Raise a Glass to Freedom
4 min read
Jewish student posts footage from class and opens opportunity for community dialogue, education.
Last week an Alabama school system issued a statement apologizing for the hurt and distress caused when a history teacher had students perform a Nazi salute in his 11th grade class in January.
Meanwhile, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute called the incident “particularly disconcerting, as it shows a conspicuous lack of sensitivity on the part of administrators to discuss, teach and lead in this area.”
It all began Jan. 18 during a lesson on how the meaning of symbols can change over time. The teacher invoked the Bellamy salute, first described in 1892 by United States Pledge of Allegiance author Francis Bellamy. Because of its resemblance to a Nazi salute, the gesture fell out of favor during World War II and was replaced by the custom of holding one’s right hand over the heart while saying the pledge.
Ephraim “Epps” Tytell, the one Jewish student in the Mountain Brook High School class, did not stand. He posted a photo and four-second video on social media, showing classmates giving what looks like a Nazi salute. A non-Jewish classmate recorded the footage.
Accounts vary, as students said the teacher had them rise to say the Pledge of Allegiance while doing the Bellamy salute. School officials, however, stated the teacher did not instruct anyone to strike that pose.
In the story first reported by Birmingham-based Southern Jewish Life, Tytell said he was shocked, confused and saddened by the incident. The next day he was called into the office of the assistant principal and told to apologize to the history teacher. Tytell refused to do so, and found his desk moved next to the teacher’s desk in class.
Student performing the Nazi salute
Although the school system later acknowledged the pain the incident caused, officials at first wanted Tytell to apologize for filming the teacher without permission. He refused to apologize, but did concede to take down the video – without revealing the name of the student who shot it.
“They proceeded to tell me that I’m making Mountain Brook look bad for uploading the video and sharing it,” Tytell told a CBS News affiliate in Birmingham. “The day after, he made our class, and our class only, put up our phones and he moved me from sitting in the back of the class to right next to him.”
Tytell’s mother, Mariya, said she was proud her son didn’t apologize and that the teacher should have apologized.
As Birmingham Jewish Federation CEO Danny Cohn told Aish.com, “When the Nazi salute is given in any context, it’s a trigger for Jews. If a Jewish student in the class feels uncomfortable, that makes it an antisemitic incident – however unintentional it was.
“This young man’s parents and others said it was unintentional, but it showed extremely poor judgment.”
Officials from Federation and its civic arm, the Jewish Community Relations Council, met with school officials to explain why the lesson was offensive.
In its statement Feb. 10, Mountain Brook Schools said: “We continue to learn about this matter and have heard many perspectives. One thing has become clear, the instructional strategy for this lesson lacked sensitivity, and however unintentional, caused hurt and distress within the community. More than 17 million people were killed, including 6 million Jews, during the Holocaust and this salute desecrates their memory. We are deeply apologetic for the pain caused. There are more effective ways to teach this subject without recreating painful, emotional responses to history’s atrocities.”
Cohn says the incident has created opportunities not only for dialogue, but also for education at a community level. As an example, Mountain Brook Schools will work with the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center to train teachers about antisemitism, the Holocaust and symbols of both.
Ephraim “Epps” Tytell
The school system promised: “We will continue to provide education and additional opportunities for ongoing dialogue within the community. We absolutely and unequivocally stand against antisemitism.”
The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute stressed that to end discrimination and racism, it’s crucial to investigate how they have manifested in the past – for instance, Nazi Germany and Jim Crow in the U.S. – and continue to show up.
“It is up to all of us to cultivate peace and equality in our schools,” according to the institute’s Feb. 10 statement. “Our commitment to stand with our partners at the Birmingham Jewish Federation and the Jewish Community Relations Council endures as well as our ongoing efforts to be truth bearers and standard keepers.”
Mountain Brook is a suburb of Birmingham, which has been called ground zero of America’s civil rights movement.
