PHILADELPHIA — While their college freshman son was home for winter break, Jeff and Rachel Lobman put up a pink sign at the end of their Bala Cynwyd driveway with a message: “Jewish students deserve to be safe on campus.”

The sign, the Lobmans said, was meant as a show of support for their son, and other Jewish students who might be feeling hostility amid reports of antisemitism and protests on college campuses over Israel’s war in Gaza. “I don’t think it’s a controversial message,” Jeff Lobman said.

But soon, visibility of their sign was obstructed: first, by a wheelbarrow and dirt placed on one side of it. Then, after the Lobmans elevated it with a two-by-four, a Philadelphia Eagles sign appeared in front of it.

After the wheelbarrow appeared, the Lobmans say their neighbor, Lower Merion school board member Anna Shurak, who is also Jewish, emailed them on Jan. 21 and acknowledged blocking the sign, which she said “was frightening children in the neighborhood,” Jeff Lobman told the Lower Merion board of commissioners at a meeting Wednesday. The Lobmans shared a copy of the email with The Philadelphia Inquirer.

A few days later, the Lobmans said, Shurak put a sign in her own yard that read “We believe Black Lives Matter,” followed by a number of other statements.

“The net effect of Anna’s actions were to diminish our free speech and convey that her message is worthwhile, while ours is not,” Jeff Lobman told the commissioners.

In an email Sunday, Shurak said the Lobmans’ statements were “not correct,” but declined to specify what was inaccurate. (In her email to the Lobmans, Shurak had said she placed the wheelbarrow and dirt in front of the sign. She said she is proud of her Jewish identity and cares about keeping Jewish students safe, and asked if they could take it down for the sake of children who “feel confused or scared by the message.”)

The Lobmans “erroneously represented the situation to advance their own personal political agenda for the upcoming school board endorsement process,” said Shurak, whose seat will be up for election this fall.

In a Facebook post she shared Monday, Shurak said that “I unequivocally stand against and advocate against antisemitism.” She said she supports the “message of the sign that my neighbors have in their yard,” but “this is not simply an issue of a sign and there is much more to this situation.” Shurak said that “not every child is alike and how certain situations manifest for individual children may be very different depending on their unique challenges and gifts.”

She also said she “absolutely did not put up a 'we believe' sign in response to their sign,” and had displayed the same sign in her yard for years.

The dispute comes as the Lower Merion school board has faced increased pressure from Jewish parents over its response to antisemitism, including during a fall debate around the district’s equity policy. During that conversation, Shurak said that being Jewish hadn’t precluded her from experiencing white privilege, remarks that drew backlash from some Jewish parents. Some parents have described incidents faced by their children while calling on the district to prioritize antisemitism training.

The Lobmans, who have a child in private school, say they weren’t aware of the debate in the Lower Merion district around antisemitism until attending a recent community meeting about Jewish students not feeling safe in district schools.

Realizing that people were “worried about the board” and its handling of antisemitism, the Lobmans said they then moved their sign so it wasn’t next to Shurak’s property. “We understand how she was interpreting it,” Jeff Lobman said in a phone call Sunday, though he said the couple hadn’t spoken to Shurak, beyond receiving her email. Lobman also acknowledged that Shurak had displayed a sign similar to the “We believe” sign on previous occasions, before this dispute.

He said he then contacted Gilda Kramer, a member of the Lower Merion board of commissioners, asking if the local Democratic committee — Kramer is a committeeperson — planned to endorse Shurak for reelection.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Jeff Lobman said that Kramer called him and his wife, “in her official capacity,” and “asked us to make modifications to our sign … Our conversation was invasive and disturbing.”

Addressing the Lobmans on Wednesday, Kramer told them she had called them “in order to try to help resolve a dispute among neighbors over the placement of a sign right on the border of the property that was upsetting and disturbing the children of your neighbor.”

“I am pleased that … over time, you and your neighbor were able to resolve this issue,” Kramer said.

In an email Monday, Kramer said, “My attempt to mediate a dispute between neighbors over the location of a sign did not infringe on any First Amendment rights.” She said she had sought to mediate over the location of the sign, “not its content,” and told the Lobmans that “I, like Anna Shurak, am also Jewish and shared their concerns about anti-Semitism on campuses.”

As for whether she would support Shurak for endorsement by the local Democratic party, “I said that I did not even know yet who were the candidates for endorsement,” Kramer said.

Lobman said he went to the commissioners meeting because he felt Shurak and Kramer’s actions were wrong. He cited the commissioners’ code of ethics, which he accused Kramer of violating.

“Government officials shouldn’t be telling us where to put signs,” he said. “It’s censorship.”

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