As many of you now know, several days ago on August 9th, a sermon was given at a local mosque by an individual who was not the Imam or a regular speaker. The sermon was live streamed and uploaded to the website of the mosque. The speaker began in English, but when he continued in Arabic, the language and content of the sermon became hateful and violent. Among the several vile things said about Jews was ‘Oh Allah, Destroy the Zionist Jews!’ This language was clearly threatening to our community.

The video was found online several days later by an organization called MEMRI.org, which for over two decades has found, verifiably translated, and exposed material which is hateful and sometimes criminal in the context of antisemitism and hatred of Israel. They are the subject matter experts in this work. They published the video and a translation on their site.

Our Federation was made aware of this in subsequent days. We swiftly communicated our concerns in conversation with local government and law enforcement, followed established protocols on evaluating any threat, and we began to formulate a response. Both our Rockland Community Security Initiative and our Board and Community Relations Committee leadership were involved in a comprehensive response. We reached out to include our partners at the Anti Defamation League (ADL) as well as our local Board of Rabbis (BoR) of a diverse group of synagogues and temples, several of whom had worked with this mosque in the past on joint programs helping the vulnerable. Together we crafted a statement defining our expectations of what the mosque needed to do immediately to begin to rectify this situation. We also considered next steps if they did not do so.

Ahead of last Shabbat, the material had not been widely viewed or circulated, and on Friday evening, the mosque was prevailed upon to take the video off of their website. Subsequent to Shabbat, the video on the MEMRI site was circulated by a number of accounts on social media and it was seen by tens of thousands of people. Over Saturday night and Sunday morning, we were in communication with officials at every level of government, including local, state and federal.

Early Sunday morning, as planned, one of our partners with the Board of Rabbis, who had worked with the mosque before, reached out and made clear to officials at the mosque what the Jewish community expected. Local government and law enforcement also continued their conversations and investigation. Indications were then seen that a retraction and apology were forthcoming. Our statement, which can currently be seen on our Facebook and X pages, conveyed our message and expectation on Sunday midday. We thank the offices of the Supervisor, County Human Rights Commissioner, State Senator, and Congressman who coordinated with us.

By Sunday evening, the mosque put out a statement which went a long way to addressing the concerns of our community. It contained an apology, a denunciation of the antisemitic nature of the remarks, and a dissociation of the board and the mosque from the words of the speaker. An opportunity now exists to convey our community’s grave concerns in greater detail, establish a useful, effective dialogue, and rebuild trust.

It is important to note several things.

• The security of our community and its institutions remains our highest priority especially now, and it was of paramount importance in this situation as well.
• Cooperation and collaboration always bears fruit, and we are grateful for our partners at the BoR and ADL, as well as in government and law enforcement.
• As I’ve said publicly many times, Our community is best served in confronting antisemitism when, within our own red lines, we extend one hand for dialogue and bringing the temperature down (offering an ‘off-ramp’ if you will), while at the same time with the other hand preparing to bring all necessary legal, legislative, social, and law enforcement tools to bear if the off ramp is not taken.

Though the mosque should have taken the initiative instead of responding after many days, their statement was clear, regretful, and without equivocation. A starting point for repair.

There are additional elements of this kind of work that we don’t talk about and won’t publicize, but I’ve given you an insight into ‘how we make the sausage’ that you probably haven’t seen before at this level of detail. All of this takes time, skill, effective communication, trust built with allies and partners, and above all, resources.

As we launch into our Community Campaign for 2025, You can count on us at Federation to work tirelessly to safeguard the community and confront antisemitism.

Can we count on you to support our vital work?