WINNETKA, IL — The superintendent of New Trier High School District 203 pledged to focus on fighting antisemitism as part of the district’s annual strategic plan following backlash to his decision to block students from distributing stickers for International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Superintendent Paul Sally said he determined that was not enough time to properly prepare for students to hand out “#WeRemember” stickers to about 160 advisor rooms, having only learned of the plan on Jan. 22, four days before it was to take place.
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“I want to make it clear that no one else, not the equity liaisons, not campus leaders, made this decision,” Sally said at last week’s school board meeting. “It was mine alone and was based on the short time to communicate and to prepare advisors.”
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At issue, the superintendent said, was not the honoring of victims and survivors of the Holocaust, but rather “current events that are adjacent in many of our students minds.” Sally said he would have wanted advisors to think about how to handle discussions that were not related to the Holocaust.
“My goal was to ensure that we honored this important day for Jewish students — and all students — while not creating a situation where it could cause them harm,” Sally said. “What I did not understand the level of enthusiasm that our Jewish students and staff had for this new sticker distribution activity.”
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Sally said students were deeply disappointed in his decision and he understands why they were so hurt.
“Our efforts, my efforts to help our Jewish students feel like they belong, to feel like they matter at New Trier have fallen short, and of course that matters deeply to them, and deeply to me,” he said. “We have met with them to apologize for how we communicated the decision and to ensure that their voices are heard in the future.”
New Trier senior Beau McBride said he is a one member of one of the Jewish affinity groups, which were formed on each campus last year and had the stickers made.
McBride said he appreciated administrators’ actions with regard to its Jewish students in recent months, citing efforts to limit hate speech and monitor dialog about the Israel-Hamas War. But their handling of the Holocaust Remembrance Day incident was an exception, he said.
“Holocaust Remembrance Day has been celebrated for decades, Oct. 7, and the subsequent war didn’t change its meaning, and it’s not only about Jews, millions of Roma, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and people with disabilities died alongside 6 million Jews,” McBride said. “Jan. 27 is about remembering all of that, making it a distinctly Jewish holiday takes away from all the other people who were murdered.”
International Holocaust Remembrance Day was established by the United Nations in 2005 as Jan. 27, marking the day on which Soviet soldiers liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.
Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Hashoah in Hebrew, which this year takes place on May 6, has been observed on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, since 1951. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
“We didn’t think of Holocaust Remembrance Day as political in any sense,” McBride said. “We thought that it was strictly part of our heritage, and I think that’s why a lot of us had an immediate visceral reaction about it just because the Holocaust is so personal to Jews.”
In recent years at New Trier, administrators said, the German club and German classes have led International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations. This year, there were public address announcements on both campuses about the importance of honoring Holocaust victims and survivors, bulletin board displays, and posters, stickers and tables outside during lunch periods, administrators said.
New Trier parent Tracy Wolfe said she was told administrators contacted the German club sponsors not to contact advisors about the sticker plan on the day before it was planned due to the Israel-Hamas War and the sensitivities of Palestinians students.
“How does recognition of Holocaust Remembrance Day have any consequence or bearing on the feelings of our fellow Palestinian students in the current war in the Middle East?” Wolfe asked.
Wolfe said Jewish New Trier students are surrounded by constant antisemitism.
“Imagine how, post-Oct. 7, after experiencing, reading and hearing daily antisemitic tropes of the most repugnant nature, their own school seems to be following suit, or at the very least stifling recognition of an important day in Jewish history — not just any history, but Jewish history,” Wolfe said. “How else can they explain this cancellation except as another form of antisemitism, another example of being abandoned when they need support the most, or another form of political placation and the name of the oppressed.”
As of Feb. 28, there have been more than 30,000 people killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 cross-border attacks and hostage taking and the Israeli military’s four months and three weeks of retaliatory attacks, including more than 1,200 Israelis, more than 29,000 Palestinians and 94 journalists, among them two Israelis, three Lebanese and 89 Palestinians, according to the Committee to Project Journalists.
Nicki Perchik, a New Trier parent and alum, said she has been seeing disturbing content while “doom-scrolling” on social media.
“This is a time like nothing we’ve ever experienced before. Throughout history, there has been a Holocaust every century. And how that happens is people don’t speak up. Good people say nothing,” Perchik said.
“And we are watching that happen,” she said. “We are seeing images online of, ‘No Jews allowed,’ ‘We won’t serve Jews.’ We’re seeing Jewish events be cancelled, because people don’t want Jews. We’re seeing hate at a level that is unimaginable and if you’re not Jewish, you’re probably not seeing it.”
Parent Joy Schwartz said social media is feeding into the re-writing of history and record levels of antisemitism nationwide lead to more fear around local events.
“It is clear to me, however, that the school’s administration understands that and is responding they are taking this opportunity to take a step back to listen and learn, willing to hear critical feedback and are deeply engaged, which I appreciate tremendously,” Schwartz said.
“Thoughtfully and carefully, I believe they will make actionable change incorporating Jewish needs into our equity efforts that will better our school,” she said. “Some of the steps like planning for Jewish American Heritage Month and Yom Hashoah are indicators of that which I massively appreciate.”
In the superintendent’s remarks prior to public comment, Sally combatting antisemitism would be at the center of the coming year’s “culture, climate and equity” strategic plan goals, and administrators would work with staff members, students, parents and representatives of local Jewish organizations to better understand how to develop staff training and equity work.
“All of our students must have the opportunity to thrive at our school. I cannot think of a more urgent time than now to make sure that we are living up to our commitment to combat hate and create a culture of dignity and belonging and New Trier,” Sally said. “Our teens are caught in a culture where the loudest and sometimes most extreme and divisive voices are amplified in hurtful ways.”
Jean Hahn, the vice president of the board, thanked members of the public for coming to the meeting to share their views. She emphasized the importance of trust in preparing children for the future and the need for community members to trust one other.
“Because when our students leave New Trier, they need to trust themselves,” Hahn said, “and their ability to seek and find, for themselves, what brings them joy, who to love, how to recognize injustice, and right it and how to bear witness to and alleviate human suffering.”
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