Brookline community members staked out sharply opposing positions on the Ridley School art controversy in letters published Thursday, July 10, with one side calling the district's new review policy censorship and the other praising it as a necessary response to antisemitism.

Zinaida Miller, a Northeastern University law professor, and Margaret Litvin, a Boston University literature professor, both founding members of Concerned Jewish Faculty & Staff, wrote that the district's new art review process will "censor protected student speech, invite problematic viewpoint discrimination, and brand all Jewish people as ethnonationalists more devoted to Israeli imagery than to free speech."

Miller and Litvin questioned why Superintendent Bella Wong has not met with concerned parents nearly seven weeks after the May 20 art show. They argued that many Jewish Brookline residents objected to the artwork's removal and investigation, and that treating the Jewish community as a monolith is itself antisemitic.

Ruth Kaplan, a former Brookline School Committee and Town Meeting member who is also a Ridley alumna, took the opposite view. She called the artwork "a textbook case of antisemitism presenting as antizionism" and praised Principal Sara Yuen's swift response.

In her letter, Kaplan drew a direct line to her own advocacy for renaming the school from Edward Devotion, citing Devotion's history as a slaveholder. She argued that piercing the Israeli flag creates the same hostile environment for Jewish students that the old name created for racial minorities.

At the May 20 art show at Florida Ruffin Ridley School, a student displayed a cardboard box topped with Israeli, EU, and UN flags. A figure appeared to hold a sharpened stake piercing the Israeli flag. Inside the box were flags of the U.S., NATO, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Venezuela, Cyprus, and Ukraine. A handwritten note from the student read: "I hope this brings knowledge to the horrible things going on in this places" [sic].

Principal Yuen emailed parents on Wednesday, May 21, saying the incident "should not have happened." On Monday, June 9, she announced a new formal review process for all student artwork before it is displayed at school events. According to Brookline.News reporting on the June 9 email, the district's investigation found no discriminatory intent and affirmed the work constitutes protected student speech, but concluded the imagery "was reasonably perceived by Jewish and Israeli community members as invoking antisemitic tropes."

Ridley enrolls Hebrew speakers through the district's Native Language Support Program, giving it a notable Israeli student population, according to Brookline.News reporting.

Miller and Litvin cited the longstanding American tradition of political dissent through flag desecration. They wrote that the district's finding about "reasonable perception" raises the question of who decides what counts as antisemitic imagery.

Kaplan countered that demonizing Israel among nations is "radically different from legitimate criticism of its government."

Israeli parent Amitai Handler, who attended the show with his first grader, offered a middle ground in an interview with Brookline.News. He said his daughter was confused and "a little bit distressed" when she saw the pierced flag, but acknowledged the student's right to make the art. "In the context of an exhibition that's supposed to celebrate the art of the children created in an elementary school, it should have been a little bit better thought out," Handler said.

The district has said it will provide additional professional development for staff on civil rights and discrimination and make counseling available to affected students. Miller and Litvin's letter called on Superintendent Wong to schedule a meeting with concerned parents. As of publication, neither the superintendent nor the district has announced one.