Principal ripped after apologizing to students for lesson on recognizing antisemitism
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Prime Day ends tonight! Score these last-minute deals US NewsPrincipal ripped after apologizing to students for lesson on recognizing antisemitism
By Jewish News Syndicate Published June 26, 2026, 11:31 a.m. ETSee more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The New York Post on GoogleA middle school principal in Massachusetts reportedly sent an email to seventh-grade students apologizing for an educational session on antisemitism after he said families told the school that the lesson made some students feel “unseen.”
In a letter circulating on social media attributed to Johnny Cole, principal of William Diamond Middle School, a public school in Lexington, Mass., he wrote, “A few weeks ago, your class participated in a session about antisemitism, connecting the learning you had done in social studies class about the Holocaust to the modern world.”
“The goal was an important one: to help you recognize hate, understand where it comes from and encourage you to speak up against it,” he wrote.
“We have learned from speaking to some of your families that the experience did not feel that way to you,” Cole stated. “Some of you felt unseen. Some of you felt like your own history, your identity or your community was left out or erased.”
“We are sorry,” he wrote. “We are sorry because every one of you deserves to walk into this school and feel that who you are matters—Arab students; Jewish students; Lebanese students; Muslim students; Palestinian students—every student. And in this case, we missed the mark and did not achieve what we hoped to.” (JNS sought comment from Cole.)
Deborah Lipstadt, former US antisemitism envoy, stated that the principal’s email is emblematic of “the toxification of Jewish history, life and community, making it untouchable.”
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Trisha Posner, founder of AntisemitismWatch, agreed, stating, “This is how they will try to erase Jewish history.”
“First, they denied it,” she wrote. “Now, they try to avoid teaching it because Arab and Muslim students are offended. In this way, they can push the false narrative of genocide in Gaza and ignore the real Nazi genocide of European Jewry.”
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis condemned the principal’s apology and urged Lexington Public Schools to “take concrete action, including establishing a clear and unified process for reporting and responding to hate and bias incidents, strengthening instruction on Jewish history, culture and identity and providing staff with substantive professional development on recognizing and confronting contemporary antisemitism.”
“It should be common sense that Holocaust education is not an affront to any student’s identity, and it is not something for which a school should apologize,” said Kurt Schwartz, CEO of CAMERA.
Schwartz pointed to past incidents at the school, including swastikas drawn in a boys’ bathroom, as well as the principal confronting a Jewish student who was wearing a sweatshirt with an “anti-Nazi message.”
“Leadership should be responding with moral clarity, not suggesting that the act of teaching about the Holocaust has somehow ‘missed the mark,’” Schwartz said.
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The Lexington Observer published a letter to the editor from the student, Teagan Murtagh, an eighth-grader at the school, on June 17.
Murtagh claimed that Cole stopped her in the school hallway to ask her not to wear a sweatshirt to school that read, “Save the bees. Plant more trees. Clean the seas. Punch Nazis.”
She said that she wore the sweatshirt to “silently fight back against antisemitism in my school,” and that the principal told her that students had complained about feeling threatened by the words on her sweatshirt.
Murtaugh, who is the great-granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, wrote that “this is a school where students drew neo-Nazi symbols on the bathroom walls in December and the only schoolwide response was a statement on the announcements telling us to be kind.”
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- 6/26/26
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Badenoch blasts 'moaning' female Labour MPs over Burnham jobs 'quota'
Kemi Badenoch has told Labour women to earn a job in Andy Burnham's Cabinet instead of demanding they are handed jobs because of their gender.
The Tory leader lashed out today amid reports that female MPs are demanding the de-facto new prime minister introduce a 50:50 gender split 'quota' in his government.
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister also complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts.
But in a scathing article in the Times today Mrs Badenoch told them to 'stop moaning' and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'.
'There are many, many reasons why you shouldn't have any Milibands in the cabinet,' she said.
'But complaining that the boys haven't given them the right jobs or that the boys are taking all the jobs, just shows that Labour's women still don't get it.'
The idea of quotas was also attacked by Baroness Jacqui Smith, Labour's Skills Minister.
Asked by Times Radio if Mr Burnham should reserve jobs for women, she said: 'No, I think what Andy Burnham should be doing is building the very best team around him to change this country.'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs
Amid reports that former foreign secretary David Miliband (above, right, in 2010) is being lined up to return to the role, possibly with his brother Ed as Chancellor, one female minister complained that Burnham could not have 'more Milibands than women' in the top posts
But Mrs Badenoch told them to pipe down and get chosen on merit instead of retreating into 'more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country'
A letter written by the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party and seen by the BBC has called on Mr Burnham to ensure a 50:50 split between men and women in government jobs after he succeeds Sir Keir Starmer.
'We are asking you to demonstrate this change from day one and address the toxicity and misogyny within our own party and government,' it said.
Labour has never had a female leader, while the Conservatives have had three, and Mrs Badenoch urged the government to follow its meritocratic example.
'If you run a meritocracy, then you do not have to worry about jobs for the boys,' she wrote.
'Every woman who is a Conservative MP, every woman who has ever won the leadership, has had to fight to get where she is.
'By contrast, Labour women are demanding guarantees from Burnham. But the truth is he doesn't have to give any guarantees.
'If none of Labour's women are prepared to get their hands dirty and challenge him for the leadership, their demands are toothless.'
'In fact, it's quite revealing that the women's parliamentary Labour Party has written to Burnham asking him to commit himself to at least 50 per cent female ministers.
'This has nothing to do with meritocracy. It is yet more of the failed identity politics that is holding back our country.'
