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G

ina Erpardo of Farmington Hills 
had never been to a school board 
meeting until March 5. She went to 
listen after hearing about the February meet-
ing from a friend, who was concerned that 
Jewish parents’ voices weren’t being heard in 
the debate about the school board calling for 
a ceasefire resolution. She went to listen and 
to add to Jewish representation at the meet-
ing, as her children, 17 and 12, attend North 
Farmington and Warner Middle School in 
the district. 
She’s from Turkey, and her Turkish family 
has Jewish and Muslim friends, she says, 
emphasizing that in her family there is no 
hate. As she attended the meeting, she says, 
she was moved to speak spontaneously. 
“I’m very sympathetic to the civilians on 
both sides, but the point I tried to make is 
that schools are not the place to make a deci-
sion,
” she says. “I wanted to stand up and say 
that this topic should be kept away from our 
schools and from our children.
”
Growing up, they had to hide their iden-
tities in certain places, she says, adding 
that she never expected to feel this kind of 
discrimination in the United States. “Here 
we are in the United States and my children 
feel uncomfortable — I don’t want to hide 
my identity. I don’t want to feel threatened. I 
don’t want my business threatened,
” she says. 
“But I think every Jew feels like they have to 
keep quiet, and I am done keeping myself 

quiet, because this is how I grew up.
” 
Right now, if people are willing to keep 
quiet, she says, a decade from now, they 
might not have the option to speak out.
The idea of making sure Jewish voices are 
represented in public forums is an increas-
ingly common thread for parents and com-
munity members these days at school board 
meetings and beyond. Some are even bring-
ing their children along as they navigate the 
realities of situations made even more tense 
since Oct. 7. 
That’s part of what inspired Brooke and 
Chaim Leiberman of Farmington Hills to 
spend their Valentine’s Day at the session 
as the school eyed a resolution calling for 
a ceasefire. Alerted by texts and on social 
media, moms also took to Facebook to dis-
cuss the issue, with some looking to coordi-
nate their attendance and others expanding 
the conversation by joining a newly launched 
Facebook group about blocking school 
boards from calling for a ceasefire. Many 
parents who couldn’t attend tuned in online. 
It was hours before the meeting’s floor 
was opened for public comment, Brooke 
Leiberman says, but well worthwhile to 
attend. “I felt like us being there changed the 
conversation,
” she explains. 
Meanwhile, her phone buzzed with mes-
sages from people she knew — and some she 
didn’t — who had tuned in online as well. “I 
left feeling like me being there mattered.
”

Her daughter, Talia Leiberman, 11, stayed 
up late on a Wednesday night in February 
to take part in a Farmington Public Schools 
school board meeting, sharing her experienc-
es last year being bullied for being Jewish. 
“I think it was important for me to go up 
there because there were a bunch of people 
before and after I went to talk about how 
they were getting bullied as a Muslim or 
Palestinian or Arab, and they were only shar-
ing their side of the story,
” she says. “I think 
it’s important that we need to stand up and 
share things that have happened to us.
”

MOBILIZING THE COMMUNITY
Marcie Rosen of Farmington Hills has four 
kids who graduated from the area’s public 
schools and two grandchildren in kinder-
garten and fourth grade now in the district. 
While her grandkids are too young for much 
of the conversation taking place now, it’s 
important to have Jewish pride and speak up 
for their future and that of the community, 
says Rosen, who is also regional president for 
Hadassah Greater Detroit. 
“People have to show up at these meet-
ings,
” she says. “
As far as what’s going on in 
the schools, I don’t feel it’s proper for a city 
council or a school board to get involved in 
international politics.
” 
She stayed at the February meeting until 
11:15 p.m., and knows others who were 
there a lot longer, says Rosen, who started 

10 | MARCH 21 • 2024 
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N

Parents mobilize against antisemitism in schools.
Making Jewish Voices Heard

KAREN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

