South Africa

OP-ED

Herzlia Alumni support freedom of thought and peaceful expressions of dissent

Herzlia Alumni support freedom of thought and peaceful expressions of dissent
Herzlia Middle School is a Jewish school in Cape Town. Photo of entrance to school from Google Street View (public domain)

Members of the Herzlia Alumni have responded to the disciplinary steps taken against Herzlia pupils for taking a knee during the singing of the national anthem. This is their response.

We, as alumni of Herzlia, condemn in the strongest terms the school’s recent decision to discipline and publicly call to order students for peacefully protesting against Israeli political policy. The school’s action betrays the best values of the Jewish tradition and is a flagrant violation of the students’ constitutional rights to freedom of expression and opinion.

Unfortunately, Herzlia’s response is not surprising. Our experience is of an education about Israel that was deliberately one-sided. There are a great many nuances in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict about which reasonable people can disagree. However, insofar as the school purports to educate rather than indoctrinate students about Israel, we implore it to interrogate its curriculum. This involves an intellectually honest portrayal of available materials to students. This is something we experienced as sorely missing.

The deep links and affiliations that many in the Herzlia community have to Israel are well recognised. But a blind, blanket support, an “us versus them” binary approach of right and wrong, on the basis of this relationship without critical interrogation, is both dangerous and antithetical to the values that the school positions itself as upholding.

In its letter to the parents of the school, Herzlia stated that the issue is not about the students’ expression of an opinion “which differs from mainstream ideologies of the school”. Instead, it says that its “concern is regarding the time, place and manner in which such views were displayed and the blatant flouting of the School Rules, Herzlia’s Zionist values and the values of Herzlia’s Menschlichkeit pillar”. The letter to parents says that Herzlia “pupils need to understand that when they cross a certain line there will be consequences”. We wonder what that line is. Would the line be crossed if the learners had knelt during Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrica to protest State Capture? Is there no similarly legitimate reason to be ashamed, when we think of the leadership of the Netanyahu government, which allies itself with Viktor Orban, one of the world’s premier enablers of anti-Semitism?

In a further statement, Herzlia has said that it is an academic institution that strives to develop critical thinking as part of its educational offering”. It adds that while the school welcomes freedom of speech it “would encourage this to take place in a constructive manner, allowing our students to express themselves openly and without judgment”.

Herzlia’s affirmation of the importance of freedom of expression is welcome. However, given our experiences at the school we are wary that this affirmation will not be coupled with an honest interrogation of the way in which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is taught. Moreover, we resist the suggestion that the students failed to act in a constructive manner. Their conduct was neither obstructive nor violent. We can think of few more peaceful and respectful means of protest than kneeling during an anthem.

Herzlia’s response therefore masks a total refusal to allow students to express and be exposed to views about Israel that diverge from its own. We of course cannot prescribe to Herzlia how it educates its students. We nonetheless hope that the school honestly reflects on what the obligation to educate rather than indoctrinate requires. We also hope that it reflects on the manner in which these children have been “named and shamed” on social media. Many of the “adults” in our community have called publicly for their immediate expulsion. We hope that the school considers how its conduct, and its letter, helped fuel this vitriol and we expect Herzlia to lead in condemning it.

We want Herzlia to live up to its own policy, which says that it “adheres to the principle of respect for the dignity of these [ideological differences] within its own and the broader Jewish community”.

Menschlichkeit is embodied in the courage that the learners showed in exercising their right to peacefully protest in circumstances where they would have known that the consequences may be difficult. If we condemn and punish our communities’ children for that, and teach them that this is un-Jewish, we do a great disservice to the Jewish historical tradition of social activism and freedom of conscience and thought.

Many of us feel deeply disappointed by the actions of our alma mater. We are hopeful, though, that Herzlia will carefully consider whether it has taken the right course of action and will apologise for rebuking and punishing the children. We ask our school to show the same maturity, courage and menschlichkeit that these two young pupils have demonstrated to us all. DM

Signed by:

Maya Aberman / David Agranat / Stanley Barkan / Mandy Barnett / Jenna Bass / Daniel Bauman / Ayal Belling / Romy Berman / Adam Bertscher/ Mitch Besser / Maxwell Besser / Samuel Besser / Leila Bloch/ Ilan Blumberg / Jeremy Bregman / Joel Bregman / Jesse Brooks / Mia Candy / Cleo Candy / Robin Catzel / Jennifer Cohen / Justin Cohen / Sonya Cotton / Joel Da Costa / Dennis Davis / Liat Davis / Joshua Davis / Alana Dave / Nathaniel Delit / Denise Drabkin/ Alan Drabkin / Howard Dubowitz / Basil Dubb/ Galia Durbach / Emma Engers / Ross Engers / Roslyn Fish / Tim Fish Hodgson/ Liam Furman/ Jonathan Galante / Hayley Galgut / Kim Gresak/ Rebecca Hodes/ Anthony Hodgson / David Idesis /Aaron Jacobs / Daniel Kaliski / Jonathan Kaplan/ Roxy Kawitzky / Lionel Krause /Robert Krause/ Phillip Krause / Caitlin Le Roith /Brian Levy / Steven Linde / Daniel Linde / Candice Linde / Caitlin Lindenberg / Dena Lomofsky / Lynne Lomofsky / Sharon Lomofsky / Leslie London / Sally London / Tristan Lory / Janet Lubner /Talia Lubbe / Rafael Lubner / Julia Lubner / Peter Lurie /Daniel Mackintosh / Raphael Mackintosh / Andrea Mandelsohn /Aviva Marock /Carmel Marock / Michael Markovitz /Laura Markovitz / Paul Mesarcik /Julia Michalow /Barbara Miller / Gary Morris / Sheryl Ozinsky /Simone Petousis / Francois Petousis /Samara Ragaven /Zakiah Resnik /Alan Richter / Trevor Rosenfield /Maxine Rubin /Georgia Saacks / Phoebe Saacks / Kevin Sack / Simon Sarembock / Ariella Scher /Sheryl Schkolne /Yair Schkolne / Maya Schkolne / Leonard Shapiro /Steven Shenker / Callie Shenker /Abigail Smith / Orli Setton / Gavin Silber / Raphael Smith /Amanda Stein /Michelle Stein / Gilad Stern / Eitan Stern / Ilan Strauss / Maya Super / Adam Todes / Cheryl Traub-Adler / Danielle Travill / Ruth Urson / Daniel Urson / Judy Weis / Zia Wasserman / Gary White / Jodi Wishnia / Sarah Zinn

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

X

This article is free to read.

Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.

Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.


Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us:

Please enter your password or get a sign in link if you’ve forgotten

Open Sesame! Thanks for signing up.

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.