We Stand Against Anti-Semitism
May 28, 2021
Brooklyn College Community,
I write today to express outrage over the rise of anti-Semitism in New York and elsewhere around the country. Attacks have been both verbal and physical; too many of us have seen them as they are being committed, or after, caught by cell phones and security cameras and amplified through social media and television. In Brooklyn, Jewish teenagers have been attacked outside a synagogue; in the Bronx, four synagogues have been vandalized.
Jewish Americans have played an integral role in Brooklyn College’s rich history from its founding in the 1930s. Socially aware faculty and students were alive to wrongs elsewhere in the world. They volunteered to defend democracy in Spain in 1936, joined the armed forces in the worldwide fight against Nazism and fascism in the 1940s, and participated in the Civil Rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s. With their superior Brooklyn College education, they have given back to our country—as teachers, politicians, lawyers, judges, artists, and scientists—one among them a Nobel laureate. The Jewish community has reached out to their non-Jewish friends, most recently to condemn and fight racism and anti-immigrant violence.
As we prepare for this Memorial Day Weekend, I call upon you to remember that acts of violence and injustice against one group are acts against us all. And so we stand in solidarity with members of the Jewish community. Any anti-Semitic incidents of violence, whether verbal or physical assault, or those against any other protected class or any Brooklyn College program or activity may be reported to the Office of Diversity and Equity Programs here.
We are committed to being a campus where everyone matters and everyone belongs, a campus where respect will never be replaced by hateful words or actions. We Stand Against Hate.
Anthony Brown, Esq.
Chief Diversity Officer and Special Assistant to the President
Office of Diversity and Equity Programs
Brooklyn College
718.951.4128
Anthony.Brown@brooklyn.cuny.edu
