Young Livingston Resident Joins Sherrill At Anti-Semitism Roundtable In Caldwell

LIVINGSTON, NJ — Rep. Mikie Sherrill recently joined local rabbis and other concerned citizens — including recent University of Michigran graduate Alexa Smith of Livingston — to talk about an increase in anti-Jewish incidents across the country.

Sherrill (NJ-11th District) and others held the discussion at Congregation Agudath Israel in Caldwell.

Smith was there because she had faced anti-semitism while attending the University of Michigan. In a well-documented incident, a slide shown at a college lecture compared Israel's prime minister to Hitler. After Smith posted the image on social media in 2018, it brought her media attention.

In 2020, the Anti-Defamation League recorded 2,024 reported anti-semitic incidents throughout the United States, making it the third highest year since they began tracking incidents in 1979, Sherrill's office said. New Jersey reported the second highest number of incidents in 2020, with 295.

“For years, we’ve witnessed a rise in right-wing, violent extremism, including a troubling increase in anti-semitism here in New Jersey and across the country," Sherrill said. "This has shaken members of our community to their core. Whether we’re discussing steps we can take in our schools, at the local level, or through federal legislation, we must do more to make it clear that anti-semitism has no place here.”

Alexa Smith said, “As a constituent who experienced anti-semitism on a college campus, I appreciate your interest in working in a bipartisan effort to support all students at public universities who experience racism or discrimination.”

Sherrill has been part of a bipartisan effort to increase Holocaust education in college.

“Combating anti-Semitism requires a whole of society approach and bold leadership,” said Oren Segal, vice president of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, in the forum.

“We pray for a time when the world’s most ancient hatred, anti-semitism, will be a thing of the past, when, in the words of our prayerbook,’” said Rabbi Ari Lucas, Senior Rabbi at Congregation Agudath Israel in Caldwell.

“We are in a battle against hatred together,” said Rabbi Samuel Klibanoff, Rabbi at Congregation Etz Chaim in Livingston.

"We have a duty to raise our voices, invoke positive change through unity and critical legislation to fight hate which seeks to overtake our society,” said Gail Toll, a community member at the Synagogue of the Suburban Torah in Livingston.

Sherrill's district includes Bloomfield, the Caldwells, Livingston, Montclair, Nutley, West Orange, and several other towns in Essex, Morris, Passaic, and Sussex counties.

The Local Area

The Working Definition of Anti-semitism is: “Anti-semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/otheir property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

A North Jersey Jewish non-profit found in 2012 that at least a third of its members came from seven zip codes: 07039 Livingston (9 percent), 07052 West Orange (8 percent), 07090 Westfield (4 percent), 07078 Short Hills (4 percent), 07960 Morristown (3 percent), 07081 Springfield (3 percent), and 07040 Maplewood (3 percent).

From 2008-2012, only northern Union County showed any significant change in the number of Jewish households, a decrease of more than 800 households, said the report.

Recent North Jersey Incidents Of Anti-Semitism

After a swastika was found carved into a Westfield park last month — following several similar incidents in the last few years — the Westfield Town Council voted to introduce a measure to increase fines for bias crimes from $200 to $2,000.

Also last month, officials at Glen Rock High School said they were concerned about a swastika etched into a desk just before the high holidays, or the most religious Jewish holidays of the year.

And in a more violent incident, in December 2019, two people headed to a Kosher supermarket in Jersey City and gunned down a Jewish mother of three, as well as a student and a grocery worker. The shooters came from outside the area, and one had posted anti-Jewish comments on the internet. After the shooting, a Jersey City school board member commented on "brutes" from the local Jewish community who had been aggressive in buying homes in the city's Greenville neighborhood, referred to incidents involving Central Jersey Jewish felon Solomon Dwek in 2009, and referred to exploring the shooters' "message."

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