A Pennsylvania school board has fired Lower Gwynedd Elementary School’s principal, Phillip Leddy, after a voicemail he left for a parent was recorded and shared on social media.
Leddy, 45, was on a call when the voicemail was dropped into the parent’s phone and the call was not properly ended. The recording, posted by the advocacy group StopAntisemitism, shows the principal alleging the parent had “Jew money” and repeatedly saying “they control the banks.” He also said, “They go to Jew camp… everyone at the camp hates that family.”
According to StopAntisemitism, the footage went viral on X (formerly Twitter). School officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The decision to terminate Leddy was made by the Wissahickon School Board on Tuesday. Parents in the district say the board’s actions are a way to avoid confronting longer‑standing concerns about antisemitism in the community.
Beth Ages, a parent with two children in the district, told the newsroom that the board sees “old‑school anti‑Semitism” as a simpler target than more modern forms, such as anti‑Zionist sentiment.
Some local parents have pointed to a mural at Wissahickon Middle School that includes images of figures such as Linda Sarsour—who stepped down from the Women’s March amid an antisemitism controversy and later apologized—and Japanese‑American civil‑rights activist Yuri Kochiyama, who once praised Osama Bin Laden.
Lydia Simone, another parent with two children in the district, said, “Jewish families are leaving in droves.”
Both Leddy and the district declined to give statements about the incident or the decision to fire him.
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