Silver Spring, MD – The parents of a Jewish student at Northwood High School are upset after the principal asked them to provide a letter from a rabbi justifying the kippah their son wore to school.
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Last week Steven Tanenbaum’s 17-year-old son, Caleb, began coming to classes wearing a kippah sruga–a Jewish head covering that his mother had knitted for him.
When the administration told Caleb to remove the kippah, Caleb refused, saying that he wore it because he is Jewish, according to his father, Steven Tanenbaum. “He said, Call my mother. My mother made this for me,” Tanenbaum told Patch.
But even when his parents explained the situation, the principal asked for a letter of justification by Monday.
“Instead of saying that’s fine, the principal wanted a letter from a rabbi,” Tanenbaum said. “Our word was not good enough? We’re his parents!”
“At that point, I was really upset,” he added.
Caleb was born in Israel, according to his father, and lately the 17-year-old had decided to identify more with his roots by again wearing the traditional Jewish kippah, also known as yarmulke. The kippah, his father said, is a solid, off-white color with no symbols or markings–nothing that would identify it as gang-related.
“All students are allowed to wear head wear according to their designated religion,” Principal Henry Johnson wrote in an email to Patch. “Because our students are not allowed to wear hats and other head gear at school, students are asked for verification when their religious headwear is not traditional headwear that we are accustomed to seeing.”
The Tanenbaums asked Rabbi Shlomo Buxbaum, the director of Aish DC, to write the letter for the school, which included the following: “I just wanted to verify that the Tanenbaums are a practicing Jewish family who attend services and wearing the Kippah is an important part of our tradition. I ask you, in the spirit of religious acceptance, to allow him to wear his Kippah in the school.”
Buxbaum told Patch that he has never seen this happen before.
Content is provided courtesy of the Patch.com
One hundred rabbis should send letters to the principal, with copies to each member of the school board. They should be sent via certified mail. And copies should be sent to the school board’s attorney (who will, no doubt, bill for his time).
When the school officials find that letting the kid wear a kippah is less bureaucratically burdensome than placing obstacles to wearing the kippah, they will let Jewish kids wear their kippot without any further hassle.
I suggest doing the “History of the World part 1” Verification. Remember Gregory Hines on the Ethiopian Shim Sham?
Dad said it’s not a gang related kippah because it’s solid white color. White color kippah belongs to the Reform and Nachman “gangs”; dad doesn’t know his Jewish-gang color coding for kippahs. 🙂
Kol hakavod to caleb, sad that u have to go through this but what a kiddush Hashem u are making by handling it so well.
The school system in Montgomery County and many other areas has a firm policy against any types of headwear. If Nat Lewin (who lives very close to the school in question) can argue before the Supreme Court without a yarmulke in deference to the court’s rules, why should this bochur be any different? If he is that frum, go to the nearby Hebrew Academy or CES/JDS.
They probably don’t get many requests like this – most kipah wearing kids are not in public school, so it is understandable they would be suspicious that the kid is just a rabble trousers
I wonder if the father wears one?
This is a beat up story about nothing. The principal wanted a letter from the Rabbi, so, perhaps the parents could have agreed, instead of making a big fuss, and end of story. Instead everyone is now angry. Admitted the principal should have believed the parents, but some humulity doesn’t goes astray.
… and it would behoove all of us to remember that. If a principal asks for a letter, it’s probably best to just provide the letter, without a public scene.
It seems to me he is BH a baal tshuva so its time for him to leave this school & go someplace frum.
Had I been the student I probably would have proved it to the principal right then & there… v’hamayvin yovin!!!
I think this is Hashems way of shaking the kid up so he realizes the thing he’s wearing on his head is not just a cool thing his mother knitted for him but something that means more. Maybe this will get him to ask some questions and switch to a Jewish school.
Okay, I am intimately involved in these kinds of situations. The principal is way off base. This principal needs to be severely disciplined.
In fact, one should not even have to identify with an organized religion in order to exercise their civil rights.
What’s the big deal to get a letter from a rabbi? If he needs to miss gym, for example, he’ll have to get a doctor’s note, they don’t just take the parents’ word for it. Why shouldn’t it be the same here?
Religion in the US is voluntary and personal. If a person says “this hat is part of my religion, then it is”.
My brothers wore kippot and tzitzit to public school. Our parents couldn’t afford yeshiva. My husband and I still can’t afford yeshiva and our children are homeschooled. If we could not homeschool, they would be in public school like the hundreds of other religious kids in our community including the children of some of the rabbis.
Maybe my siblings and I would have been better off if our parents had sent us away to Lakewood or Brooklyn. But maybe not since all of us are observant and with the exception of one of my nieces so are all our children, half of whom are now grown.
The principal should be asked to provide proof of his qualification as an educator
I’m pretty sure that this is the law in most public schools across the US. I know that this is definitely the policy NYC. There is no exception to the rule and I’m not sure why these people are appalled.
The Principal is way off base; if it were a Moslem student wearing headgear, he’d have his pants sued off.
When I was a kid I spent several years in public school, and after my bar-mitzva wanted to stop being maikil to go w/out a kappel. I wore a baseball cap in the halls so that I wouldn’t go 4 amos uncovered, and took it off when I sat down. The kids and teachers gave me a lot of grief about it until the principal realized why I was doing it and called me in. He gave me a whole “shmuess” about how the exemplary race relations in the school were a source of pride for them, and encouraged me to wear a yarmulke. He understood why I would be hesitant, and told me “if anyone gives you any trouble, you just come to me”. (The fact that he was a 6 foot 4 200+lb linebacker-built African-American who all the kids were terrified of made the offer seem pretty reliable!) I switched to a yarmulke, and from that point on the kids and the teachers never said another word, and were quite respectful about it.
If the principal here would use some of his educational training and common sense, he would see that the boy is sincere and just let it go.
Hopefully, he’ll move on to yeshiva, as I did.
The principal asked for a letter of justification from a rabbi.
To justify what?
a) That jews actually wear yarmulkas – was the principal born yesterday?
b) That the boy is actually jewish – isn’t this based on lineage and the parents say so?
c) That the boy is religious – isn’t this determined by every individuals state of mind?
I think the parents should demand a letter of justification from the principal as to his credentials of supervising educators. The principal’s demand was totally brainless and downright wrong.
According to law, if a citizen wants to wear a spaghetti strainer on her head as part of an homage to the ‘flying spaghetti monster’ religion, she has every right to the exercise of her religion. The school should be sued.
Some of the comments are very helpful and on target. However it’s hard not to notice the anger and negative tone of some of the posters. We are all in the same boat dealing with issues that Yidden had to deal with over the centuries. We are in Galus and surrounded by suspicion and worse. Let us, as fellow travelers in a hostile word, have some compassion for our brothers and sisters. Let us try to love one another rather than spew barbs at one another. In that zchus may we merit the coming of Moshiach B’ mheira Byamaynu.
Unfortunately, the story misstated the facts. They will be doing a followup story interviewing all the orthodox students in the school who have never had problems and never needed to bring in any notes. I know of a case where the school was ordering pizza for a group of students and this principal ordered kosher pizza just for the one or two orthodox students in the group.
Unlike the others, this student suddenly decided to wear a “kippah” but it was not a simple kippah. It was an oversized hat. The principal said that he had seen many differnet styles of kippot but he had never seen one like that one and that is why he asked for the note.
My son is one of his orthodox students and I know for a fact that he is one of the best and most tolerant people I know.