Rabbi Spero was interviewed on July 2nd by FOX NEWS regarding the terrible stabbing by Khaled Awad of a Chabad rabbi near
Boston. Among Rabbi Spero’s remarks are the quotes below:
“Rabbi Aryeh Spero, the president of the Conference of Jewish Affairs, told FOX NEWS Thursday’s attack was not isolated.
He cited recent assaults on Jews in Los Angeles and other cities.
” ‘There is a climate of more than just verbal anti-Semitism,’ he told Fox News. ‘It is evolving into physical attacks with
the intent of killing people who are Jewish. Conspicuously Jewish. And that just doesn’t come out of thin air.’”
In remarks with other media outlets, Rabbi Spero emphasized: “In order to fight anti-
Semitism, the media and politicians must be willing to spotlight the background of the
perpetrator, even though many refuse to do so out of political correctness. And that is
because most often the individual perpetrator is influenced by the rhetoric, sermons, or
invective reverberating through the particular environment from which spawns the
perpetrator.
“The purpose of spotlighting the community is to pressure leaders of those communities,
including minority communities, to begin rolling back the anti-Jewish and anti-Israel
incendiary speech and activities that fuel attacks against Jewish-looking individuals. It is
very easy in today’s society to call out the anti-Semitism of the rightwing neo-Nazis. It is
much more difficult, however, to call out the anti-Semitism coming from those minority
groups the media and politicians are unwilling to hold accountable out of fear of being
called a “racist” or “phobic.”
We at the Conference of Jewish Affairs will speak the truths that must be spoken; for only
the truth will do the job needed to protect Jewish people and to defend America. The fate
of the Jewish people depends on a strong America, not by transforming it and knocking it
down, but by affirming it and raising high the historic American Judeo-Christian values
and outlook.
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