How disappointing to read the School Calendar Subcommittee article. Highly sensitive issues were explored and discussed frankly and civilly. The subcommittee strove to suspend judgment, listen, and not rush to a conclusion.
The article, however, encourages the opposite by criticizing this care and injecting divisiveness into a difficult discussion. For example, my quote was edited by an insertion in brackets that entirely changed its meaning. It suggested I was seeking to preserve only “Jewish” holidays when I explicitly urged respect and equal protection for all “minority holidays.” It also suggested that a subcommittee majority supported retaining only Christian and Jewish holidays when in fact they were supportive of secular respect for all. It would be a shame to convert a civil discussion into a battle of the “minorities” regarding whether they have equal rights to religious freedom under the First Amendment.
Other key matters were selectively omitted. First, the student members strongly supported retaining and expanding the holidays for all minorities, even if it meant a slightly longer year, out of respect for diversity and making all feel welcome. Second, all in the audience spoke in support of this view, except for one, who happened to be the reporter for the Press.
Finally, when the subcommittee was asked to vote by a parent sensing the majority view, I advocated not voting, as I did in June. I believe, and I think the others agree, that civil rights are too sensitive to decide by vote. The community needs time to hear what we have learned and more needs to be studied. We opted to send our written recommendations to the School Committee to facilitate a thoughtful discussion, rather than a debate of sound bites that could tear us apart.
I will copy the Press on my written recommendation and would be pleased to have it published. I would ask that future reporting be complete, not change the meaning of quotes, and be considerate of the harm it causes by characterizing this as a “Jewish” issue rather than one seeking to respect and celebrate the diversity of our entire community.
Bruce Leicher
Warren Ave.
[Editor’s note: According to our reporter, early discussion at the meeting described in the article revolved around the hurt felt by Jewish students if their holidays were not shown the same respect as Christian holidays. So the reporter’s understanding was that Mr. Leicher was talking about the specific hurts felt by Jewish families in Harvard because this specific question had been raised, here and now. The reporter said that later, when Leicher moved on to establishing a general policy, it was quite clear that he was speaking about respect for all minority religions—indeed, for all religions.]
