Responding to antisemitism

What can you do?

By Joel Pittelman, Antisemitism Task Force Chair, and Jeff Zalasky, Jewish Community Relations Committee Chair

The Greater Naples community is experiencing an alarming increase in antisemitic expression, just as we are seeing “climate change” toward intolerance of minorities throughout the nation.

Historically, in the U.S., the public schools have been a flash point for conflict among majority and minority students, parents and the school boards who govern. It is not surprising that in this moment of “climate change,” the Collier County Public Schools has become a breeding ground for antisemitism and a center of potential conflict for all minority populations.

During the public comment period of the May 3 meeting of the Collier County School Board, many speakers reflected the desire to include Christian faith and principles into the public education system. Many expressed the view that our nation’s problems arise from a lack of “traditional values,” a euphemism for Christian values. Public comments included a complaint that prayer has been “taken out” of public schools, and that the school superintendent should be a Christian. In an interview for school superintendent, one of the candidates said that many of today’s problems exist because so many people are “unchurched.”

The result of creating this climate of Christian “us” and faithless “them” is predictable. Rabbi Adam Miller, the senior rabbi at Temple Shalom, attended and spoke during the public comment period. As he left the meeting, he was verbally accosted in the parking lot by two individuals. Those two individuals shouted antisemitic statements because they opposed the views he expressed at the school board meeting. Closely following this incident, two other incidents were reported, both directing hatred toward those not of the Christian faith.

While our nation values freedom of speech and the right to express preferences, the Constitution also provides that governments can show no preference for any religion. Our courts have strictly interpreted this in the public school setting for the protection of our children. To show preference for one religion will stigmatize, separate and otherwise cause discrimination against children of minority faiths, or no faith, by their peers. History teaches us that this inevitably escalates to more serious incidents of discrimination.

We are very troubled by what appears to be a growing pattern in our community — an attempt to separate from, or ignore, anyone who does not embrace adherence to traditional Christian values and doctrine. We saw it clearly at the school board meeting and see it, alarmingly, in the increase of reported antisemitic incidents.

There are many wonderful people in the Greater Naples community. They would recoil at the knowledge that a new climate is encouraging hatred and discrimination. We have witnessed incidents where the community has come together when serious incidents require solidarity with minorities in their moments of need. These well-meaning people need only be made aware of the seriousness of the situation, and they will respond favorably.

Making people aware of this situation is what the Jewish community must accept as its immediate responsibility. We can make a significant impact on reversing this climate change of “We versus Them” by working with the non-Jewish community to address it.

Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council has been active in this work for years, but we need everyone’s involvement. Our work with, for example, the Inter-Faith Alliance, the CatholicJewish Dialogue, the NAACP and law enforcement is a good start, but it is not enough.

Get involved now!

Please join us by speaking up at other organizations, both Jewish and nonJewish, to let them know that quiet acceptance of what is happening will inevitably lead to serious incidents that we won’t want etched into the history of our community. Your voice, your involvement, your insistence on being heard, will help to reverse the climate of intolerance in our community.