Beverly Mayor, City Council Sign Proclamation Against Antisemitism

BEVERLY, MA — The Beverly City Council this week unanimously signed a proclamation supporting a "working definition" of antisemitism, as presented by Mayor Mike Cahill, condemning antisemitic behavior in all of its forms in the city.

The proclamation comes amid rising cases of antisemitic speech and actions on the North Shore in recent months — including the unfurling of a banner by a group of 10 mask-wearing people on the Route 114 overpass in Danvers this fall blaming Jewish people for the 9-11 terrorist attacks on America — as well as the promotion of antisemitic rhetoric among pop culture and professional sports personalities.

"Antisemitism is a problem in American and Massachusetts communities," Cahill said in bringing the proclamation before the City Council Monday night. "Swastika graffiti and antisemitic sentiments are found in schools, on public property, on college campuses, in the workplace and on social media.

"The holocaust, where Hitler and Nazi Germany perpetrated the mass murder of more than six million European Jews, was fueled by antisemitism. It is essential to do a better job educating people about the holocaust and the dangers of antisemitism."

Cahill cited the statistic that 2.4 percent of all American adults are Jewish, and yet nearly 60 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes in America are committed against Jewish individuals, as the need for such an acknowledgment of prevalent antisemitism and to support Jewish friends and neighbors.

The proclamation supports the "working definition" of antisemitism as established by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which includes demands to speak out against bigotry, racism and hatred and states that "antisemitism threatens public life, the media, schools, the workplace and the religious sphere."

The working definition endorsed declares that contemporary manifestations of antisemitism include "holocaust distortion or denial, prejudice against Jews and the denial of Israel's right to exist."

The proclamation urges all Beverly residents to be cognizant of antisemitism in the city and the threat that it poses to the community.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)