On Monday, we met with Governor Hochul’s director and deputy director of Jewish affairs to prepare for the anti-Israel rally planned for Tuesday during the governor’s state-of-the-state address at the Capitol.
On Wednesday, we met with the United States attorney for New York’s northern district, along with her first assistant U.S. attorney and the community outreach coordinator. We were joined by the FBI’s new special agent in charge of the Albany field office. We thanked them for taking over the Temple Israel shooting case and their ongoing efforts to keep us safe.
This morning, I met with Siena College’s president to thank him for his courageous leadership in rescinding the school’s invitation to an anti-Israel speaker for its annual MLK program. We worked with ADL and other local friends to show the president how the intended speaker’s views do not align with Siena’s values.
Since October 7, we’ve been involved with nearly every incident of antisemitism in our Federation catchment area. Most of our work is done behind the scenes and in collaboration with our communal partners. We work with law enforcement, ADL, the board of rabbis and cantors, elected officials, agency and synagogue security teams, and others. Often, we shut down issues before the public is even made aware that there was an issue, and it is our preference to keep it this way.
Those in the anti-Israel camp are loud. They rally with mega horns. They block traffic in major cities. They thrive on chaos. They are very visible and help make interesting news stories. These are not our methods, but rather, we quietly leverage standing relationships and usually achieve better results.
You may not see us, but know, we are vigilantly working around the clock to address all issues. If in doubt, or you have a new issue to bring to our attention, please reach out.
In other news, we’ve just wrapped up planning for next month’s solidarity mission to Israel. For details or to sign up, please click here.