Westchester clergy and officials who gathered Tuesday to combat hate spoke of a common theme: that getting to know our neighbors and honoring our differences is the only way to fight the hatred, bias, extremism, and acts of violence that have become commonplace in recent years.
The second-annual event was sponsored by the Westchester County Human Rights Commission, the Westchester Jewish Council and the UJA-Federation of New York.
Speaking in the chambers of the Westchester County Board of Legislators in White Plains, Imam Shafieq Chase of the Westchester Muslim Center in Mount Vernon pointed out that as the gathering was taking place, the trial of the man accused in the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh was being held.
Rabbi Evan Hoffman, chairman of the Westchester Board of Rabbis, said, “Our mission is to avoid the hate, by open communication, and not just feelings of neutrality, but feelings of love.”
In its annual audit of antisemitic incidents, which tracks incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault in the United States, the Anti-Defamation League reported 3,697 antisemitic incidents in 2022, a 36% increase from 2021. The 2022 figures were the highest since the ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979.
Speakers pointed to acts of bias against Jews, Muslims, Asians, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community, in calling for better communication among diverse populations, starting with children. They encouraged restorative justice for youthful, non-violent hate crime offenders.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James attended the gathering, saying “By standing together, we can banish hatred and intolerance, and instead embrace our shared humanity, and revel in our beautiful diversity.”
Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah said that a lesson she learned from her father, a Holocaust survivor, was that “hate against one community is really an attack on every community. I never lose sight of the…
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