Palm Beach residents co-chairing new entity that is working to combat antisemitism
Chaired by a pair of Palm Beach residents, The Palm Beach Center to Combat Antisemitism and Hatred strives to find practical solutions to antisemitism confronting Palm Beach County.
Created in May by the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County and officially launched at its "Celebrating Philanthopy" event Dec. 4 at The Kravis Center, the entity aims to build relationships with local agencies to keep all residents safe and to educate people on what antisemitism is and how it manifests, co-chair Richard Friedman told the Daily News.
"We want this to be a center of gravity for the community to be able to have initiatives that combat antisemitism," Friedman said. "We'll have an organization. We'll have a director, which we're recruiting. We'll have offices of the Center. This entity will mobilize all of our issues with the relationships throughout the community — with the police, with the media, with the synagogues, and with the other Jewish organizations. We would hope to be able to provide best practices for protecting both people and facilities all throughout the county."
A rise in antisemitic incidents locally spurred the creation of the Center, Friedman said.
They include the distribution of antisemitic literature in communities around the county this year, including Palm Beach, and the projection of a swastika on the side of a downtown West Palm Beach building.
The federation sought advice from Palm Beach County's Jewish leaders about potentially creating an entity that would collaborate with partners to combat antisemitism locally as well as help enhance the security of the more than 40 Jewish institutions in the county.
Palm Beach County is home to about 180,000 Jewish residents, Friedman said, making it the fourth-largest Jewish community in the United States behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
It is also has been home to the most antisemitic incidents of all counties in the state, said Michael Hoffman, the federation's CEO.
"In the first quarter of this year, we were starting to see antisemitic incidents showing up in Palm Beach County, like the swastika that was projected in West Palm Beach and the leaflets that were handed out," Friedman said. "Out of our discussions with Jewish leaders came the realization that we needed to do something. We needed to do something to protect, to serve and to educate our community."
In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and Israel's military response, Friedman noted that safety and security has become the biggest concern for the county's Jewish residents.
The center has partnered with other nonprofit organizations, government entities, businesses and communities that already are working to develop and execute strategies that directly confront local antisemitism and hatred.
"This is something so important to people who live here," Friedman said. "We hate what's going on. We hate what's going on in Israel, we hate what's going on on college campuses. We want to live our lives, and we want more than the Jewish community to realize how important this is to combat and put it back to where it was. It's always been around, but now it's so out there. It is revealed, and it's pretty scary to a lot of people."
"This is a thriving, vibrant community," Tananbaum added. "We're trying to ensure that it continues."
At the Kravis Center event, Palm Beach Gardens resident Linda Teitelbaum announced a $5 million endowment through the federation's fundraising initiative, "Campaign for the Future," to the center.
The center also has partnered with the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, a national organization created by part-time Palm Beach resident Robert Kraft that works to raise awareness of and respond to antisemitism; build familiarity, empathy and understanding toward Jews; and rebuild and celebrate Jewish Identity by partnering with initiatives focused on Jewish audiences and amplifying personal stories.
This year, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism launched the #StandUpToJewishHate campaign aimed at stopping hateful acts against Jewish people.
Palm Beach County is one of the first communities to establish a local partnership with Kraft's organization, Hoffman told the Daily News.
"We're taking some of the content from the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, and we're personalizing it toward the Palm Beach community and using the concept of the mass marketing and social media to facilitate a greater level of awareness to the broader community about antisemitism," he said.
For more information about The Palm Beach Center to Combat Antisemitism and Hatred, visit jewishpb.org/fed/pb_center_to_combat_antisemitism_hatred/.
Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at [email protected]. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beachers co-chairing new entity dedicated to fighting antisemitism
