JTA — A lesson on antisemitism went awry after the principal of a Boston-area middle school sent an obliquely worded apology letter to parents this week.

The incident at William Diamond Middle School in Lexington, Massachusetts, initially prompted some Jewish social media accounts and conservative US news outlets to conclude the principal, Dr. Johnny Cole, was apologizing for teaching about the Holocaust.

A local media outlet, however, reported Thursday that Cole’s apology was not related to the Holocaust at all. Rather, he had apologized for a lesson on modern-day antisemitism that the school had contracted a local third-party Jewish group to teach.

Following the lesson, the Lexington Observer reported that a dozen families had objected to the group’s use of material from the Blue Square Alliance, an antisemitism advocacy and monitoring organization, because its founder, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, is a prominent supporter of Israel. This prompted Cole to write “we are sorry” to students who, he wrote, “felt like your own history, your identity, or your community was left out or erased.”

Cole continued: “Every one of you deserves to walk into this school and feel that who you are matters — Arab students; Jewish students; Lebanese students; Muslim students; Palestinian students — every student.” Lexington Observer verified and published his apology.

The Boston Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) shed further light on the specifics of his apology.

“We now understand that the letter itself — which, as written, was deeply disturbing and offensive to many members of our Jewish community — was in fact poorly worded and not reflective of the facts and context,” the JCRC said in a statement shared with JTA.

Boston (Lexington), MA: William Diamond Middle School Principal Johnny Cole sent an email apologizing to Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, and Lebanese students who were offended by a mandatory Holocaust lesson. Advertisement if(typeof rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner != "function" || !rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner("#Article_Incontent1")){ window.tude = window.tude || { cmd: [] }; tude.cmd.push(function() { if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("rgbmedia-app") > -1){ tude.setDeviceType("mobile"); } tude.refreshAdsViaDivMappings([ { divId: 'Article_Incontent1', baseDivId: 'Article_Incontent1', } ]); }); } Since when is teaching historical fact something that requires an apology?… pic.twitter.com/kVyuUvMT0g — StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites)........

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