Mayor Eric Adams walked back his stance on a Brooklyn middle school's decision to deny a Holocaust survivor the opportunity to speak about antisemitism. The initial statement from Adams' office said he agreed with the school's principal, Arin Rusch, in keeping 85-year-old Sami Steigmann from speaking at MS 447. However, in a post on X, Adams reversed his position and acknowledged that Steigmann was indeed the right person to speak with kids about the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Adams stated that he had previously met with Steigmann and believed him to be "ABSOLUTELY the right person" for the job. He later added that it was unfortunate a statement from his office had been released prematurely, which said Steigmann wasn't considered a good fit due to his pro-Israel views.
The controversy arose when The Post reported that Steigmann was denied an opportunity to speak at the school last month by Rusch because of his strong support for Israel. Steigmann maintained he would only talk about the Holocaust and antisemitism, not Middle East current events. Despite this, he was still barred from speaking.
Adams has been a long-time supporter of Israel, which may be linked to the decision made by the school's principal. The Department of Education initially backed Rusch's ruling but did not comment on the matter when asked for clarification.
The reversal of Adams' stance marks an important moment in addressing antisemitism and ensuring young people are aware of the lessons from the Holocaust.
Adams stated that he had previously met with Steigmann and believed him to be "ABSOLUTELY the right person" for the job. He later added that it was unfortunate a statement from his office had been released prematurely, which said Steigmann wasn't considered a good fit due to his pro-Israel views.
The controversy arose when The Post reported that Steigmann was denied an opportunity to speak at the school last month by Rusch because of his strong support for Israel. Steigmann maintained he would only talk about the Holocaust and antisemitism, not Middle East current events. Despite this, he was still barred from speaking.
Adams has been a long-time supporter of Israel, which may be linked to the decision made by the school's principal. The Department of Education initially backed Rusch's ruling but did not comment on the matter when asked for clarification.
The reversal of Adams' stance marks an important moment in addressing antisemitism and ensuring young people are aware of the lessons from the Holocaust.
. On one hand, I love that he's backing out of his initial stance and acknowledging that Sami Steigmann was right for the job 
. The guy's 85 years old, has lived through some crazy stuff, and deserves to share his story with the next gen. It's about time someone gave him a platform to do so 
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. I mean, it's one thing for a principal to make a decision, but it's another for Adams' office to go out and say that Steigmann wasn't the right fit because of his pro-Israel views 
. It just feels like a whole lot of unnecessary drama, you know? And what's with the Department of Education not commenting on the matter? That just leaves me feeling all confused and stuff 
. It's a tough topic to navigate, but it's great that we're having these kinds of conversations 
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. I mean, it's crazy that a middle school even questioned who should speak to kids about the Holocaust - I guess you could say they were trying to teach them something new about tolerance and stuff 
I was reading about this whole situation with Sami Steigmann and Mayor Eric Adams, and I gotta say, it's kinda weird that they had to go back and forth like this. Like, why did they even release a statement saying he wasn't the right fit for the job in the first place? 
Let's give Steigmann a chance to share his story with the next gen 
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. I mean who makes a statement first think about it for a sec and then changes their mind lol. Anyways, this is super important cuz its all about educatin kids about antisemitism and the holocaust, so kudos 2 Mayor Adams for listenin up 
!
so like the mayor of NYC is walking back his own statement and now he's all for this Holocaust survivor dude speaking to kids about antisemitism... it's wild 
i mean, i get why Adams changed his mind, Steigmann's story seems legit and he only wants to talk about the importance of learning from the past... but at the same time, there is still some shady stuff going on here 
. This whole thing could've been avoided if everyone just communicated properly 
️.
. It's not like he was going to talk about anything else besides antisemitism and the Holocaust. And now, Mayor Adams has to backtrack on his initial statement, which just adds to the drama 
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. It's crazy that the school initially denied Steigmann the chance to speak just because of his pro-Israel views 
. I mean, he was actually an expert on antisemitism and wanted to talk about the Holocaust 
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. Let's keep the momentum going and make sure everyone knows about the importance of learning from our history 
#StandWithSami #HolocaustAwarenessMatters #LeadershipMatters