A Brooklyn middle-school principal denied a parent’s request to have a Holocaust survivor speak to students about antisemitism — saying the victim’s pro-Israel views are not appropriate for a public school.
MS 447 Principal Arin Rusch wrote to the parent Nov. 18 claiming Nazi labor-camp survivor Sami Steigmann’s opinions would not be “right” for the Boerum Hill school.
“In looking at his website material, I also don’t think that Sami’s presentation is right for our public school setting, given his messages around Israel and Palestine,” Rusch claimed.
Rusch said that Steigmann’s opinions would not be “right” for the Boerum Hill school. CEC15 Meetings/YouTube
“I’d love to explore other speakers,” she said — insisting that lectures about the Holocaust — the Nazis’ slaughter of 6 million Jews during World War II — and combatting antisemitism are still welcome.
Steigmann, 85, does not discuss the Israel-Hamas war on his home page or in his bio.
During some posted online lectures, he makes it clear he’s a proud Jew who supports Israel and the Jewish state’s right to defend itself from enemies such as Hamas.
“What’s happening in the Middle East, we will prevail. We will win,” he said in a lecture posted on YouTube. “In every generation they tried to annihilate us. We prevailed.”
He also urges students to join STANDWITHUS — an international and non-partisan Israel education organization designed to inspire and teach people of all ages and backgrounds, challenge misinformation and fight antisemitism.
”Life is based on the choices we make. Choose wisely,” the elderly man writes in uplifting bits of wisdom posted on his homepage.
Steigmann, 85, does not discuss the Israel-Hamas war on his home page or in his bio. Instagram /samisteigmannspeaks
“Never be a bystander — be an UPSTANDER and part of the solution,” says Steigmann, who has received the Harmony Power Award at the city’s Museum of Tolerance and been honored by the state assembly “as an example of courage, compassion and for his work speaking with students and visitors to New York.”
Moshe Spern, president of the United Jewish Teachers, seethed in a Nov. 26 email to Brooklyn District 15 Superintendent Rafael Alvarez and aides to Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos that the nixing of the would-be speaker “begs the question of, ‘Are we now censoring Holocaust survivors for their views of Israel?’ ”
Spern, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor himself, called the principal’s stance “appalling,” “discriminatory and “personally offensive.
“There are only so many survivors out there who still speak,” Spern said.
During some posted online lectures, Steigmann makes it clear he supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas. Sami Steigmann
“This is not meeting the moment,” Spern said — as the city and nation has been reeling from massive jumps in antisemitic acts in recent years. “This is sending a message to Jews in [New York City public Schools].”
He pointed to the mob of anti-Israel protesters who recently demonstrated outside the Manhattan Park East Synagogue uttering vile anti-Israel and antisemitic slurs. The synagogue’s chief rabbi, Arthur Schneier, is a Holocaust survivor.
Steigmann was born in what is now Ukraine on Dec. 21, 1939.
From 1941 through 1944, he was with his parents in the Ukraine at Mogilev-Podolsky, a labor camp in an area called Transnistria, according to his bio.
Steigmann was born in what is now Ukraine on Dec. 21, 1939. Instagram /samisteigmannspeaks
“My parents told me that I was subjected to Nazi medical experimentation but did not go into specifics (too painful to remember.),” he writes. “All I know is that I suffered all my life from neck, head and back problems. The severity was so great that I had days and weeks that I could not sit, lay down or walk (not all at the same time). My headaches were so severe that I was crying in pain.”
At one point, he was dying of starvation, and his life was saved by a German woman, who gave him milk, he said.
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Brooklyn City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, a Ukranian-born Jew, joined Spern in accusing Rusch of engaging in censorship and discrimination.
“It’s particularly abhorrent to deny someone who lived through the horrors of the Holocaust the opportunity to share his experience with students — particularly during a time when antisemitism is skyrocketing among our youth,” Vernikov told The Post.
“Not only is this behavior repugnant, but the school is potentially engaging in viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment and of Equal Protection that covers religious or ethnic discrimination. To see public schools engaging in this conduct is unsurprising, and we will not sit idly by.”
Rusch and the city Department of Education did not respond to Post requests for comment.
From 1941 through 1944, he was with his parents in the Ukraine at Mogilev-Podolsky, a labor camp in an area called Transnistria, according to his bio.
But Mayor Eric Adams’ office defended the principal’s decision that Steigmann “wasn’t the right fit” to speak at the school.
“Mayor Adams is dedicated to ensuring all New Yorkers — particularly our students and young adults — hear stories from the genocide and oppression of the Holocaust, so we never again perpetrate such evil,” a City Hall spokesman said.
“While this speaker wasn’t the right fit, we will continue to ensure our students hear from the living survivors of this history into the future.”
The Post reached out to Steigmann, who did not respond.
The situation is just the latest controversy in the city public school system that has outraged Jewish activists.
The chancellor was forced last year to apologize for linking a “Stop Gaza Genocide Toolkit” in a Department of Education newsletter, sparking outrage in the Jewish community.
An anti-Israel student riot at Hillcrest HS in Queens in November 2023 also forced a Jewish teacher who was targeted to take shelter in a locked office.