JCRC Statement
August 19, 2024
The following is a statement from Guila Franklin Siegel, chief operating officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, on graffiti found Monday morning on several MCPS school buildings.
“For the second consecutive week, MCPS school buildings have been vandalized by individuals with vitriolic, ill-informed comments directed towards the state of Israel, as well as other antisemitic images. We thank MCPS and MCPD officials for their quick response to these damaging incidents — as well as other incidents targeting the LGBTQ+ population — and for ensuring that security and law enforcement patrols are being stepped up as necessary.
It is no accident that the perpetrators of these incidents have defaced schools that are located in neighborhoods with high concentrations of Jewish residents and have significant numbers of Jewish students and faculty members. These schools are also blocks away from multiple synagogues. This pattern of behavior — in impact and almost certainly in design — targets Montgomery County’s Jews. In doing so, it causes tremendous harm not only to Israelis and Jews, but to our entire shared community. We are confident that people of goodwill across all backgrounds and faiths will see these acts for what they are: hateful words designed to tear our communities apart rather than bring them together.
The horrific terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas on October 7th and the ensuing war in Gaza have brought tremendous pain and suffering to Israeli, Jewish, Palestinian, and other Arab families in our area. But litigating the war on school walls will do nothing to achieve peace in the affected region and only further inflames tensions and divisiveness here at home. MCPS is rightly proud of the rich diversity of its student body and staff; each morning, our school buildings bring together tens of thousands of children and adults from all corners of the world, with differing identities, viewpoints, and lived experiences. For schools to remain secure environments for each and every one of these individuals, we must all rise to the challenge of this difficult moment and affirmatively choose to treat one another with civility and respect.”