Gloucester adopts antisemitism definition as tool to blunt hate

Source: Eagle-Tribune

GLOUCESTER -- To blunt the threat antisemitism poses to Gloucester, the City Council unanimously approved a proclamation from Mayor Greg Verga and the council endorsing the working definition of antisemitism established by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

"We have seen anti-Semitic instances across the North Shore in recent years," Ward 2 Councilor Dylan Benson said as he presented the proclamation last week. "Antisemitism is a threat to democracy.

"Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews," he said, reading from the definition. "Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities."

Being able to define antisemitism is an essential tool to combat it in all its multiple forms, Benson said. "Since 2023, the United States has witnessed a staggering increase in anti-Semitic instances with reports showing a rise of approximately 400%," he said. "The Anti-Defamation League has documented this troubling trend of antisemitism within the country."

In October 2023, there was a 388% increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes. That month, the proclamation states, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned the United States was seeing historic levels of antisemitism, accounting for about 60% of all religious-based hate crime.

In late 2023, Benson said, "the ADL reported that anti-Semitic incidents had reached their highest number in any two-month period since the organization began tracking them in 1979."

The councilor said he worked with Rabbi David Kudan of Temple Ahavat Achim on Middle Street on the proclamation.

"Whereas, the city of Gloucester, the City Council, and the mayor can play a powerful role in promoting the values of tolerance and pluralism, and in protecting citizens from acts of racism, bigotry, and hate motivated by discriminatory animus, including antisemitism," Benson read.

The IHRA's working definition of antisemitism has been adopted by other Bay State cities -- Lynn, New Bedford, Beverly, Peabody, and Newton among them, Benson said. Massachusetts adopted it under then Gov. Charlie Baker in February 2022. It has also has been adopted or endorsed by 35 United Nations member states, the European Union, and the U.S. Department of State, Benson said.

"Whereas we may never forget the horrific events of the Holocaust and the 6 million Jewish lives lost during one of the most abhorrent events in human history," Benson said, reading from the proclamation.

Councilor at-Large Jason Grow said it was terrifying that surveys reported in the news say that "anywhere from 20 to 25% of American youth believe that the Holocaust was a myth, that it did not happen, that it is fantasy."

To put that in context, he said there are people living to today "who went through that hell. So, those people are not a myth. Those people exist," he said.

"What man is capable of is very, very frightening," Ward 3 Councilor Marjorie Grace said. "What man can do to fellow man, it's disgraceful, it's disgusting, and if we do not remember and we do not hold these people in our hearts, it will repeat itself because history always repeats itself when we do not learn from it."