and ignoring the letter of it. 

With summer here, we Rockville Centre residents will sleep much more soundly knowing that Mr. Diamond and Mr. Brull will be keeping a vigilant watch for all of those code-violating lemonade stands that pop up every year and infest our streets. Of course, their efforts will be strictly motivated by youth safety. 

Chris Schmidt

Rockville Centre

Street-side basketball hoops create danger

To the Editor:

Approximately 15 years ago, I contacted the village and the Police Department about curbside basketball hoops. I was told that a code exists that prohibits them, yet it is not enforced. 

The only way the authorities could enforce the code would be to pit neighbor against neighbor. I would have to enter a formal complaint, and the authorities would tell the neighbor who complained, hence the need for them to remove the basketball hoop. I did not want to alienate otherwise good neighbors, nor create animosity or ill will in the neighborhood. 

Why would the village or the police want strained and possibly hostile relationships among neighbors to enforce a code that already exists? Not only are these basketball hoops an eyesore, but I can’t think of a more dangerous place for children to play ball than in the street. Additionally, basketballs bounced on cars parked in the vicinity and would roll into the road with oncoming vehicles. This created a safety hazard to those driving as well. 

The children on my block are grown and the hoops are now gone, but for years I had to suffer in silence to keep the peace on my block. Why have a code if it is not enforced?

Karyn Wortman

Rockville Centre