When Claudine Guralnick heard the news that she would not be traveling to Italy this week to learn more about the Reggio Emilia Approach to early childhood education, she had a simple reaction.
“I cried as if someone had passed away,” said Guralnick, preschool director at Temple Har Zion in River Forest. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Guralnick and Naomi Garvitt, Glasser Preschool director at Oak Park Temple, were among 60 educators nationwide that had been slated to travel to the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy to learn more about the Reggio Emilia Approach and bring those learnings home to their respective preschools. The trip had been coordinated by The Paradigm Project, an organization focused on “unlocking the incredible potential of the early childhood years.”
But as reported by the Times of Israel, the teachers were required to sign a special statement prior to traveling.
That statement, according to the Times of Israel: “I distance myself from the occupation of Gaza and the violation of children’s and human beings’ rights in the occupied territories as well as in every place (sic) in the world.”
Garvitt’s reaction to the news was similar to Guralnick’s. Like her counterpart, she has never been to Italy, but that’s not the point.
“I was hoping to get a hands-on, broader sense of how they ran their preschool,” she said. “It’s always nice to learn other cultures and what they do in their classrooms. I was hoping to bring new concepts, new ways of learning for the children and new ways for teachers to implement in their classroom.
“It was saddening. We were a Jewish group going there, just to learn the preschool program. We were asked to feel some way as a religious organization.”
“Do not go out”
The Times of Israel noted that “the statement was the result of a protest by some parents associated with the local organization that was set to host the Jewish educators, who objected to their participation over alleged support for Israel and the Israel Defense Forces.”
Garvitt said the U.S. group was scheduled to leave for Italy Oct. 10 and the onsite learning program would have been held from Oct. 11 to Saturday. The Paradigm Project made the call to cancel the trip out of an abundance of caution for participants.
But ahead of that decision, Guralnick said there were strict rules about moving about in Reggio Emilia.
“Do not go out,” she said security personnel told the group on a virtual meeting in the days before leaving. “We were supposed to study until three or four o’clock and then we were going to explore the city.
“They told us, ‘If you decide to go out, stay in groups. Don’t pay attention if someone is screaming at you.’”
But Guralnick said she was still willing to take the trip to Italy.
“I wanted to make a point that you won’t keep us from there,” she said. “The statement pretty much says it all. You know we weren’t going to sign it.”
She and Garvitt have been using the Reggio Emilia Approach for some time and will continue to use it. The rub is that any new learnings from Italy won’t be applied locally.
“I think the sad part for me is I have such a strong belief in this philosophy,” Guralnick said. “You can see it working with the children, it’s an exciting way of teaching. It’s rewarding for the children, it’s rewarding for the educator.”
Garvitt agreed.
“We’re currently doing it in the classroom (and) my plan is to continue it,” she said. “I don’t want something like this to say we don’t want to do this anymore, because then they win. We’ll continue to implement it because it’s what’s best for our children.”
Link to Nov. 3 referendum question
The Reggio Amilia situation hits home for Rabbi Max Weiss of Oak Park Temple, who said he was “disappointed that the leader of our school wouldn’t have that experience to learn.”
But there was a deeper issue, he said, directly tied to the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
“I was angry that the BDS movement resulted in harming children at our preschool,” he said. “Both of our schools have reputations of being schools focused on children. The BDS program caused folks in Italy to act in a way that barred educators coming to learn, and that can have an impact on our community as well, when you don’t respect others’ viewpoints.”
In Weiss’s mind, there is a link between the situation and a Nov. 3 Oak Park referendum question, “Should the state of Illinois repeal laws that ban state investment in businesses that boycott the state of Israel?”
“The anti-boycott referendum comes directly out of the BDS movement,” he said. “I would say it is tied together in that the pro-referendum movement is a symptom of a broader issue that is ultimately harmful to us because it is bifurcating our community.
“It has created an atmosphere of, if you don’t agree with a different point of view, folks won’t be in community with you.”
Mark Segal is spokesman for Oak Park Neighbors United, a group offering arguments why Oak Park community members should vote no on the referendum.
“When early childhood educators from our own local Jewish preschools must disavow Israel simply to attend an international professional conference, we see clearly how Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions-inspired boycotts of Israel are discriminatory in practice and don’t stop at Israel or Israelis,” he said. “They hit us here in Oak Park and River Forest.
“This is why we oppose this referendum, which is supportive of BDS in intent and effect, and which leads to neighbors being singled out because of their Jewish identity or connection to Israel. Whatever our differences over international conflicts, our community should oppose this divisive referendum.”
SIDEBAR
Rabbi Adir Glick of Temple Har Zion wrote about the Reggio Emilia situation in his congregation’s most recent newsletter. Excerpts from that message follow:
“This fall, we were saddened by the news that our amazing preschool director, Claudine Guralnick and a long-time beloved teacher, Cherie Pantoja – who were expected to go on a JUF (Jewish United Fund) funded trip to Italy to learn on site about the Reggio Emillio style – had to cancel their trip. Protests erupted there when they learned that American Jewish schools, supporters of Israel and the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces), ‘baby murderers,’ were coming to be with their children. The outcry grew so virulent they had to cancel the trip. The message is loud and clear, that we are not welcome. We deserve no understanding. This occurred the very week of October 7th.
“What can we do faced with this virulent hate? …
“There are moments in our collective history, where all we can do is be courageous and counter this wave of hate, rest on our self-belief, spread our truths, and tell our neighbors. We should also not forget that within our communities there is an unprecedented swell of Jewish pride and of Jewish solidarity. New Jewish activists are carrying the torch as our ancestors of old. It’s not about the actions of an Israeli government. It is about blood libels, about obsession with Israel, about blindness to two sides, and latent antisemitism reemerging from the cultural baggage of the West. …
“Today we, the Jewish people, thrive; we are pledged to give wholeheartedly to our people, our nation, and to humanity at large. Let us be extra vigilant to guard and protect that which was rebuilt at great cost. With love and compassion in our hearts, let us stand firm in our wholeness, and continue to be a light to ourselves and to the whole world.”