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Jewish Parents, Leaders Respond to
Holocaust Censorship in
Central Bucks School
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
A recent instance of Holocaust censor-
ship at a Central Bucks high school
has sparked concern and anger in the
Greater Philadelphia Jewish community.

On Jan. 25, the principal of Central
Bucks High School South ordered a
school library to take down a poster
displaying a quote from Holocaust survi-
vor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie
Wiesel. MEMORY
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FEBRUARY 9, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
1/30/23 5:02 PM
The quote, part of Wiesel’s 1986 Nobel
Peace Prize acceptance speech, read, “I
swore never to be silent whenever and
wherever human beings endure suff er-
ing and humiliation. We must always take
sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor,
never the victim. Silence encourages the
tormentor, never the tormented.”
Though the Central Bucks School
District allowed librarian Matt Pecic to
put the poster back up the next day and
issued an apology, parents in the district,
including Jewish ones, expressed
distress. “I couldn’t believe that they actually
took the poster down and felt that they
were justifi ed in doing so,” said Jerel
Wohl, a Jewish parent with three children
who graduated from Central Bucks High
School South.

The initial decision to remove the
poster was in tandem with the Central
Buck School Board’s passage of policy
321 in January, fi rst introduced in
September, which bans teachers from
promoting “advocacy activities” display-
ing symbols of “any partisan, political, or
social policy issue.”
According to parents, the school
board created the policy specifi cally to
target LGBT pride symbols, such as the
rainbow fl ag.

The policy has attracted attention
beyond parents and students in the
district: The ACLU issued a complaint
against the policy, saying it would
create a “hostile” environment for LGBT
students; the Department of Education
has launched an investigation of the
school district and its compliance with
Title IX, which prevents discrimination
based on gender or sexual orientation.

Jewish parents and leaders see the
censorship of the Wiesel quote as an
immediate consequence of policy 321.

“Very clearly, it’s manifesting in some
dark ways immediately,” said Jewish
parent Lela Casey, who has three
children, two of whom attend school in
Central Bucks.

“This type of censorship is what we
feared would be the consequence of
that overbroad and harmful policy,”
added Andrew Goretsky, regional direc-
tor of ADL Philadelphia.

Though proponents of policy 321 argue
that schools and teachers maintaining
neutrality would prevent students from
being taught political biases, Goretsky
expressed concern that the policy would
have a “chilling eff ect on student learning
and growth.” He said that LGBT students
and students from other marginalized
groups would feel alienated in the class-
room, an environment that would hinder
learning. “Students deserve schools where
they can be who they are and where
their identities are celebrated, their
backgrounds are celebrated,” he said.

Parents opposed to the policy have
identifi ed LGBT students as the policy’s
main target, but argue that protesting
the policy is still a Jewish issue.

“We can be a little remiss in forgetting
how connected these things are,” Casey
said. “When they’re coming after Black
communities, when they’re coming after
LGBT communities, we’re next. It’s all
connected.” Instances of censorship in the
classroom have set off alarm bells
for Holocaust educators, who have
observed an increase in banned books
and censored curricula. Last January,
the McMinn County, Tennessee,
school board voted unanimously to
ban Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” from its
curriculum for the graphic novel’s use
of nudity and profanity. That same
month, a Republican Indiana state
senator argued in an education bill
that teachers should be “impartial” in
their lessons about the Holocaust and
Nazi Germany, JTA.org reported. The
senator later apologized.