{"id":124378,"date":"2026-02-05T21:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124378\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T21:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T21:49:08","slug":"holocaust-survivor-rejected-from-speaking-to-nyc-middle-schoolers-over-israel-gaza-war-finally-gives-talk-gets-no-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124378\/","title":{"rendered":"Holocaust survivor rejected from speaking to NYC middle schoolers over Israel-Gaza war finally gives talk — gets no apology"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Holocaust survivor who was\u00a0rejected from speaking<\/a>\u00a0to Brooklyn middle schoolers because of the war in the Middle East finally gave his talk Thursday \u2014 but got no apologies for being snubbed. <\/p>\n

Sami Steigmann, 85 \u2014 who was denied a chance to tell his riveting story by\u00a0MS447 principal Arin Rusch<\/a>\u00a0in December \u2014 said his presentation centered on combating hate and steered clear of politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid I say anything about Palestine, did I ever mention it? No,\u201d he said at a press conference at the Boerum Hill school Thursday.<\/p>\n

Sami Steigmann, 85, said his speech at Brooklyn\u2019s MS447 centered on combating hate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Holocaust must be taught forever and ever because it\u2019s the best example [of] what hate can do \u2014\u00a0not only to a person, but to a group of people, to a nation, to the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole world was involved in trying to annihilate only one group of people,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cIsrael is disproportionately vilified.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his speech, Steigmann said he cordially met\u00a0Rusch, who denied his earlier request to speak about antisemitism due to his pro-Israel views two months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, I hope that you find that I am qualified to speak, because at one time, she said that I\u2019m not qualified to speak at public schools,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd she said, I never said that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holocaust survivor Sami Steigmann spoke about combatting hate at MS447 in Brooklyn Thursday. Sami Steigmann<\/p>\n

Steigmann still has no clue why he was rejected, or why the decision was apparently reversed \u2014 and that he\u2019s received no apology from the school, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t hold a grudge. It\u2019s not important,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Rusch didn\u2019t immediately return a request for comment from The Post Thursday.<\/p>\n

Steigmann said the students\u2019 inspired reactions to his speech made it all worthwhile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of [kids] came to me. They thanked me, they loved it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Students at the middle school were inspired by Steigman\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

But Moshe Spern, President of the United Jewish Teachers, was less forgiving.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo apologies were made,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cApologies are needed and if they\u2019re not gonna be happening\u2026then actions need to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause you\u2019re causing Jewish families to take their kids out of New York City schools. You\u2019re isolating them,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re making it political, and you\u2019re making them uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recent rise of antisemitism in the Big Apple<\/a> makes hearing from Holocaust survivors in schools as vital, Spern said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just have to remember that antisemitism is happening across New York City schools. This is not going away, which is why it\u2019s really, really important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is the last generation that will have the opportunity to hear from Holocaust survivors,\u201d Spern said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the type of speech we need to hear, bringing people together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Holocaust survivor who was\u00a0rejected from speaking\u00a0to Brooklyn middle schoolers because of the war in the Middle East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3862,98,15400,61,57,9,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-124378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-holocaust","11":"tag-israel-hamas-war","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nyc-headlines","17":"tag-nyc-news","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}