Israeli war tensions surface in Oak Park and River Forest School Board race

Chicago Tribune

02-04-2025

The West Cook Branch of the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America got involved at the last moments of the Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 School Board race by distributing a flyer attacking candidates Nate Mellman and Josh Gertz and also sending an email attacking Mellman and Gertz as well as three Oak Park Library Board candidates. The DSA also advocated for three of the four eventual winning candidates in the Library Board race in the email.
The DSA flier attacking Mellman and Gertz was dramatic and inflammatory. It focused on Mellman, who along with a number of others last year filed a complaint with the Illinois State Board of Education and state attorney general's office charging three teachers at OPRF, two of whom are the sponsors of the school's Middle Eastern and North African club, of condoning antisemitism. No action has been taken on that complaint.
On Election Day afternoon, a young man outside the main branch of the Oak Park Public Library — a polling place — was handing out flyers that included a cropped headshot of Mellman. The flier was headlined 'Israel-First Zionist Fanatic Nate Mellman Unfit to Serve on the D200 OPRF School Board.'
The one-page, 9×11 sheet of paper stated 'Can our diverse community trust an apartheid denialist?' and went on to criticize Mellman for trying to get three teachers fired, mentioning by name OPRF English teacher Dan Cohen, one of the advisors to the school's MENA club. The flyer said that Mellman tried to get Cohen, who is Jewish, fired for ideological reasons.
The flyer urged voters not to vote for Mellman or Gertz, and attempted to link the candidates to a 'right wing, Trumpist reaction dedicated to chilling, censoring and retaliating against speech that doesn't defer to the Israeli interests.' It did not suggest a vote for any other candidate.
Gertz and Mellman, who both are Jewish, ran as a slate in the School Board race and are currently in fourth and fifth place pending the counting of write in votes, provisional ballots and late arriving mail in votes. They were opposed by incumbents Fred Arkin and Audrey Williams-Lee who ran in a coalition with Kathleen Odell and write-in candidate David Schaafsma. Odell, who finished first, Williams-Lee and Arkin all appear certain to have won seats on the OPRF school board. It won't be known for approximately two weeks or more who won the fourth seat up for grabs Tuesday because the write-in votes for Schaafsma won't be counted until after all mail-in and provisional votes are counted. A spokeswoman for the Cook County clerk's office said the write-in votes won't be tallied until after April 15. The contest for the fourth seat seems to be between Gertz, who is currently 2,834 votes behind Arkin and 147 votes ahead of Mellman, and Schaafsma.
Mellman, an administrative law judge for the Social Security Administration, had a one word response after he saw a photo of the flyer on Election Night.
'Shocking!' Mellman said via text message.
Gertz, in a telephone interview Wednesday morning, was more loquacious.
'I find it to be really disheartening,' Gertz said. 'The whole campaign I've really tried to advocate for civility in public discourse and Nate deserves better than that. He's been a public servant his whole career and it was just inappropriate.'
When asked about the flyer on Election Night, Arkin and Odell said that they had not been aware of it until a photo of it was sent to them by Pioneer Press. After the flyer was posted on social media, the coalition of Odell, Williams-Lee, Arkin and Schaafsma strongly denounced its content.
'The race for the D200 board was contested, and voters made their choices based upon differences in approaches and perspectives on equity, safety, and financial discipline,' read the statement by the four coalition candidates. 'We were appalled to learn of the flyer, and find it deeply offensive and inappropriate. While we wait for the final results, we condemn this personal attack on a fellow candidate.'
In the final weeks of the campaign, some supporters of Mellman and Gertz highlighted social media activity by Schaafsma they suggested was antisemitic, including reposting and material that was critical of Israel and its actions in the wake of an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.
Before the election, Odell was extremely critical of those attempts to persuade people not to vote for Schaafsma and posted on the Activate Oak Park Facebook page about it.
Arkin and Williams-Lee also condemned 'the heinous assertion that candidate Dave Schaafsma condones the horrific October 7, 2023 attack on Israelis.'
'Working closely with Dave and getting to know him and his family over the past several months we know, of course, that this is not true,' their statement said.