Select Board right to call out antisemitism

I am responding to Jennifer Bell’s letter criticizing the Select Board’s vote to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Her two points, that the board overstepped its authority and that the IHRA definition violates the Constitution, resulting in a “war on American values,” are both wrong on the law.

Contrary to Ms. Bell’s assertion, the Select Board is the primary policymaking body of Acton under the Home Rule Amendment, which allows towns to define the Select Board’s role as policymaking. This was done in 1956, when Acton adopted its Town Charter and authorized the Select Board to make policy decisions. Here, they took a moral stand to address the pervasive Jew hatred in Acton and its schools by adopting IHRA.

The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech,” and it applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. The IHRA definition is not a law, it is not legally binding, and there is no punishment for its violation. IHRA is an educational tool for identifying discrimination disguised as “free speech.” The recent complaint filed against Acton Middle School and Acton-Carlisle High School cited uncontrolled antisemitic bullying: One student often asked the victim “to roll up his sleeve to check for his ‘Holocaust tattoo’”; soccer teams named themselves “Team Hitler,” “Team Auschwitz,” and “Team Hamas”; swastikas were drawn on notebooks and school property; Jewish students were taunted with “k—” and “dirty Jew” and were told to “go to the gas chambers.” One student displayed pictures of gas chambers and referenced Anne Frank and explained that he was harassing the student “because [he] is a Jew.”

Is calling out this behavior as antisemitic a “war on American values” or actually a lesson on American values? Let’s thank the Select Board and start teaching values.

Kurt Schwartz

Hubbard Street