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Outrageous Antisemitic Incident at New Jersey High School Shows Lack of Leadership
The 2023-2024 yearbook for East Brunswick High School in New Jersey replaced a photo of the Jewish Student Union (JSU) with Muslim students and erased the names of the JSU members. Photo: Screenshot from StopAntisemitism on X/Twitter
According to Simon Sinek, the bestselling British-American author and organizational consultant renowned for his leadership expertise, “Leadership is not about being in charge … it is about taking care of those in your charge.”
While his insight is spot-on, many modern leaders have yet to embrace and implement this crucial philosophy fully.
This week, as if the world hasn’t got enough to deal with right now, a yearbook photo controversy is rocking a New Jersey high school and the surrounding community after the names of those belonging to a Jewish student group were deliberately omitted from the East Brunswick High School yearbook — and their group photo was replaced with one showing Muslim students instead.
The local mayor, Brad Cohen, called the incident a “blatant antisemitic” act and demanded answers. “Hate has no place in East Brunswick and antisemitism will not be tolerated,” he said in a Facebook post.
Superintendent of Schools Victor Valeski announced that the district will investigate how this could have occurred. Valeski was compelled to admit that the page did not look “like any of the others” in the yearbook. In an email to Valeski within hours of the incident coming to light, I expressed my outrage at the deliberate removal of the names and photograph of the Jewish Student Union members.
“Are you an outpost of Hamas?” I asked him. “Do you condone obliterating Jews? Is your school some kind of Stalinist North Korean-style authoritarian regime, where ‘enemies of the state’ are airbrushed away? Is this the ethos of your school? Adolf Hitler would be proud. So would Yahya Sinwar.”
In a subsequent update, Valeski did express both his remorse and frustration. “Above all, I personally, along with the entire East Brunswick Board of Education, sincerely apologize for the hurt, pain and anguish this event has caused our Jewish students, their families, and the impact this continues to have on the entire EB community,” he said. “East Brunswick Public Schools has been a pillar educational organization, thriving on our diversity. We do not tolerate bias and we investigate all reported antisemitism.”
But for Mayor Cohen, this was not enough — and he is absolutely right. He emphasized the need to determine how the incident had occurred in the first place, and who was responsible. He also demanded accountability: “Who signed off on this page? Did this act occur at the publisher end? How will perpetrators be held accountable?” He also assured the public that new yearbooks will be ordered and distributed with the correct pictures and names.
In the meantime, though, no one has taken responsibility. According to Valeski, the investigation is ongoing. “We do not have all the facts, but I will report to the community once I do,” he said. “I urge the East Brunswick community, the one I have a decade-long relationship with, to give me the opportunity to determine the cause and I simply ask individuals and organizations to slow their rush to judgment.”
But truthfully, Valeski’s response, and that of the school’s administration, is woefully inadequate. There is a critical need for true leadership, which is clearly lacking. The tragedy is that in today’s world, an admission of wrongdoing and an apology is often seen as the epitome of accountability. But in situations like this, where a marginalized group has been wronged, leadership must extend far beyond mere words of regret.
And let’s be honest — if this had happened to any other community, such as African-Americans or Muslims, the response would undoubtedly be much more than just a mealy-mouthed apology.
True leadership requires preempting incidents like this from happening in the first place. Erasing names and changing a photo was not a mistake, it was deliberate. And if leadership did not foresee this possibility, it indicates a significant failure in their ability to serve their community effectively.
Parshat Bamidbar, the first Torah portion of the Book of Numbers, provides profound insights into the nature of leadership and responsibility. The detailed census and the meticulous arrangement of the Israelite tribes around the Tabernacle highlight several themes, but one sticks out above all: leadership and responsibility. The thorough census included assigning roles to each Israelite tribe, and particularly the Levites, who took the responsibility of overseeing the religious needs of the Israelite nation.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch emphasizes that the organization and structure illustrate the importance of every individual knowing their role and the value they bring to the community. Each person’s contribution is essential to the overall functioning and holiness of the nation. Rav Hirsch argues that true leadership involves recognizing the unique potential of each individual and fostering an environment where everyone can contribute to the community’s collective mission.
Rav Hirsch also highlights that leaders must proactively organize and prepare their communities to face challenges, ensuring that no one is marginalized or overlooked. In today’s overheated environment, it has become increasingly obvious that for some people, Jews have no place in their world, unless they bow to an anti-Israel stance – and the tragedy is that leadership has simply allowed this attitude to flourish and proliferate.
True leadership involves taking proactive steps to address wrongs and ensure they do not happen again. This means going beyond an apology, to implement measures that prevent future occurrences and foster an environment of respect and inclusivity. In East Brunswick, it means recognizing that what happened in the yearbook was not a mistake — it was deliberate. Effective leadership requires preempting such incidents and taking responsibility when they occur. And if something like this happens on your watch, it means you are not fit for purpose.
For the East Brunswick school community in the wake of this controversy, true leadership would involve a thorough investigation, transparency in findings, and concrete actions to prevent such mistakes in the future. It requires engaging with the affected community, acknowledging their hurt, and making systemic changes to ensure every student group is fairly represented and respected. And it almost certainly needs resignations, or for people to be fired. Otherwise, it will mean this incident getting airbrushed away, just as the perpetrators airbrushed the Jews from the yearbook.
The lessons from parshat Bamidbar, as interpreted by Rav Hirsch, remind us that leadership is about more than just words. It is about responsibility, planning, anticipating all possibilities, and creating a community where everyone knows their place and contributes to the collective good.
The East Brunswick incident is a stark reminder of the need for such leadership today — leadership that does not just offer apologies but takes definitive action to uphold the values of inclusivity, respect, and justice.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills California.
The post Outrageous Antisemitic Incident at New Jersey High School Shows Lack of Leadership first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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New Orleans Attack Puts Spotlight on Islamic State Comeback Bid
A member of the Emergency Response Division holds an Islamic State militants flag in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq July 10, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo.
A US Army veteran who flew a black Islamic State flag on a truck that he rammed into New Year’s revelers in New Orleans shows how the extremist group still retains the ability to inspire violence despite suffering years of losses to a US-led military coalition.
At the height of its power from 2014-2017, the Islamic State “caliphate” imposed death and torture on communities in vast swathes of Iraq and Syria and enjoyed franchises across the Middle East.
Its then-leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, killed in 2019 by US special forces in northwestern Syria, rose from obscurity to lead the ultra-hardline group and declare himself “caliph” of all Muslims.
The caliphate collapsed in 2017 in Iraq, where it once had a base just a 30-minute drive from Baghdad, and in Syria in 2019, after a sustained military campaign by a US-led coalition.
Islamic State responded by scattering in autonomous cells, its leadership is clandestine and its overall size is hard to quantify. The U.N. estimates it at 10,000 in its heartlands.
The US-led coalition, including some 4,000 US troops in Syria and Iraq, has continued hammering the militants with airstrikes and raids that the US military says have seen hundreds of fighters and leaders killed and captured.
Yet Islamic State has managed some major operations while striving to rebuild and it continues to inspire lone wolf attacks such as the one in New Orleans which killed 14 people.
Those assaults include one by gunmen on a Russian music hall in March 2024 that killed at least 143 people, and two explosions targeting an official ceremony in the Iranian city of Kerman in January 2024 that killed nearly 100.
Despite the counterterrorism pressure, ISIS has regrouped, “repaired its media operations, and restarted external plotting,” Acting US Director for the National Counterterrorism Center Brett Holmgren warned in October.
Geopolitical factors have aided Islamic State. Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has caused widespread anger that jihadists use for recruitment. The risks to Syrian Kurds who are holding thousands of Islamic State prisoners could also create an opening for the group.
Islamic State has not claimed responsibility for the New Orleans attack or praised it on its social media sites, although its supporters have, US law enforcement agencies said.
A senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there had been growing concern about Islamic State increasing its recruiting efforts and resurging in Syria.
Those worries were heightened after the fall in December of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the potential for the militant group to fill the vacuum.
‘MOMENTS OF PROMISE’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that Islamic State will try to use this period of uncertainty to re-establish capabilities in Syria, but said the United States is determined not to let that happen.
“History shows how quickly moments of promise can descend into conflict and violence,” he said.
A U.N. team that monitors Islamic State activities reported to the U.N. Security Council in July a “risk of resurgence” of the group in the Middle East and increased concerns about the ability of its Afghanistan-based affiliate, ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), to mount attacks outside the country.
European governments viewed ISIS-K as “the greatest external terrorist threat to Europe,” it said.
“In addition to the executed attacks, the number of plots disrupted or being tracked through the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Levant, Asia, Europe, and potentially as far as North America is striking,” the team said.
Jim Jeffrey, former US ambassador to Iraq and Turkey, and Special Envoy to the Global Coalition To Defeat Islamic State, said the group has long sought to motivate lone wolf attacks like the one in New Orleans.
Its threat, however, remains efforts by ISIS-K to launch major mass casualty attacks like those seen in Moscow and Iran, and in Europe in 2015 and 2016, he said.
ISIS also has continued to focus on Africa.
This week, it said 12 Islamic State militants using booby-trapped vehicles attacked a military base on Tuesday in Somalia’s northeastern region of Puntland, killing around 22 soldiers and wounding dozens more.
It called the assault “the blow of the year. A complex attack that is first of its kind.”
Security analysts say Islamic State in Somalia has grown in strength because of an influx of foreign fighters and more revenue from extorting local businesses, becoming the group’s “nerve centre” in Africa.
‘PATH TO RADICALIZATION’
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas native and US Army veteran who once served in Afghanistan, acted alone in the New Orleans attack, the FBI said on Thursday.
Jabbar appeared to have made recordings in which he condemned music, drugs and alcohol, restrictions that echo Islamic State’s playbook.
Investigators were looking into Jabbar’s “path to radicalization,” uncertain how he transformed from military veteran, real-estate agent and one-time employee of the major tax and consulting firm Deloitte into someone who was “100 percent inspired by ISIS,” an acronym for Islamic State.
US intelligence and homeland security officials in recent months have warned local law enforcement about the potential for foreign extremist groups, such as ISIS, to target large public gatherings, specifically with vehicle-ramming attacks, according to intelligence bulletins reviewed by Reuters.
US Central Command said in a public statement in June that Islamic State was attempting to “reconstitute following several years of decreased capability.”
CENTCOM said it based its assessment on Islamic State claims of mounting 153 attacks in Iraq and Syria in the first half of 2024, a rate which would put the group “on pace to more than double the number of attacks” claimed the year before.
H.A. Hellyer, an expert in Middle East studies and senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies, said it was unlikely Islamic State would gain considerable territory again.
He said ISIS and other non-state actors continue to pose a danger, but more due to their ability to unleash “random acts of violence” than by being a territorial entity.
“Not in Syria or Iraq, but there are other places in Africa that a limited amount of territorial control might be possible for a time,” Hellyer said, “but I don’t see that as likely, not as the precursor to a serious comeback.”
The post New Orleans Attack Puts Spotlight on Islamic State Comeback Bid first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Plans $8 Billion Arms Sale to Israel, US Official Says
US President Joe Biden speaks on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this White House handout image taken in the Oval Office in Washington, US, April 4, 2024. Photo: The White House/Handout via REUTERS
The administration of President Joe Biden has notified Congress of a proposed $8 billion arms sale to Israel, a US official said on Friday, with Washington maintaining support for its ally.
The deal would need approval from the House of Representatives and Senate committees and includes munitions for fighter jets and attack helicopters as well as artillery shells, Axios reported earlier. The package also includes small-diameter bombs and warheads, according to Axios.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Protesters have for months demanded an arms embargo against Israel, but US policy has largely remained unchanged. In August, the United States approved the sale of $20 billion in fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel.
The Biden administration says it is helping its ally defend against Iran-backed terrorist groups like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
The post US Plans $8 Billion Arms Sale to Israel, US Official Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Releases Proof-of-Life Video of Israeli Hostage Liri Albag
Illustrative. An undated picture of (from left) Liri Albag, Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, and Karina Ariev held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, that was made public by their families on July 16, 2024. Photo: Hostages and Missing Families Forum
i24 News – The Palestinian terrorists of Hamas on Saturday released a video showing signs of life from Israeli hostage Liri Albag.
Albag’s family requested media not to share the video or images from it, asking journalists to respect their privacy at this moment.
Albag, 20, is a surveillance soldier stationed at the Nahal Oz base, was abducted on October 7 by Palestinian jihadists.
The post Hamas Releases Proof-of-Life Video of Israeli Hostage Liri Albag first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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