Students in a Middle Eastern club say Lower Merion parents wrongly accused them of antisemitism

Student members of a Middle Eastern club at Harriton High School said Monday that they had been unfairly accused of antisemitism when they invited a Syrian refugee to speak about his experience as a political prisoner.

The members of the MENASA club, who spoke at a Lower Merion school board meeting, said they had invited Omar Alshogre to speak last month solely about his experiences under the Assad regime. But after parents alleged that Alshogre had expressed antisemitic views, school officials moved his talk from a nighttime event open to the public to a daytime speech, limited to Harriton students.

MENASA students disputed that Alshogre was antisemitic — but also said that, whatever his personal views, he was not at Harriton to discuss Israel, and never brought up the Israel-Hamas war.

Still, the controversy “seemed to be enough of a reason for parents to dig through everything they could to support a fundamentally false narrative” about MENASA, including that the club had excluded Israeli and Jewish students, said student Pedram Bigdeli.

The dispute was one of a number of examples cited by Lower Merion students Monday as they argued that parents had been too quick to invoke antisemitism — and Lower Merion too willing to curtail speech in response.

“If the mere presence of people who disagree with Israel’s current actions in the Middle East is so threatening to our community that we cannot allow any speech on it, then I fear what that means for our educations,” said Sam Donagi, a Lower Merion High School student who helped organize a recent event called “Resistance 101″ that drew outcry from some community members, including over the presence of Lower Merion alumni affiliated with pro-Palestinian college campus groups.

Lower Merion’s response to antisemitism has been a fraught topic in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, with parents contending the district is doing too little to address bullying and to educate students and staff on antisemitism.

At a school board meeting last month, parents said it was problematic for the district to host speakers from groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, which they said was spreading misinformation about Zionism and Israel. They also accused Alshogre of antisemitism and said he should not have a platform in the district regardless of the topic of his speech.

Donagi said that there was a “culture of silence” in the district around discussing the Middle East, and that students who had tried to organize events had been met with “so much backlash.”

Two other Lower Merion High School students, meanwhile, said the school had removed pieces of student artwork from a recent show because they were perceived as antisemitic.

One of the pieces depicted “Israel’s border over the span of history,” said Caleb Rosenfeld. He said the other, titled “Just Kids,” featured lists of children who had died in Gaza.

“Taking down art and censoring students without a public explanation is not a solution to any dispute,” said Rosenfeld, who said he did not think the pieces were antisemitic, but were “political commentary.”

Another student, Fiona Yates, said the entire art show was taken down early after complaints about the pieces, which she said “solely criticized Israel’s actions as a state, not the Israeli or Jewish people.”

In a statement Tuesday, Superintendent Frank Ranelli said the school board and administration “encourage students and community members to participate in and share their perspectives” at board meetings, and in direct outreach. He declined to comment on specific statements made by students.

At the start of Monday’s meeting, Ranelli — who took the district’s helm in April — said that as he had gotten to know the community over the last month, “the unrest is evident.”

Ranelli, who did not specify the nature of the unrest, said he was committed to bringing the community together. He said he had spoken to outside groups, as well as parents, and “the correct steps I need are coming into focus.” Ranelli said he also had meetings planned with students.

Addressing the school board, MENASA members said their perspectives had been overlooked by parents and community members who complained about them without reaching out to them.

While some had objected to a watermelon emoji — often used as a pro-Palestinian symbol — in one of the club’s Instagram posts, Bigdeli said the symbol was not meant to convey support for Palestine, but to reflect an Iranian holiday the club celebrated.

And while parents accused the club of excluding Israel from a display of Middle Eastern flags on its account, Bigdeli said the flags chosen simply represented the nationalities of the club’s officers.

Still, he said, the district responded to the parental criticism by directing the club to either display “all 17 flags of the Middle East” or remove the flags entirely, Bigdeli said.

Miles Baldwin, the club’s vice president, said that like “any human rights activist,” Alshogre had opinions on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and had “on occasion mentioned his support for Palestinian human rights.” But at no point during his speech did he mention the issue, Baldwin said.

He disagreed with the idea that the district should not invite people with “controversial opinions” to speak, calling it “anti-intellectual.”

“When we as a community restrict a speaker to a smaller audience, we are denying kids, and the community at large, an amazing learning opportunity,” Baldwin said.