Roger Tilles delivers a pointed rebuke to educators on antisemitism

Daily Point

Empty chairs at nearly-empty tables

When Roger Tilles, Long Island’s longtime representative to the Board of Regents, sat at a table at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts last week to hold a news conference about an effort to expand education on the Holocaust and hate, he was flanked by three people — and several empty chairs.

Those chairs, Tilles told The Point, should have been occupied by other school administrators from colleges and universities and local school districts.

But in the days before, several told Tilles they “don’t want to get involved,” Tilles told The Point after the news conference.

Malverne Superintendent Lorna Lewis, an Erase Racism board member, became the sole local education official to sit with Tilles. Gloria Sesso, who co-chairs the Long Island Council for Social Studies, and civil rights attorney Frederick K. Brewington, another Erase Racism board member, joined them.

Syosset Superintendent Tom Rogers, in a message to the district after the event, said he was in the audience and supported Tilles’ plan.

But beyond the small group stood the empty chairs, which should have been occupied, Tilles said, by educators “who should have been there, standing with me.”

“Silence is complicity as far as I’m concerned,” Tilles said.

Instead, the chairs held blown-up images of Nazi Germany, including photos of Jews wearing yellow stars, and of graffiti and destruction from Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, which occurred 85 years ago to the day of Tilles’ news conference.

Tilles said his push came after he became angrier and more frustrated following the response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, noting that he’d like to see a stronger response from all school administrators, including school superintendents and college presidents.

Tilles used the news conference as an opportunity to ask school districts, colleges, and universities across Long Island to provide a specific, detailed curriculum and “action plan” regarding bigotry and intolerance — and specifically, how bigotry and intolerance led to the Holocaust.

“I don’t have any authority as an individual Regent,” Tilles told The Point. “But I have a bully pulpit and I’m going to use it.”

The Board of Regents sets state education policy and has general supervision over all educational institutions, including elementary, middle, and high schools, along with colleges and universities, across the state.

Tilles told The Point he specifically hoped the state would create a commission on Holocaust education, similar to one that exists in New Jersey. And, he said, the Board of Regents should better monitor Holocaust education to determine what schools are doing well — and poorly — and to share best practices. A survey conducted by the state Education Department found a wide range in how schools teach the Holocaust.

“The survey showed that some school districts were doing exemplary work in Holocaust education … while others do it for five minutes senior year,” he added.

Pointing to hateful incidents that have been occurring in schools, Tilles said time is of the essence and that schools have to act quickly.

Tilles noted that he recognized that the educational need went beyond teaching the Holocaust, but that since the state already mandates teaching the Holocaust, it marked a good starting point for a deeper dive.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Pro-Peace

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Quick Points

Reading the tea leaves

• Moody’s has changed America’s credit rating from “stable” to “negative,” citing the nation’s political polarization and worsening fiscal position as long-term concerns. If those are the worries, what took so long?
• Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley tried to dismiss former President Donald Trump’s massive polling lead by saying that people are “getting tired” of the “drama and chaos” that “follow” Trump. Not according to his massive polling lead.
• Job satisfaction among American workers is the highest it has been in the 36 years The Conference Board has been tracking it and it is particularly high among those working from home. Coincidence or correlation?
• Home schooling on Long Island and around the country has exploded since the pandemic started. This no doubt will lead to fascinating long-term research on whether these students are getting a good education — and little time to recover if they are not.
• New House Speaker Mike Johnson, facing a looming deadline to avert a government shutdown, is calling for a two-tiered plan with two different deadlines for continued funding of different parts of the government that he calls a “laddered” approach. Perhaps not the best choice of words given the instability of ladders.

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com

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