The names and photos of the students in a New Jersey high school Jewish club were cut from the 2024 edition of the East Brunswick High School yearbook in what the town’s mayor has called a “blatant antisemitic act.”

According to the New York Post, there was a blank space where the names of the high school’s Jewish Student Union members should have gone and a picture of Muslim students where the club’s group photo was supposed to be.

“Hate has no place in East Brunswick and antisemitism will not be tolerated,” Mayor Brad Cohen said in a statement, adding that those found responsible could be facing hate-crime charges.

A member of the Jewish student club, who was granted anonymity by the Post, said she and other senior members were thrilled to receive their yearbooks, until they found they had been edited out.

“We were shocked and disturbed when we got up to our page and saw what happened,” she said. “It was disappointing, and it feels like they were trying to take our identity away from us.”

The student said she was at a loss as to why the club, which has about 50 members, would be targeted and joined Cohen in demanding accountability. Any teacher involved should be disciplined or terminated and any student should not be able to attend prom or graduation, she said.

In an email to the community, East Brunswick Superintendent of Schools Victor Valeski said the district is investigating the “error” and working with the publishers to get the yearbook corrected and reprinted.

“We deeply apologize for this error and the disappointment it has caused,” Valeski wrote. “Thank you for your understanding and patience as we work expeditiously to rectify this situation.”

Yearbook faculty adviser Brittany VanDyke sent a letter to the yearbook club members about the “mistake not caught in editing and printed unintentionally,” the Post reported.

“We know what happened, we know our truth and we are working hard to rectify this situation immediately,” VanDyke said.

East Brunswick Jewish Center leaders Christine Mahler and Jack Goldberg told the Post that they were “shocked and appalled” by the omission of the Jewish club students from the yearbook.

“We have a very prominent Jewish community in East Brunswick, and everyone is very upset by what happened at the high school,” Goldberg said. “We’ve never had anything like this happen before.”

“We stand with the mayor’s office and our fellow synagogues in demanding a response from the district,” Mahler added. “We don’t want to pre-emptively pass judgment, but we need answers.

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