Superintendent Linus Guillory should be thanked for his letter to the Brookline School Community (“Supporting Our Students: How to address the Israel/Palestine Crisis.”) With humility and grace, he addressed the grief we, and particularly his students, feel from the escalating violence.
I first learned of Dr. Guillory’s letter in an email Rep. Tommy Vitolo sent to his constituents. He strongly suggested that we should support Israel in this clash of violences and said he met with Dr. Guillory regarding his letter and concluded: “Please know that the pain he caused was unintentional, and he is working very hard to repair the resulting harm.”
Brookline News reported that some Israelis, Jews, and Town Meeting members pressured Dr. Guillory to apologize for not emphasizing Jewish grief. To my mind, Tommy, and many in Town, need to learn from the Superintendent not to compare grief. Instead we need to support Jews and Palestinians who work together for equal rights and to bring an end to U.S. support of countries who do not.
Gina Crandell, Brookline