By Dan Murphy
Westchester State Senator Shelley Mayer held an online discussion on October 6 titled, Combating Antisemitism, Addressing and Preventing the Rise in Antisemitism. Panelists included Westchester DA Mimi Rocah, Scott Richman Regional Director, ADL, NY-NJ, and Tejash Sanchala, Executive Director, Westchester County Human Rights Commission.
Senator Mayer started off the discussion with an overall comment about the rise in antisemitism in Westchester County, New York State and across the country. “As a Jewish elected official, I believe this is an American problem. It’s not only a problem that Jews are targeted. It’s a problem when hate it so prevalent in our communities and exhibited through acts of violence, intimidation or anything else that gets in the way of our diverse communities.”
“Jews have been very much on the receiving end of anti-Semitism, but it has gotten much worse this year. This has caused me to say that we need to actually confront this and speak up, and find effective solutions to reduce anti-Semitism, and make clear that it is unacceptable,” said Sen. Mayer, who is Chair of the Senate Education Committee.
“We have a challenge to educate our children about anti-Semitism and all forms of hate, and we have not done a good job of that. NYS Education guidelines state that students must be taught about the inhumanities of genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust. They must be taught in school and students are to be taught at an early level. In Yonkers students are taught by hearing from Holocaust survivors. We need to make sure that these stories are told, and students have a personal connection, before a generation leaves us,” said Mayer.
Scott Richman explained that the ADL, Anti-Defamation League, tracks cases of Anti-Semitism and Hate Crimes. “We are living in a time of fear in the Jewish community and a rise in anti-Semitism. We began to see an uptick in 2011. In 2013, there were 1,000 antisemitic incidents; that number has doubled to over 2,000 in 2020. You would think that the number of incidents would have dropped significantly because of the lockdown, it did not. Why is this the case? Because antisemitism morphed, and found a way while we were in lockdown to spread through social media and became virtual,” said Richman, who said that 2019 had the highest number of antisemitic incidents in our region, and in 2021, incidents have risen by 75% due to the Israeli-Hamas conflicts in May.
“We have seen a marked increase in antisemitic incidents, and we are responding to each incident by reaching out to victims, law enforcement and government officials. There are 30 antisemitic incidents reported every week. And while these incidents are impacting the Jewish community, they are really impacting all of us. Hate impacts all of us, and if you tolerate one form of hate then you are tolerating all forms of hate,” said Richman who added that the ADL has tracked incidents of white supremacist propaganda in Westchester last year that included stickers and flyers placed across the county, including one incident where 200 flyers were dropped which read, “Have a Very White Christmas.”
The ADL also holds a program with local schools titled No Place for Hate, in which schools that engage students and staff in dialogue and active learning on the topics of bias, bullying and inclusion are given a banner to put outside their school.
Tejahsh Sanchala, explained the work of the Westchester County Human Rights Commission. The county recently passed a bill that expanded the scope of the human rights law to include discrimination against many aspects of daily life, including neighbor on neighbor harassment and street harassment. The Westchester Human Rights Commission will now be charged with the power to investigate and adjudicate the new law.
Sanchala outlined violations of the human rights law would include if an employer has a ‘no head covering policy’ or if an employee is subject to antisemitic comments in the workplace. “At the commission, we champion the message that viruses don’t discriminate. It has been reported that 15% of Jewish Americans under the age of 30 are black, Hispanic, Asian or multiple, non-white races. If you see an antisemitic or hate incident, the most important thing to do is report it to us, or the ADL, or the DA’s office.”
Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah explained that personally, “my father and his parents were Holocaust survivors from Romania.
“My office has not received a spike in the numbers but any one incident that happens creates an environment of fear. But it also creates an opportunity in law enforcement to show the positive side and support victims and the community and help build trust.”
“Acts of hate, and hate crimes are not necessarily the same thing. Hate crimes are some of the hardest crimes that we as prosecutors face to get enough evidence to prosecute. We need evidence that a crime occurred, but we also need to demonstrate that the perpetrator intentionally committed the crime because of a heightened element of intent.”
“In most of these cases, the victim can feel they were targeted but the evidence of showing and proving that isn’t as straight forward. We need to show the perpetrators bigoted beliefs. It’s hard to do but its out job to try and do it,” said Rocah.
Two recent instances that were not included in the forum, but we have reported on include antisemitic incidents in the Yorktown Department of Public Works when Eric DiBartolo was Superintendent that included Swastikas and the Nazi salute in front of a Jewish employee of the Town.
And in Briarcliff recently, The Proud Boys, which have been identified as a Hate Group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, held a protest rally in support of former President Donald Trump. And the founder of the Proud Boys, Gavin McInnes, lives in Larchmont.
