Wayland HRDEI committee endorses facilitated dialogue on swastika debate

WAYLAND -- June 17, 2025, Wayland HRDEI committee unanimously endorses facilitated dialogue between Jewish and South Asian residents over swastika dispute. The 8-0 vote, requested by Select Board member Doug Levine and conflict-management professional Elizabeth, backs a three-phase project to be led by Cambridge-based Essential Partners after two anti-Semitic vandalism incidents in town, most recently in March 2025. Levine said the issue is "deeply unresolved" and warned against being "behind the eight ball" before the next incident; Elizabeth said the work would also "build capacity among the cohorts" for future local conflicts. Member Mei-Ling Ellermann pressed organizers on the Israeli-Palestinian "elephant in the room" and possible inclusion of Wayland's Muslim community in later phases. The committee separately voted to co-sponsor a July 1 reading of Frederick Douglass's "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?", a September Good Neighbor Day at the library, and an October community conversation with Middlesex DA Marian Ryan on hate crimes.