Investigation into New Jersey high school yearbook ‘mistake’ concludes he was not anti-Semitic

An independent investigator concluded that the misprint of a photo of Muslim students instead of the Jewish Student Union in the yearbook of a New Jersey high school was “not intentional but rather a highly regrettable error.”

The controversy at East Brunswick High School was one of several yearbook incidents that had worried Jewish parents in recent monthsas school yearbook editors sought to capture a year of toxic dialogue surrounding the war between Israel and Hamas. Many observers, including the local Jewish association and the Jewish mayor of East Brunswick, said they feared the image swap was anti-Semitic in nature.

Shortly after the school attracted national attention, the East Brunswick school board recalled the school’s yearbooks and announced an independent investigation led by attorney Yaakov Brisman, a law graduate from Yeshiva University. The findings, released this week, concluded that the chief yearbook adviser — “an experienced educator” — made a “negligent at best” error that was not prompted by “any racial, religious or political hostility toward Jewish or Muslim students,” Brisman wrote.

“She should have paid more attention to detail in selecting the photo,” Brisman wrote of the photo error, which also left out the names of the Jewish students in the club. “She admittedly only ‘assumed’ it was the right photo. There are clearly several students in the photo who are identifiable as Muslims. Even taking into account the diversity of the students, this should have led to greater awareness.”

The photos of the Jewish and Muslim student clubs, according to the report, were grouped in the same folder under the same keywords. The Jewish Student Association also did not provide the yearbook editors with the names of its student members when asked.

Both the superintendent and the board president said they would advocate for changes and greater oversight of the yearbook.

“While I am grateful that the results of this investigation show that these actions were serious errors without malicious intent, we must now focus on repairing the deep pain and division that has been created in our school and community,” Superintendent Victor Valeski said in a press release.