Bay Area Jewish schools urge parents to limit social media due to war in Gaza

Some Bay Area Jewish schools have urged parents to put a pause on their students’ social media usage amid fears that teens would be exposed to images from the war in Gaza, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Because the militant group Hamas could release footage of the 150 civilian hostages captured in Israel, the Brandeis School of San Francisco and Jewish Community High School of the Bay asked parents to consider deleting social media apps and finding ways to minimize students’ social media usage, according to the Chronicle.

Also in the Bay Area, Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto limited student access to some news and social media sites on its student network, head of school Rabbi Daniel Lehmann told the Chronicle. Lehmann also said the school encouraged  parents to make “thoughtful, discerning decisions” about their children’s access to potentially “disturbing” imagery of the war.

“There is a point at which graphic imagery is paralyzing or traumatizing,” Rabbi Howard Jacoby Ruben, head of school at the Jewish Community High School of the Bay, and counselor Julie Beck wrote in a message to parents this week, the Chronicle reported.