On June 4, when about 375 yearbooks were distributed at East Brunswick High School in New Jersey, it was discovered that the section for the Jewish Student Union had been completely removed, the names of its members were erased, and their group photo was replaced with a picture of Muslim students who had no connection to the union.
The East Brunswick High School (NJ) 2024 yearbook replaced the photos and names of every student in the Jewish Student Union club with faces and names of Muslim students. @EBPublicSchools must investigate and hold accountable whoever is responsible. @News12NJ @JTAnews pic.twitter.com/RQcfE2xpUH
— ShipofTheseus (@JewishSpaceLazr) June 5, 2024
As news of the photo swap gained traction online and sparked outrage within the Jewish community, the Mayor of East Brunswick Brad Cohen described the photo replacement as a "blatant antisemitic act." Victor Valeski, the superintendent of the East Brunswick school district apologized to both the Jewish and Muslim students, who he said also faced an unpleasant attack following the eruption of the case, and called on the community not to jump to conclusions.
"I sent a message to the community today and said we are investigating the case, and I ask that people give us time to investigate and not rush to judgment," he said in an interview with NBC4 news site, adding that it could be an innocent mistake and not an intentional act driven by antisemitic motives. "I'm waiting to see what the investigation reveals because this could be a legitimate mistake," he added. "I don't want to call it antisemitism yet."
However, Mayor Brad Cohen said there is no reasonable explanation. "It has raised a lot of anger in the community because it's hard for most people to understand how this happened 'by mistake,'" he said, wondering if the incident warrants being treated as a hate crime. "I think the community, both the Jewish community and the general community, deserve a prompt answer," he said. "It's just disturbing and upsetting not to call it what it is: an antisemitic act. Hatred has no place in East Brunswick, and antisemitism will not be tolerated," he declared.
"We are aware of the error in the yearbook," Valeski added in an email on Tuesday. "We are working with the publisher to correct the yearbook, and we are also investigating how the error occurred and will address it accordingly upon completion of the investigation. We deeply apologize for the error and the disappointment it has caused. Thank you for your understanding and patience as we work expeditiously to rectify the situation."
East Brunswick High School 🤦🏻♂️https://t.co/p29JOcgJNU pic.twitter.com/1a7Mhq6mwR
— Brett Gursky (@BrettGursky) June 5, 2024
As soon as the yearbook issue was discovered, members of the Jewish Student Union reconvened to take a new group photo to be included along with their names in corrected versions of the book to be distributed to students. Meanwhile, the school district has also hired an outside law firm to investigate the matter.
