Day school splits over its approach to Israel

Ask two Jews, you get three opinions—or is it four? Two millennia after the fall of the Second Temple—due, it is said, to the bickering among factions—not much has changed. From J Street to AIPAC, the Jewish house remains divided, with battles now, apparently, regrettably, touching even Jewish day schools. 

“Defend the Jewish People Against the Anti-Israel Lerner School,” proclaimed the ominous online petition, bearing approximately 1,100 signatures before it was removed around Feb. 10. Formerly named the Sandra E. Lerner Jewish Community Day School, Lerner School is an elementary and preschool providing Jewish education in Durham, N.C.

An “anti-Israel” Jewish school is more than conceivable, considering how many Jews proudly campaign against the Jewish state. Nor is there any shortage of such Jews around college campuses, and the Lerner School is close to both Duke University and the University of North Carolina (UNC).

But outraged Lerner School officials said the institution did nothing to deserve this scandalous label. Several equally outraged families in the school, who reached out to me to support the institution, echoed this view —first offering their own pro-Israel credentials (impressive), then their personal testimony about the school (very positive); moreover, they added, a look at the school website would convince even the most committed Zionist of the school’s pro-Israel bona fides (it does). And finally, the school was selected in December 2015 to be among the final cohort in the endowment-building program, Generations, partly supported by the AVI CHAI foundation—and AVI CHAI’s mission limits it to supporting only programs that “express a positive attitude toward Israel,” and “instill in … students an attachment to the State of Israel.”