Several months ago, (January 31, 2025) I wrote here explaining in great detail the false, pernicious, even diabolical narrative that Israel is perpetrating a genocide in Gaza. It was apparent to me then, and has only become clearer to me now, that those who platform the modern version of the blood libel are either adversaries acting with evil, hateful intent, or useful tools who parrot words without concern for truth or accuracy - words which endanger Jewish spaces and Jewish lives in ways not seen since the Holocaust.

These people aren’t only in far away places. They imbibe these libels, stalk Jews gathering in Washington DC and travel from Chicago to kill them. They gather inspiration from incitement in a dozen languages, and watch and plan as Jews march for the hostages every week in Boulder, then prepare firebombs and flamethrowers to incinerate them. And, yes, they live right here among us, spewing their bile on their social networks, using this intentional, inciteful terminology, like a local individual who uses the relatively new tool of Jew hatred known as Holocaust inversion, describing Israeli attempts to avoid even more unintended deaths in Gaza (and, yes, there are many, as there always are in war) as ‘concentration camps’. Will this person be satisfied by the next incident in which a Jewish person is targeted by someone motivated through their hateful language?

If you see something like this, report it. If you find that someone in a position of responsibility is allowing or encouraging this kind of incitement, address the source of that responsibility and demand action. If that person is abrogating their responsibilities and bringing their peers or an organization into disrepute through their vile intimidation of our targeted community, speak up.

On a larger scale, this week the NEA, the National Education Association, representing 3 million American teachers and other educators, passed a resolution at its national gathering determining to cut ties with the ADL, the Anti Defamation League, advising its membership to exclude any materials or support from them. The ADL has been providing educators with resources to counter hate and bias, to understand antisemitism, and to learn lessons from the Holocaust for decades. Now, because the ADL is supportive of Israel’s existence and right to defend itself from those who try to destroy it, malign actors worked at the gathering to engineer a vote with this outcome - to exclude Jews who value our identity and our peoplehood, who refuse to allow unrestrained hate to fester and grow. The matter has now been referred to the organization’s executive committee to determine how or if the organization will act on the resolution.

I am fortunate to have the partnership of the great professionals at ADL, people like Rabbi Yisroel Kahan and Scott Richman. Many teachers I know have worked closely with them for decades. I’ve worked with local school superintendents who are grappling with hate and antisemitism in their school boards who depend on their resources. And our local beneficiaries, great organizations like the Holocaust Museum and Center for Tolerance and Education, which educates tens of thousands of students each year, are proud partners with the ADL.

This quarantining of a vital educational resource by a national organization on the basis of its support for the Jewish state in the Jewish homeland is a slap in the face to each one of us. If it passes through the executive committee and the recommendation stands, our American Jewish community will need to act. At every level. Education is primarily a local and state mandate, so our work will be cut out for us. My ask today is this. Stand ready. There are 100,000 Jews in Rockland. We are a third of the electorate and the tax base. We are grateful for the support that our elected officials have provided for our security during these trying times. We may need to seek from them, from school administrators, teachers, NYS departments, and the office of the governor herself, support to counter this latest manifestation of Jew hatred.

Stand ready.

And, as you do, say a prayer of consolation for the families of the many brave soldiers of the IDF who have fallen in battle in recent weeks. Too many families bereaved. So much sacrifice and sorrow. May the Almighty comfort them among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.