Letter: Who speaks for the Jewish community?

Posted 2/18/21

To the editor:

In response to the Feb 5, letter, “Coalition does not speak for Jewish community”:

RI Coalition for Israel (www.ricoalitionforisrael.org) is an organization of …

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Letter: Who speaks for the Jewish community?

Posted

To the editor:

In response to the Feb 5, letter, “Coalition does not speak for Jewish community”:

RI Coalition for Israel (www.ricoalitionforisrael.org) is an organization of pro-Israel Christians and Jews. It does not claim to speak for the entire Jewish community. There is an unfortunate divide in the Jewish community which mirrors the national scene.

RICI fully supports the Black community and condemns racism. However, RICI cannot support the BLM Movement as it is constituted because its leadership and charter clearly articulate anti-Semitic positions. We have seen protest in our own capital city with anti-Semitic chants. RICI believes that anti-Semitism has no place in the anti-racism movement.

By speaking out at the Feb. 1 public hearing, many Jewish residents of Barrington joined RICI’s request for the BLM Movement flag to be removed from the town/veterans flagpole.  Undeniably RICI speaks for at least some in the Barrington Jewish community on this issue.

Delegitimizing our interfaith organization which is deeply rooted in traditional Judeo-Christian values does not resolve the problem posed by flying a movement flag that is offensive, or even threatening, to a minority in the community.

Famed liberal lawyer Alan Dershowitz has written, "...we must not become complicit in the promotion of antisemitism just because we agree with the rest of the Black Lives Matter program…To give Black Lives Matter a pass on its anti-Jewish bigotry would be to engage in racism. Black antisemitism is as inexcusable as white antisemitism or white racism. There can be no double standard when it comes to bigotry."

Howard Brown

North Kingstown

Mr. Brown is RI Coalition for Israel Executive Director.

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