One Jewish family in Lancaster, Pennsylvania has been getting a great deal of media attention recently. The reason? This family wanted to pull their child out of Centerville Elementary School’s annual production of A Christmas Carol.
This story made national headlines after both Fox News and Breitbart reported on it. These conservative news outlets made it seem like the school was forced by the Jewish family to cancel their production of Dickens’ classic Christmas tale.
Performing A Christmas Carol in December has become an annual tradition at Centerville Elementary. Many parents were angered once they heard administrators decided to cancel the production this year. Principal Tom Kramer told parents there were two main reasons behind their decision to cancel A Christmas Carol this year. The first reason had to do with the new state educational standards that required students to spend more time in the classrooms and less time rehearsing. The second reason had to do with being tolerant of other cultures.
In an official statement, President Tom Kramer said he wanted to ensure the school was “respectful of the many cultural and religious backgrounds represented by the students.” He also said rehearsals would take 20 precious hours out of classroom time.
At the same time President Kramer announced the school’s intention on canceling the Christmas production, a Jewish family asked the school if they could take their child out of the play. The school said this family was very respectful and it in no way affected their decision to cancel the Christmas play.
Both Breitbart and Fox News, however, linked the Jewish family’s request to not participate in the Christmas show directly with school’s decision to cancel it. Both Breitbart and Fox News are well known agitators in the so-called “War on Christmas.”
Commentators on Breitbart’s website were furious when they heard about this story. Some commentators said it was time to “take action” and protest the school’s decision.
After the story made national headlines, the local Lancaster Online said the Jewish parents were shocked and frightened by these reactions. Lancaster Online reported that the family fled the country in fear for their lives.
It has since been confirmed that the Jewish family did leave the country, but they did not flee in fear. Instead they left the country to go on a holiday vacation.
However, the parents of this Jewish child were very afraid by the recent wave of anti-Semitism sweeping the nation. They were especially concerned after news broke of the man who walked into a pizza restaurant in Washington D.C. and shot an assault rifle after reading about “Pizzagate.”
For those who don’t know, “Pizzagate” is a conspiracy theory that spread online suggesting members of the Democratic Party were involved in a child sex ring. The center of this supposed child sex operation was in the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria.
There has been a rise in anti-Semitic attacks and swastika graffiti ever since Donald Trump was elected president of the USA. The FBI says that anti-Semitic attacks are still the number one religiously motivated hate crime in the USA.
One neo-Nazi website was actually discovered recently in Whitefish, Montana. This website posted physical addresses of various prominent Jews in the area and told members to “take action.”