A student-organized walkout in support of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel at Eastern Regional High School was postponed after a blistering letter from two Camden County Commissioners was sent to the superintendent of the South Jersey district.
The walkout was scheduled for this Friday from 10:52 to 11:17 as students were planning to gather at the high school football field, according to the instagram account “FreePalestine.EHS,” which was created this month. Another group calling for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, SJ for Gaza posted about the student walkout while calling for a peaceful rally with no hate speech. SJ for Gaza did not return an email Wednesday morning with questions about the event and their connection to the student walkout.
“Student leadership at Eastern held a conference this morning, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, with the principal and vice principals to discuss concerns about the event planned for this Friday, April 26, 2024,” Superintendent Robert S. Cloutier said in a statement to NJ Advance Media. “Students agreed to cancel this week’s event in order to meet together and plan a united rally in support of basic human rights for the innocent people on both sides of the conflict. That convening is tentatively scheduled for Monday, May 20, 2024.”
Eastern Camden County Regional School Board president Jude J. Brown did not respond to a request for comment.
The changes to the event came after local officials voiced opposition to the students’ plan. The walkout was scheduled during the Jewish passover holiday from April 22 through April 30, which was particularly upsetting to Voorhees councilman and deputy mayor Jason Ravitz, who posted several statements to his personal Facebook page objecting to the event.
“My biggest issue is that it’s happening over the jewish holiday of Passover,” Ravitz said on a phone call Tuesday night. “If Jewish students were planning a walkout on any other religious holiday, I would stop it.”
Ravitz did not immediately return a a phone call Wednesday after the school district announced the event would be postponed. Ravitz said Tuesday that he received a call from one of the student organizers who wanted to schedule a meeting to discuss the walkout, but further dialogue was cut off after the student declined to reschedule the walkout after Passover. Ravitz also acknowledged that he is a fierce advocate for state of Israel and pointed to his long history of social media posts as evidence.
Voorhees Township Committee also posted a message on its website objecting to the walkout, alleging the demonstration was a response to a student’s decision to enlist in the Israeli Defense Force after graduation.
“We have recently become aware of antisemitic incidents occurring at Eastern Regional High School, notably in regard to a student’s courageous decision to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces upon graduation,” the statement from the township committee said. “Township Committee respects our students’ choices and beliefs and while we acknowledge and respect that our community holds vast and differing opinions on the conflict, harassment, threats, and antisemitism may never be tolerated.”
The district did not address whether the walkout was in response to this student’s decision and whether there has been an increase in antisemitic behavior at Eastern Regional High School in its statement.
Eastern Regional High School enrolls just over 1,900 students in grades nine through 12, according to the National Center for Education Statistics . It does not list student religious affiliations.
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish non-profit, recently released a report that hate crimes of all sorts are on the rise in New Jersey, with antisemitic and anti-muslim attacks soaring. An independent survey of just over 2,000 people in South Jersey counties from the Jewish Federation of Southern Jersey in 2014 noted that Voorhees had at least 352 people that identified as Jewish, one of the more dense enclaves in Camden County.
Eastern Regional High School’s calendar notes several early dismissals and days off in recognition of Jewish holidays, including Passover, Rosh Hoshana and Yom Kippur.
“Needless to say I’m thrilled that the school has canceled the event,” Camden County Commissioner Jeff Nash said Wednesday. “I’m extremely happy that the students worked this out together to cancel an event that was filled with hate and instead hold a peace rally.”
Nash and fellow commissioner Melinda Kane wrote a blistering letter to school officials Tuesday calling for administrators to shut down the walkout.
“We are outraged by the decision of Eastern High School to permit a “Pro-Palestinian” walkout during school hours and call upon you to cancel this event,” Nash and Kane wrote in the letter to the superintendent Tuesday. “The student walkout is an intentional effort to create a hostile and isolating environment for Jewish students, the majority of whom support Israel as an integral part of their identify,” the letter continued.
The letter cites “misguided decisions” by administrators at some of the nation’s top universities such as the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard, who were publicly scolded during congressional hearings about hate speech on their campuses. The letter and walkout also follow closely with protests at Columbia, Yale, New York University and many other universities around the country where students are protesting for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
The latest war between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip, began after Hamas terrorists killed over 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, and took hostages, many of whom are still being held. Protests against Israel’s response began soon after the Israeli army retaliated and reduced most of Gaza to rubble, killing an estimated 30,000 civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which is considered to publish the most accurate account of the death toll.
