To our readers:

We have worked to produce coverage of the Israel-Hamas war since early October when the news broke globally, but the process has been a long and unexpected one, coming with many delays. We appreciate those who advocated for us and our reporting, for the trust from the administration at this moment, and for our readers, who we hope will engage in respectful, in-person discussions as they read and learn more about how our community is experiencing the ever-changing situation in Israel and Palestine.

To guide our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, we have utilized resources such as the AP Topical Guide, which compiles information about terminology and historical background regarding the war. Although the language used to discuss the Israel-Hamas war may be different outside of our publication, we have followed reputable journalistic models to develop an informed understanding and provide reporting that is accurate and relevant to a student publication.

Additionally, we are not publishing opinions or taking a stance on the Israel-Hamas war in an effort to provide balanced coverage on an issue that resonates with many members of our community. As reporters, personal bias is inevitable, but we have prioritized equal representation of those who may be most affected by the war. All of our stories have been cross-checked by multiple editors to ensure that our writing upholds and reflects the voices of our interviewees.

To prioritize the safety of our students, most of whom are minors, we have decided to publish first names only in our stories, a format modeled after the New York Times. While interviewees will be known within the SPA community, their full names will not be tagged or searchable online.

Although comments on RubicOnline are normally filtered and verified before publication, we have decided to close comments on our coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Additionally, we will not be sharing or teasing these stories on The Rubicon’s social media platforms.

Claire Kim and Orion Kim, The Rubicon Editors in Chief

Clara McKoy, Director of RubicOnline

For the last two months, endless reports about the Israel-Hamas war have infiltrated almost every media site, news outlet, and daily paper.

In light of the global response to the Israel-Hamas war, Upper School Principal Minnie Lee emailed parents and faculty on Oct. 13. Lee relayed that SPA’s central goal is to “listen and help students process their feelings…and be responsive to their needs.”

Yet Ella spent the first three weeks of October calling her family in Palestine while simultaneously dodging in-school conversations about the conflict. She has yet to widely present her Palestinian descent, which has given her an inside look into her classmate’s private conversations.

“People have made a lot of generalizations about Palestinians in front of me,” she said.

Many of them have been inaccurate and painful.

The conflict is nothing new to Daniel, with past and present events affecting him deeply.

“I am very familiar with this topic because I have family and many friends in Israel,” he said.

To provide students with a place to process and learn, history teacher Andrea Moerer has opened her door to students attempting to “answer questions” and “contextualize the situation,” she said. She finds the most effective way to build understanding is through “data and what the roots of the conflict are.”

With numerous Western news sites depicting the conflict as a religious war, it can be easy to get lost in the commotion. Moerer believes the “confusion” and “mistrust” all trace back to the political system: “I think it gets narrated in a way that makes it more dangerous and hateful because of religious differences,” she said.

While the majority of discussions regarding Israel and Palestine are held outside of school, Lee foresees conversations occurring in the classrooms: “We are committed to fostering respectful inquiry and searching dialogue in our classes while understanding our responsibility to help students understand these events on multiple levels,” she wrote.

Head of School Luis Ottley and Lee communicated with families again Dec. 9 about two speakers coming to campus. The first spoke to students in mid-December and the second will come to campus in January.

The Anti-Defamation League is reporting a nearly 400% increase in antisemitic incidents in the U.S. since Oct. 7.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement on Oct. 31 that the U.S. is seeing “historic” levels of antisemitism, with actions targeting the Jewish community after the Israel-Hamas war began, adding to a threat level for Jews that has spiked in recent years.

“The reality is that the Jewish community is uniquely targeted by pretty much every terrorist organization across the spectrum. And when you look at a group that makes up 2.4 percent, roughly, of the American population, it should be jarring to everyone that that same population accounts for something like 60 percent of all religious-based hate crimes, and so they need our help,” Wray said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it received 774 complaints of incidents motivated by Islamophobia and bias against Palestinians and Arabs from Oct. 7 to Dec. 5. CAIR reported that this was the highest level of incidents since 2015. The total was almost triple 2022’s average number of complaints for a period of the same duration.

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on neighboring Israel, co-leader Malachi has walked into weekly Mishpacha meetings to be in community with other Jewish students in the upper school.

Malachi believes that during this time, it’s “most important to stay strong and stick together.”

As Israel airstrikes on Gaza destroy neighborhoods, and mounting civilian casualties make headlines, Wafa co-leads weekly meetings of Muslim Student Affinity.

“A lot of students in the Muslim affinity [group] have felt like they don’t have the space to openly talk about how they’re feeling and what’s been going on,” Wafa said. “We feel like it’s very important to hold those places so that they can feel supported and they can feel like … their opinion is valued in this community, even if there are things that they can’t say with anybody else.”

Both affinity groups have acted as a place for individuals to share their experiences, connections, and emotional responses.

“We have an open space that we feel is pretty safe. The Jewish community is a tight-knit community [and] there are not very many [Jewish students] at SPA,” Malachi said.

Additionally, both groups have prioritized the safety of their members and supported underclassmen voices.

“We’ve been hearing … antisemitic remarks being made mainly online … but it’s just important that we can share with each other [in school],” Mishpacha co-leader David said.

MSA co-leader Humza also expressed the difficulty of hearing stories, specifically from underclassmen, about their recent experiences with harmful remarks being made about their identities.

As leaders, “We are older, [we’ve] been here for longer, we know [the school] a little bit better, but for these [under]classmen it’s not the same experience,” he said. “It’s really difficult to hear about the things that they’re having to go through … they’re victims of people saying some pretty nasty stuff to them.”

David said that conversations within affinity groups have helped students process the level of urgency related to these remarks. He believes that group members must be informed of harmful situations to engage in discussions with administration.

For MSA, the lack of a Muslim-identifying faculty advisor has presented challenges, as there isn’t an adult to handle the typical responsibilities of organizing meetings, communicating with administration, and supporting students.

“A lot of that responsibility has fallen on us and I know that the three of us [co-leaders] especially have felt like we want to handle it, but we don’t know how,” Wafa said.

MSA co-leader Baasit said that every meeting the group has held since October has been about the Israel-Hamas war, and he hopes the affinity group can achieve its goal of providing space for students to connect and unwind from the stressful school environment.

“We haven’t really had any fun since October 7,” he said. “It’s all going at 100 miles an hour.”

The leaders of MSA also feel that they have been given a responsibility to educate others, which requires the group to put a greater amount of thought into their actions given the potential responses.

“We have to think through every decision that we make and every statement that we say … because we don’t know how people are going to react to it,” Wafa said.

Although the Israel-Hamas war has been a central conversation point in Mishpacha, David and Malachi also hope to provide opportunities for members to celebrate their identities. Due to the unpredictability of member attendance and their needs, David said the hardest job as a group leader was to plan activities that didn’t solely focus on the Israel-Hamas war.

“I don’t want every meeting to be about Israel and Palestine because I feel like we don’t need Mishpacha to be a space of just trauma,” he said.

Mishpacha planned and held its annual Hanukkah party on Dec. 12 in the cafeteria. It was open to the entire upper school and was well attended.

For the foreseeable future, MSA and Mishpacha plan to continue weekly meetings. MSA is focusing on bringing conversations to administration and the Office of Intercultural Life.

Although identifying the most effective way to help students has been a long process of listening to members and planning for needs as they arise, leaders of both affinity groups emphasized the benefits of continuing discussions.

Humza specifically described the positive aspect of being in a community that shares certain terms to describe the Israel-Hamas war.

“We can use language that we can’t use in more of a social setting, like specific words … to describe it and how we’re feeling … without feeling like we’re being judged,” he said.

Malachi said that affinity groups offer emotional support through a common identity.

“People have their strong emotions at the moment, so it’s important to talk through these things,” he said. “It’s important for myself to talk with the [affinity group] that can relate … and I think everyone knows someone mutually that lives in Israel or is affected by this.”

To support Mishpacha, David encouraged students to keep in mind that discussions about the Israel-Hamas war affect everyone differently. He also emphasized the importance of using correct terminology in conversation and recognizing the difference between “Israel, Israelis, and Jews, and Palestine, Palestinians, and Hamas,” David said.

“Generalizations are really easy to make and it can really hurt, so keep that in mind when talking about the conflict,” David said.

It’s also important to understand that Muslims live in both Israel and Palestine and that the religion is not tied to one stance on the Israel-Hamas war.

Baasit hopes the school can support MSA so the group can fulfill its role as a safe space for its members.

“We would like to have faith in what the school is doing with their programming so that we can provide an environment where students can decompress,” he said.

To support MSA and others affected by the war, he said, “The most important thing is understanding the history and the magnitude of what’s happening. Be willing to listen to people who have different viewpoints and foster a productive conversation and environment.”

Dean of Students Stacy Tepp spoke with the student body in an X-Period assembly the first week of December to introduce a process for restorative conversations when conflict arises.

To preface this interview, Tepp said, “I don’t have all the answers. It’s really hard for any adults to have these conversations, too. But I think that any time you’re engaging in a challenging conversation, it’s important to understand each other’s humanity, that every person is worthy of respect and dignity.”

Q: How do you begin?

A: As you’re entering a conversation that you’re concerned about, you want to try to still hold that light that you see in each other. Try to enter with curiosity. Where we get stuck sometimes is that we generalize about groups of people or how groups of people are thinking or feeling. I don’t think we can do that because everyone’s experience is totally unique.

Q: So it’s really about talking without assumption?

A: Entering with curiosity and understanding that everyone’s going to have a nuanced, unique story [is important in these conversations]. Trying to refrain from ‘othering’ people, labeling people… I think that comes from trying to hear each other’s stories.”

Q: What do you do when you disagree?

A: If you get in a place where you find yourself feeling in conflict, try some strategies for stepping back and listening to understand. Think about where your anger is coming from.

Q: What if the disagreement gets heated?

A: Everybody is unique and the emotions around this are unique. But trying to recognize when you’re feeling uncomfortable, when you’re involved in conflict, and when something is actually harmful. If you find yourself in a harmful situation, obviously you want to try to remove yourself from it. If you feel comfortable enough — if you witness it or see it — to help interrupt, as someone who’s a bystander, I think that’s important.

Q: How will you, as someone in conversation or someone as a bystander, know the difference?

A: I think trying to recognize where [conversation] is more not harm but conflict. … If you can recognize those times, then you can try to engage in conversation when something is not harmful, but it’s uncomfortable, and [you can] try to figure out more.

Q: If you had one hope for the student body as they engage in conversation about the news, what would you hope for them?

I just hope that people can have open hearts and open minds with each other. It sounds cliche, but just try to understand that this is hard. I’m sure I don’t even grasp how hard it is for a lot of people. And so [it’s important to enter] with kindness and curiosity…trying to learn more.