To combat the surge of anti-Jewish activity around the nation, The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore recently created the Center for Countering Antisemitism and Hate.
The center will be headed by executive director Rebecca Krasner, who most recently served as director of education at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.
The center builds on years of work conducted by The Associated and its constituent agency, the Baltimore Jewish Council.
“We are committed to keeping our community safe at a time of rising fear,” said Associated President and CEO Andrew Cushnir. “This center reflects The Associated’s deep commitment to changing the narrative — empowering our Baltimore community to stand up to hate and misinformation. Our goal is not only to confront antisemitism with facts, but to lead through education, bringing people together to build understanding and mutual respect.”
The center will focus on education, security, coalition-building and countering misinformation. The work will include:
- Strengthening educational efforts in schools and on college campuses by creating learning experiences focusing on the Holocaust, antisemitism and other topics. This includes equipping more educators around Baltimore with the tools to teach these topics and transforming Holocaust curricula to look beyond the past and focus on lessons for today and the future;
- Enhancing state-of-the-art security measures and expanding cybersecurity measures to protect the local Jewish community, in-person and online;
- Building coalitions across faith, racial and ethnic communities to empower a new generation of advocates and allies, based on trust and armed with facts;
- Empowering community members to address antisemitism with accurate information and to build relationships based on trust;
- Creating a comprehensive digital platform that offers facts to counter misinformation and dismantle harmful stereotypes;
- Collaborating with local and national partnersworking to combat antisemitism.
Diamond died in the recent firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, at a rally calling for the release of hostages in Gaza. (File photo)
The center’s launch comes on the heels of a rise in antisemitism nationally and internationally, including the June 1 firebombing attack on participants of a pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado, and the May 21 murder of a pair of Israeli Embassy employees at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, hate crimes have risen exponentially in the past few years. A report published last January found that 46% of the world’s adult population “harbors deeply entrenched antisemitic attitudes.”
In addition, Hillel International recently reported that antisemitic incidents are on the rise on college campuses overall, citing an increase in online harassment and bullying reported by Jewish students. The organization said the trend might reflect more aggressive action on the part of universities to intervene on behalf of Jewish students and their advocates.
On Wednesday, July 23, international media outlets reported that the Spanish airline Vueling forcibly removed the 21-year-old director of a Jewish summer camp and approximately 50 French-Israeli children from a flight. The director and campers were reportedly singing songs in Hebrew on the plane.
“The Vueling airline crew said that Israel is a terrorist state,” said Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism minister. (Vueling “categorically denied” allegations of antisemitism and attributed the incident to “highly disruptive behavior, putting the safe conduct of the flight at risk.”)
The World Jewish Congress condemned the incident saying, “Singing in Hebrew is not illegal. Existing as a group of Jewish people together is not illegal.”
The remaining 6,000 members of the community are expected to immigrate by 2030.
The Columbia resident worked on the Gemini and Apollo space missions.
Israel is increasingly reliant on foreign workers, hundreds of whom moved into the dilapidated building during the Iran war.
A St. Louis native, Edelman served as ambassador to the central African nation from 1987 to 1989.