Jewish Parents Object to Symbols of ‘Spring’ at School

According to some Jewish parents--and their kindergarten children--it is beginning to look a lot like Easter at El Rincon Elementary School in Culver City, and they don’t like it.

In a letter sent home last week, parents were asked to create a hat for a parade scheduled for Friday and to send in goodies for an Easter basket and eggs for an egg hunt. Friday also is Grandparents’ Day at the public school, where one-third of the enrollment is Jewish.

Advised that some grandparents might not be happy about it, especially since the spring holidays historically have been tense times between Jews and Christians, Principal Bill Peterson responded by rescheduling the parade and egg hunt for later in the day.

These are spring bonnets, he stressed, spring eggs and a spring parade.

“We’re certainly not teaching religion,” he said. “It has nothing to do with Christianity and Easter. It’s all secular. It’s kind of a traditional thing every year, and it has nothing to do with race or religion. It’s the cultural ethnicity of our own country.”

Not good enough, said the disgruntled parents, who did not want their names in the newspaper, although they hoped that the publicity would force the Culver City Unified School District to think about the issue. Bonnets, bunnies, eggs and parades all add up to Easter, they said.

“My daughter didn’t even want to do an Easter basket,” one said. “She said, ‘We’re Jewish and I don’t want to do that.’ ”

Said another, “Some parents said, ‘This is a Christian country, what do you expect,’ but I said: ‘That’s not right. This is the United States and there’s a separation of church and state.’ ”

And what about Passover? the parents asked. Is Passover chopped liver?

In fact, Peterson responded, Passover was the theme of the day in a kindergarten class last week.

“We’re not trying to be insensitive to the Jewish faith at all,” he said. With the school’s 640 children coming from many different backgrounds, including 26 language groups, the staff thinks that it is important to reflect as many cultures as it can, he said.

“It’s just a fun activity,” added Vera Jashni, deputy superintendent of the school district.

Acknowledging that the use of the word Easter in the flyer may have been unfortunate, she said that kindergartners at El Rincon have been looking at the springtime rites of several cultures.

“We’re trying to make children aware of many customs, but the egg hunt has nothing to do with a religion,” she said. “The teachers have done it for a few years and never thought it would be insulting, and it’s something we’re going to look at.”