H eadlines
Antisemitism racism and misogyny, among
other forms of hate. More
than 200 people showed up,
Jews and non-Jews, according
to organizer Marlene Prey, a
Doylestown resident whose
husband is Jewish.

“Given that it was planned
in a number of days, it was
profound and beautiful to see
the response,” she said.

The day after the vigil,
Pennsbury district residents
reelected the two Jewish board
members running, Waldorf
and Palsky. They also elected
the four other Democrats
Continued from Page 1
member Debra Wachspress
said. Pennsbury’s new Director
of Equity, Diversity and
Education Cherrissa Gibson
hired a consultant to conduct
an audit.

Neither issue had a substan-
tive connection to Judaism
or the Jewish people. Yet in
attacking Pennsbury board
members for overseeing the
policies, some parents resorted
to antisemitism, according to
board members.

Four of Pennsbury’s nine
board members — Josh
Waldorf, Howard Goldberg,
Linda Palsky and Wachspress
— are Jewish. But emails
and threats to Pennsbury’s
entire board, and to President
Christine Toy-Dragoni, who is
not Jewish, have been antise-
mitic in nature.

Last spring, according to
Wachspress, most of the vitriol
came from inside the district’s
geographical area. But in June,
Simon Campbell, a Lower
Makefield resident, appeared
on Fox News to denounce an
alleged free speech violation by
the board.

The district edited videos
of public comments made by
parents at spring meetings,
according to reporting by
Levittown Now. That incident
led to a federal lawsuit in the
fall alleging that Pennsbury
had violated parents’ First
Amendment rights.

“I’m like, ‘This is the United
States of America. This is not
OK,’” Campbell said to host
Laura Ingraham on “The
Ingraham Angle.”
After the local man’s four
minutes of fame, emails and
threats started coming from
outside the district, too,
according to board members.

One message said, “You
should have been finished
off in the gas chambers,” per
Wachspress. Another, directed
at Toy-Dragoni, said, “You
Ashkenazi Jews owe the world
reparations for saving you in
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM running for seats.

None of the Republican
candidates won their races.

Pennsbury’s new board, like
its last one, will consist of nine
Democrats. “We have more support,”
Palsky said.

Wachspress wants those
supporters to come to board
meetings, too.

“It’s necessary,”
she concluded. “There’s power in
numbers.” l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
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Rabbi Anna Boswell-Levy addresses the crowd at the vigil in Yardley
on Nov. 1.
Courtesy of Sue-Ann DiVito
World War II.”
Palsky, who converted to
Judaism after marrying her
husband in 1977, got a message
on her phone from someone
threatening to smack her and
beat her up. Later, she got a
call from a man posing as a
police officer. He said he had a
complaint about Palsky sending
a death threat to Jennifer
Spillane, an opponent in the
2021 school board election.

Palsky said she sent no such
threat. Then, she asked the man
if Lower Makefield Police Chief
Kenneth Coluzzi knew he was
calling. The man hung up.

Wachspress and Palsky said
some of the messages have been
anonymous. In addition to
antisemitic, they also have been
misogynistic, homophobic and
anti-immigrant. But antisemitism has
surfaced more often than
the other forms of hatred,
Wachspress said.

“It felt like the vast majority
of these messages were antise-
mitic,” she said.

Both women described the
vitriol as scary, discomforting
and perhaps ominous.

They said it only takes one
person to perpetrate an event
like Pittsburgh, referring to the
2018 Tree of Life synagogue
complex shooting t hat
killed 11.

Palsky mentioned that
the board already has active
shooter drills, armed guards
and a fenced-in parking lot.

None of those features were
present when she served on the
board in the 2000s.

Wachspress concluded that
Jews should have their eyes
open. “I stop and wonder — is this
1930 all over again?” she said.

“It’s really sobering.”
But Jews shouldn’t live in
fear, Wachspress said. She
pointed to the Nov. 1 vigil in
Yardley as an example of an
appropriate response.

Local organizers, including
some Jewish residents and
rabbis, planned the show of
solidarity against antisemitism,
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NOVEMBER 11, 2021
11