IN LIGHT OF UPSURGE IN ANTI-SEMITIC RHETORIC AND VIOLENT PHYSICAL ATTACKS ON JEWS, RABBI SPERO DELIVERS POWERFUL, NO-NONSENSE ADDRESS AT NEW YORK CITY HALL RALLY
CALLS OUT DEBLASIO AND CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS FOR INACTION
September 23, 2019 –- Conference of Jewish Affairs spokesman Rabbi Aryeh Spero addressed the “Name It to Fight It: It’s Anti-Semitism” rally at New York City Hall yesterday. Among his hard-hitting remarks he made the following points:
“It’s not enough for Jews to expect others to fight for them. Even political office holders are temporary. WE have to fight for ourselves. We Jews need to carry an aura of self-respect, an aura of self-value that will let would-be perpetrators know that this time Jews will fight back.”
“Where is the establishment Jewish leadership, bloated with staff and funds, while these attacks keep coming, escalating by the week and hurting a greater and larger segment of our people? Evidently, photo-ops, endless high-powered lunches, and bland statements ‘against hate and racism’ are not solving the problem. These are specific attacks against Jews as Jews.”
3. “Simply being the head of a well-heeled organization may not constitute real leadership. Perhaps our top bureaucrats aren’t willing to face and pinpoint the real problem. The grassroots Jewish activists and people know what is happening, can’t be fooled, and are energized to do what the establishment is unwilling to do.”
“We have heard the attackers shout ‘Allahu Akhbar’; we have seen the videos of young black men doing the attacks, young Hispanic men as well. These are the facts, and they can’t be denied nor silenced by calling those pointing these things out as ‘racists’. To remedy a problem and a sickness, one has to be honest and name it.”
“It’s time that black leaders, Hispanic and Muslim leaders acknowledged the problem within parts of their community, condemn it, and resolve to stop those within their communities who are teaching this anti-Semitism. Not simply teach against “hate” in general, but specifically against anti-Semitism. We Jews were there for minorities, for decades, now they must be equally eager to help us by rooting out this anti-Semitism in their communities.”
6.. “We have talked to people high-up in NYC and elsewhere and they claim that all anti-Semitism is coming from the right and, by extension, Donald Trump. That is absolutely false. These attacks in Brooklyn are not coming from Trump supporters, they are not coming from Evangelical Christians, nor political conservatives. They are coming from members of groups associated and tied to Left coalitions.”
“Jews are the first to protest with rallies and provide funds for initiatives when minorities are discriminated against. They invoke how this is a ‘stain on the entire society’. They call this our Jewish values. Where are they now that this is happening against fellow Jews? I don’t see the passion, the crowds, the sense of guilt, the funding, the zeal. Liberal Jews need to remember that a core Jewish value is Jewish life, Jewish survival, Jewish security, and Jewish equality to walk through the streets safely.”
“We see the liberal Jewish community speak of the anti-Semitic acts coming from the Right, but, beyond lip service, they seem hardly aware, frightened, or angered by the overwhelming anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism coming from powerful Left wing consortiums. No doubt, they are allowing politics to cloud their fight against anti-Semitism. Many are also naive, dangerously naive about the new Left.”
“There are about 35 Jewish members in Congress. Where are they to speak out against the leftwing anti-Semitism in their midst and condemn attacks on Jews from minorities and the leftwing? Where are Chuck Schumer, Eliot Engle, and Nita Lowey regarding Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez as well as what is happening in their home state of New York? Why does Eliot Engle allow Omar to keep serving on his committee? They seem to be choosing their loyalty to the Democrat party, liberalism, and even their careers over the need of the hour regarding Jewish safety. Steve Cohen (Tennessee), Jan Schakowsky (Chicago,) Adam Schiff in Los Angeles, Steve Yarmoth (Kentucky), who are all so quick to call President Trump a racist or anti-Semite, have not condemned Omar, Tlaib, or Ocasio-Cortez, real anti-Semites.”