20 | JANUARY 25 • 2024 J
N

T

he school board in 
Ann Arbor endorsed 
a resolution calling 
for a ceasefire in the Israel-
Hamas war early on Jan. 18, 
more than five hours after 
convening for a meeting 
expected to be contentious.
The vote made Ann Arbor 
Public Schools one of the 
only school districts in the 
United States to adopt such 
a stance, three months after 
Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel 
ignited a war in Gaza and 
fierce debates in public bodies 
across the United States.
Several last-minute 
amendments tweaked the 
resolution’s language to note 
that the board has a “limited 
role in international affairs” 
and called for the “release of 
all hostages and unrestricted 
humanitarian aid at the levels 

recommended by the United 
Nations for the Palestinian 
people.” Another tweak 
condemned “discrimination 
against any individual based 
on personal background 
whether Israeli or Palestinian.”
The final version, after 
prodding from Jewish 
community members, also 
condemns both antisemitism 
and “anti-Jewish racism.”
The changes were enough 
to tilt the board to favor the 
resolution, which only three of 
the seven members had said 
before the meeting that they 
were committed to support. 
Four members backed the 
resolution, while one person 
voted against it, down from 
two who had said they 
planned to.
Two others abstained — a 
move that one board member 

said was not encouraged, 
but which another said 
was essential because the 
board was taking a stand on 
something outside its purview. 
Applause and cries of “thank 
you” broke out in the high 
school auditorium after the 
motion passed.
“I’m very disappointed,” 
Eileen Freed, head of the Ann 
Arbor Jewish Federation, told 
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency 
after the vote. “
At the crux of 
it, it’s a political play … The 
people who were pushing for 
this wanted to see the words 
‘ceasefire.’ They were not 
focused on the needs of the 
students.”
Ceasefire calls have been 
a frontier of tensions across 
the United States since 
the early days of the war. 
Proponents say calling for a 

ceasefire represents a powerful 
symbolic stand against Israel’s 
conduct in Gaza. Critics of 
the calls — including Israeli 
leaders and many Jewish 
leaders in the United States — 
say they effectively deny Israel 
the right to defend itself.
At least one other school 
district has officially called for 
a ceasefire, the New Haven 
Unified School District in 
California’s Bay Area, as 
has Randi Weingarten, the 
progressive Jewish leader of 
the American Federation 
of Teachers union who 
also sits on the board of the 
liberal Zionist group J Street. 
Weingarten tweeted earlier 
this month that she believed 
it was “well past time for a 
ceasefire agreement.”
The vote capped a 
contentious period for 
Ann Arbor, a progressive 
Michigan community with 
sizable Jewish and Arab 
populations. The Ann 
Arbor City Council passed 
its own ceasefire resolution 
the week prior. The local 
Council on American Islamic 
Relations has filed a federal 
civil rights complaint with 
the Department of Education 
against the district, alleging 
that a middle school counselor 
called a student a “terrorist.”
And at the University of 
Michigan, the president halted 
two planned student 
government votes about 
Gaza, saying that they had 
stoked fear in the community. 
Meanwhile, dozens of pro-
Palestinian protesters were 
arrested after storming an 
administration building, 
causing the Board of Regents 
this week to pass new free-
speech rules.
For the local school board, 
the ceasefire vote followed a 

Contentious Meeting

OUR COMMUNITY

continued on page 22

Ann Arbor school board endorses call for ceasefire 
in Israel and Gaza.

ANDREW LAPIN JTA 

PHOTOS BY ANDREW LAPIN

Eileen Freed, executive director 
of the Jewish Federation of 
Greater Ann Arbor, delivers public 
comments opposing a ceasefire 
resolution at a local school board 
meeting, Jan. 17, 2024.