Will a new antisemitism task force do any good?

                                                                                       

Hempstead Supervisor Don Clavin and new town anti-semitism task force


Is anyone not horrified by the growing antisemitism that has been publicly displayed --usually by protestors who hide their identities behind masks and keffiyehs -- on college campuses and city streets since Oct. 7 -- when Hamas terrorists massacred 1,200 Israeli civilians while taking more than 200 men, women and children hostage?

Sure, there has always been antisemitism. But for decades. after the the World War II holocaust, the slurs were whispered behind closed doors or in private sanctums. It wasn't acceptable to be publicly anti-Jewish or to oppose the existence of Israel.

But it's as though the gruesome Oct. 7 attack made Jewish hatred acceptable again as pro-Hamas, anti-Israel rallies fill streets and campuses.

Matthew Schweber, a lawyer with the Columbia University Jewish Alumni Association, told the New York Post that the pro-Palestinian and Pro-Hamas movement in the city is the “modern manifestation of the Ku Klux Klan.”

Members of the Klu Klux Klan, an American-bred terrorist group that targeted mostly Black Americans after the U.S. Civil War, also hid their identities with hoods covering their faces -- until many states made such Klan face coverings illegal.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Jewish Republican,  and the Republican majority on the county legislature have again banned mask wearing in public except for medical or religious reasons, but civil rights activists contend the ban violates free speech and puts the medically vulnerable at risk.

Political leaders, including President Joe Biden, have condemned the rising antisemitism, but little seems to dispel the anti-Jewish vituperation. 

Last week, Hempstead Town supervisor Don Clavin announced the formation of a town-sponsored antisemitism task force, described in a news release as "a collection of community and spiritual leaders who will identify emerging trends and proactively combat antisemitism through education and community outreach."

The release noted that Hempstead Town 'is home to the second largest Jewish population in the country,
second only to the neighboring New York City."

Nassau County also created an antisemitism task force in 2021 at the urging of Legis. Arnold Drucker, a Jewish Democrat from Plainview. It was signed into law by then County Executive Laura Curran. It had an April 2022 deadline for submitting a report about antisemitism in Nassau, 

But Blakeman, Curran's successor, in January 2022 amended the make up of the task force to make himself chairman and expanded its membership. The April 2022 report deadline was dropped. If the task force has produced any public reports, none has been publicized.

Asked if the new Hempstead task force would actually do anything, a Clavin spokesman said, "The task force, which will be filled with community leaders, elected officials and spiritual leaders, will hold educational seminars, historical education programs, public forums, etc. in the coming months. Education and community outreach will be the key for the task force."

So let's see what happens.

                                                                                           





                                                                                       \


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nassau CSEA contract deal -- talk of the county for two days -- finally announced (UPDATED)

Image
Talk around Nassau County for the past two days has been that Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman had struck a new labor agreement, signed Monday, with the county's largest union, the Nassau Civil Service Employees Association. The CSEA, which include most non-law enforcement county employees, has been working without a contract since the end of 2017. As of June, there were 3,359 fulltime CSEA members. An announcement went out late today but it didn't say much: A spokesman for Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman did not respond to an email today asking when the CSEA deal would be announced. Everyone is looking at the CSEA because exempt employees -- county workers who are hired and fired at will -- traditionally are given the same benefits as the union members. But the exempts are not happy with some of the rumors about the agreement: one is that the CSEA will take a lesser health insurance plan in return for an upfront payment, perhaps of $1,500, for each member....
Read more

Democrat lawyer prepares to challenge Donnelly for Nassau DA

Image
                                                                               From Aloise Linked in Post A female Democratic lawyer backed by former Democratic Congresswoman and former Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice is trying to gather support to make a run against Republican District Attorney Anne Donnelly next year. Nicole Aloise, the daughter of a prominent New York City judge,  has a fundraiser scheduled  tomorrow night at the Garden City home of developer Peter Florey, president of the New York State Builders Association. Tickets range from in price from $250 to $20,000. Aloise says in a post announcing her campaign on Linked In that she has been a prosecutor in both the Nassau and Queens District Attorney offices. A quick internet search shows no other runs for poli...
Read more

Local Nassau CSEA president and VP kicked out by state union

Image
                                                                               Nassau CSEA poster truck in Long Beach earlier this month                    Nassau CSEA Local 830 president Ron Gurrieri and vice president Bob Arciello were removed from their union positions today following an angry month-long public fight with Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman over health insurance. State CSEA president Mary Sullivan notified members in a letter today that she had removed Gurrieri and Arciello, explaining the...
Read more