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Friday, July 16, 2021
Vol. 9, No. 29
SCHOOLS & EDUCATION
TOWN APPLICATIONS DELAYED
50% SUCCEED CHALLENGING ASSESSMENTS
PAGE 21-28
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Way forward unclear after speech furor Members of EWSD community search for path to reduce tensions BY S A M U E L E PETRUCCELLI Nearly five weeks after a Wheatley School student’s graduation address set off a furor inside and outside East Williston, community leaders and parents have differing views about how to move forward. Tensions ran high after the Old Westbury high school’s commencement ceremony when the speaker, Huda Ayaz, was confronted by an adult who shouted, “Go back to Pakistan,” according to Ahmed M. Mohamed, legal director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Aggravation also spilled over at a school board meeting last Tuesday, during which officials would neither condemn nor condone the contents of the speech. Michael Stanger, rabbi of the Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation, was on vacation during the height of reactions to the speech. He heard from congregants be-
fore and after his return home who were troubled by the address in which Ayaz referred to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as an ethnic cleansing. “You can’t un-ring a bell, unfortunately,” Stanger said. “What she said, she said. What some of the people said in response, appropriate or not, was said,” he added, condemning the adult who shouted the xenophobic remark at Ayaz. Though it’s clear the temperature of residents runs high, there is no easy way to cool it down. But Stanger argued that discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might not be the best place to begin the process of restoring community ties. “You’re going to have to start from a different place,” Stanger said. “I think you’re going to have to start from a safer place and maybe that means starting from an understanding of religion and culture.” Continued on Page 34
PHOTO COURTESY OF KAREN RUBIN/NEWS-PHOTOS-FEATURES.COM
Northwell Health nurse and Port Washington resident Sandra Lindsay was the grand marshal of a ticker-tape parade honoring New York’s health-care workers on Wednesday. See story on page 2.
New foundation work on Grist Mill set to start BY R OB E RT PELAEZ
tions, Roslyn Landmark Society Board President Howard Kroplick said. The funding will allow Renovations to the Roslyn Grist Mill will begin later this for a new foundation to be month thanks to $350,000 in constructed, which will then community and private dona- permit the restored and new
timbers to be re-erected. This is part of the effort that returned the building to street level. Kroplick discussed the benefits that the restored structure will provide to the community Continued on Page 35
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