Two preschool directors from Oak Park and River Forest had a professional development trip to Italy canceled after organizers required them to sign a statement distancing themselves from Israel.
Claudine Guralnick, preschool director at Temple Har Zion in River Forest, and Naomi Garvitt, Glasser Preschool director at Oak Park Temple, were among 60 educators nationwide scheduled to travel to the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The group planned to study the Reggio Emilia Approach, an early-childhood education method long used in Jewish preschools, the Wednesday Journal reported.
Before the trip, educators were told to sign a statement reading: "I distance myself from the occupation of Gaza and the violation of children's and human beings' rights in the occupied territories as well as in every place in the world," according to the Times of Israel. The statement came after parents associated with the Italian host organization protested the Jewish educators' participation, the Times of Israel reported.
The educators refused to sign. The Paradigm Project, the U.S.-based organization coordinating the trip, canceled it as a precaution.
"I cried as if someone had passed away," Guralnick told the Wednesday Journal. "I couldn't believe it."
The group had been scheduled to depart Oct. 10 for a program running through Oct. 17. Before the cancellation, Guralnick said security personnel told educators on a virtual call not to go out. If they did leave study sessions, they were told to stay in groups.
Garvitt said she had hoped to bring new teaching methods back to her Oak Park classroom. She called the experience saddening, saying the group was there to learn about a preschool program and was instead asked to take a political position as a religious organization.
Both directors said they will continue using the Reggio Emilia Approach in their classrooms despite the canceled trip.
Local leaders tie incident to Nov. 3 referendum
Rabbi Max Weiss of Oak Park Temple said the cancellation connects directly to the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
He linked it to a Nov. 3 advisory referendum on the Oak Park ballot asking whether Illinois should repeal laws banning state investment in businesses that boycott Israel.
"I was angry that the BDS movement resulted in harming children at our preschool," Weiss told the Wednesday Journal. He said the movement caused Italian organizers to bar educators from learning, with consequences that reach Oak Park when people do not respect differing viewpoints.
Mark Segal, spokesman for Oak Park Neighbors United, a group urging a "no" vote on the referendum, said the Italy incident shows how BDS-linked boycotts affect local families. The group formed after Oak Park Township's annual town meeting in April, when residents voted down a similar non-binding referendum 352-134.
Oak Parkers for Free Speech, the group that placed the Nov. 3 question on the ballot, has said the referendum concerns an Illinois law restricting the right to boycott, not Middle East policy. The group has argued the law affects pensions of current and retired state employees in Oak Park.
The referendum is advisory. A vote would signal to state legislators where Oak Park residents stand but would not change state law.
Garvitt said she plans to keep the Reggio Emilia method in her classroom. "I don't want something like this to say we don't want to do this anymore, because then they win," she told the Wednesday Journal.
