After a pair of sixth-graders was barred from adding Hanukkah-themed decorations to a Christmas display, the Vancouver School Board now says that the Jewish festival will be included in their school’s holiday celebrations.
The about-face comes after CTV Vancouver reported on Dec. 7 that classmates Maya Sontz and Rebecca Weinberg were blocked from adding items such as a menorah alongside the Christmas trees and wreaths at Vancouver’s General Gordon Elementary School. Maya’s mother, Sheila Sontz, had also asked school principal Hope Sterling to include Hanukkah songs during the school’s Christmas concert, which falls during the eight-day Jewish holiday.
“I was absolutely shocked to get a reply that there was to be no Hanukkah decorations in the school, no menorahs, because she considered them to be religious objects," Sontz told CTV Vancouver.
According to Sontz, the principal argued that holiday symbols such as Santa Claus and Christmas trees are not religious, but cultural.
"I have nothing against Christmas,” Weinberg told CTV Vancouver in an interview last week. “I just think they should add more Hanukkah and other religions… I would really like to feel represented."
Following a meeting with the girls and their parents, however, the Vancouver School Board said that General Gordon Elementary School had a change of holiday heart.
"I was able to provide a direct apology for the girls not feeling included and represented at their school," school board chair Janet Fraser said in a statement Tuesday -- the first day of the Jewish holiday. The school, she added, "will be proceeding with a number of initiatives related to the celebration of Hanukkah along with other cultural celebrations."
Whether or not that includes allowing the girls to place a menorah alongside the school’s Christmas tree remains to be seen.
According to the school board’s Multiculturalism & Anti-Racism Policy, “the Board recognizes the need to create an inclusive environment in which all parents and students from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds feel welcome and can contribute.” However, it is ultimately up to individual schools to decide on how to treat religious and cultural symbols.
