Buerger Bites

Boys’ Latin Saga

We obviously touched a nerve in the Boys’ Latin School community, judging from many comments posted on our website. (http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/local_news/painful_episode/)
Once so many missives are launched to and fro, it’s hard to ascertain the reality of the situation.

I think I can provide some insight based on my experience.

I attended Gilman School which the JEWISH TIMES had written stories about in the 1980s concerning anti-Semitism with the predominately Blue Blood institution. Personally, in my seven years as a student there, I never once experience anti-Semitism, nor did my friends. But, I knew it existed. Even though it never affected me, it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It did.

Reddy Finney, one the finest men you’d ever meet would have no part of it. One time an incident occurred, which I had not been aware of, and Mr. Finney shut down the school for a day and conducted sensitively training – decades before it existed. The whole school learned about the dangers of hate from various experts. It showed that while typical all-boy school activity involving kids would occur, racist and anti-Semitic behavior would not be tolerated at Gilman. And we learned why it shouldn’t.

There were some blacks kids at Gilman who exhibited bad behavior and started fights (and some white kids, too). Still, we knew that it would be absolutely unacceptable to tag the boy with the “N” word.

Now, we have two Jewish boys from the same family who were singled out with undeniable anti-Semitic incidents. The word “kike” was used. A noose was produced. Inappropriate names were uttered. We’ve been told about another case as well, but the parents don’t want to come forward on the record.

Everyone seems to want to blame the victims. (I’m used to people blaming the media, so I won’t go there.) Based on what people are writing in the comments, the younger boy may have had some behavioral issues at the school. The older boy, everyone seems to agree, is a gem. Yet he was called a kike and Jew boy.

Even if Aaron misbehaved, you don’t treat a boy – a fellow student—like that.