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Lower Merion School District\u2019s Cynwyd Elementary School (Photo credit: wikicommons\/ifly6)<\/p>\n Lower Merion School District\u2019s Cynwyd Elementary School (Photo credit: wikicommons\/ifly6)<\/p>\n
In Lower Merion, a usually uncontentious race for school board seats has taken on an entirely new tune in the face of rising antisemitism in the district and the nation at large.<\/p>\n
An ADL report from last year shows an increase in antisemitic incidents in the Philadelphia area, including Montgomery County, where Lower Merion School District is located. The issue is indisputable. What is still up in the air is who is best equipped to attack it.<\/p>\n
Deena Pack is a registered Republican who never saw herself running for a school board position, especially in a district that is so overwhelmingly blue. She isn\u2019t just a concerned Jew, though. Pack is the parent of a son who has experienced multiple incidents of antisemitic bullying, and she said the school system has not done enough about it, which was why she decided to run.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had, through the [last] school year, four separate antisemitic situations happen, three of them with the same kid,\u201d she said. \u201cShe attacked him seven days before the end of school. It became clear that this wasn\u2019t a Cynwyd [Elementary School] issue; this is a systemic issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pack said that she was not satisfied with the discipline given to that student. The final incident, however, was separate from that child and scared her son so badly that he still refuses to wear his yarmulke in most public spaces. Pack\u2019s son was at Bala Cynwyd Middle School for a field day celebration that sees the fourth graders visit the middle school they will attend the following year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree bigger middle school boys walking towards him, they pulled his kippah off his head and said \u2018Shabbat Shalom, Jew,\u2019 and threw it on the floor and walked away,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was hysterical. That was the last time I was going to allow my child, or really any other child, to experience this level of severe dysfunction in a school district without standing up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pack said she was frustrated by the lack of response from the school. She discussed the incident with the school\u2019s officials but wasn\u2019t satisfied with the result.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did all the things you\u2019re supposed to do as a parent: I talked to the administrators, I talked to the teacher, I did all the recourse,\u201d she said. \u201cI did all the things you\u2019re supposed to do, and then literally nothing happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
This comes after controversy last fall at the beginning of the school year that arose from comments made by board member Kimberly Garrison, who said during a Sept. 6 meeting that, \u201cJewish people have been racially classified as white in this country,\u201d continuing that this assertion \u201cis fact, and is not an antisemitic statement.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Pack never saw herself running for office. (Photo Courtesy of Deena Pack)<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Democrat Committee of Lower Merion and Narberth said that the organization does not take antisemitism lightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor many of us in the Committee for Lower Merion and Narberth, this is personal. A significant number of our members are Jewish,\u201d they said. \u201cMany of our families are here because relatives fled persecution elsewhere. And since Oct. 7, even in a community as safe as ours, many have felt their sense of safety shaken. As Democrats, we stand firmly against antisemitism in all its forms. \u2026 We don\u2019t rank suffering or fear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garrison\u2019s comment was met with pushback from a Jewish member of the board as well as from Jewish members of the audience, although Garrison refused to rescind or alter her statements in the immediate aftermath of the events. Garrison declined to comment for this story, as did board members Dr. Todd Ridky, Jason Herman and Sarah Thomas.<\/p>\n
Sautner agreed to talk but was not able to in time for publication, while board members Shayna Kalish, Abby Rubin, Melanie Schafmeister and Anna Shurak did not respond to requests for comment. Superintendent Dr. Frank Ranelli did not respond to a request for comment either.<\/p>\n
A Democrat, Garrison was not endorsed by the Democratic Committee of Lower Merion and Narberth during her last run. A spokesperson for the organization explained their endorsement process. It begins with a vote by 92 elected committee people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese committee people speak with candidates, listen to their constituents and weigh both qualifications and community input before casting their votes,\u201d a spokesperson said. \u201cTo win an endorsement, a candidate must receive at least 60% of the vote. If no candidate reaches that threshold, DCLMN does not endorse in that race.\u201d<\/p>\n
At that meeting, Jewish board member Abby Rubin disagreed. At the time, she said that Garrison\u2019s statement was untrue, while board president Dr. Kerry Sautner said in a written statement released a week after the Sept. 6 meeting that the conversation was \u201cunhealthy and damaging with antisemitic statements and racist implications.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garrison stated at the following meeting on Sept. 13 that she is not racist or antisemitic and that labeling her as such is dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabeling me as antisemitic is not only untrue but also defamatory in this political climate, especially as a Black woman. To call me such is to weaponize the term in order to stop any authentic and constructive dialogue \u2014 and to intimidate me into silence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
At the Sept. 6 meeting, the board was discussing how to ensure the school district\u2019s equity policy adhered to a recent Supreme Court decision that banned affirmative action. Rubin proposed widening the parameters for which students should be protected from historically marginalized groups to all marginalized groups.<\/p>\n
This is when the controversy started. Garrison stated that she knew about Jewish history, and that there was a time when Jewish Americans joined the umbrella of white Americans, which in her mind exempted them from being included as a protected group in the equity policy. She cited a Pew research study that said nearly all Jewish Americans identify as white.<\/p>\n
Garrison is not up for election during this cycle. There are nine names on the ballot, four of which are endorsed by the Democratic Committee of Lower Merion and Narberth, four of which are endorsed by the Republican party and one who is not endorsed by either. Further complicating the race is the fact that candidates can be cross-listed and running as both a Democrat and Republican. Pack said that this is to decrease the impact of party association in a race that has little to do with what happens in Washington, D.C., and everything to do with Lower Merion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a registered Republican and have been for 10 years or longer, but I always vote with my heart, not down party lines,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Pack said that she was told there was no point in running as a member of the GOP because the Lower Merion School District is overwhelmingly blue. Democrats have made up the majority of the school board since 2009.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Democratic Committee said that it is important to note that work has already been done to combat antisemitism in the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cJennifer Rivera and Juanita Kerber, who are running for school board for the first time, have taken the time to meet with Jewish residents and community leaders, to listen, learn and lead with empathy. They understand that being a school board member means serving all students, and that includes standing up when Jewish students or families feel unseen or unsafe.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmong them is Anna Shurak, a sitting board member and an active member of the Jewish community and her synagogue. She, along with board president Kerry Sautner, have supported meaningful steps at the district level to address and combat antisemitism at LMSD, including professional development in 2024 with StandWithUs and a districtwide staff training in January 2025 led by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia\u2019s JCRC and the Anti-Defamation League,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
They added that the district is now working directly with the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History to develop student education materials on antisemitism.<\/p>\n
Pack said that, while at first she was running without many expectations, she has shifted her campaign as she has received more grassroots support \u2014 largely from the Jewish community.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first it was almost symbolic, like, \u2018You can\u2019t tell me I can\u2019t run for school board and I won\u2019t get elected.\u2019\u201d Pack said. \u201cAnd now, I really mean it. Somebody needs to stand up in this district. Somebody needs to be the voice of change. [Current leadership] does not work. So, let\u2019s try something different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pack said that, ultimately, someone has to stand up for Jews so that they do not get left out of larger conversations on diversity, equity and inclusion. She referenced the idea that functioning society is like a sandbox, and that DEI programs are intended to give everyone equal access to the sandbox.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery child needs to be able to access the sandbox. So the child that\u2019s in a wheelchair needs a ramp, and the child that is too short needs a ladder to climb into the sandbox. So if you\u2019re going to build those amenities and you\u2019re going to build in that structure for other children of other minority [groups], then you can\u2019t leave my Jewish kid out of the sandbox just because he happened to be born with white skin,\u201d she said. \u201cJust because my particular brand of Judaism happens to come from Eastern Europe does not mean that my child does not get to go in the sandbox.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pack said she is in favor of such programs, as long as they include Jews, too. What she wants is the whole community to be represented, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe school board has to be able to hear the community,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s their job, to be the voice of the community in the district.\u201d<\/p>\n