Former Rep. Deutch attends White House's special roundtable on rising antisemitism: "We can never accept the hate speech"
CORAL GABLES – With Hanukkah around the corner, the White House called a special roundtable to address rising antisemitism.
CBS4's Jacqueline Quynh spoke with former Congressman Ted Deutch, who was at that meeting, and local leaders about what needs to be done to keep people in Jewish communities safe.
"We are told we don't find darkness with sticks, we fight darkness with light," Rabbi Avraham with the Chabad of Downtown Coral Gables.
Last year, that light was proudly on display for the Hanukkah when someone tried to steal it, by taking Rabbi Stolik's menorah and dreidel display last December.
"Perhaps they were anti-religious, perhaps they didn't like holiday symbols," he said.
That person was never caught, but what happened after was an outpouring of support from neighbors and strangers.
"We even had a community member offer to replace them and had them purchased on Amazon."
However, in the months that followed, antisemitic attacks have gone up nationwide.
The latest report from the Anti-Defamation League estimates in Florida, antisemitic crimes have rising 300% since 2012 and hate crimes against Jewish people accounted for 80% of the religiously motivated incidents in 2020.
Meanwhile online, a surge of vitriol is also coming from well-known public figures.
That's part of the reason why the White House put on its event Wednesday, headed by Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, husband to Vice President Kamala Harris. Deutch, now CEO of American Jewish Committee, was also there, and we asked him if there is concern that speech is becoming normalized.
"That was part of the conversation and the fact that we can never accept the hate speech, antisemitism," Deutch said.
What's hoped to come out of the meeting is a national action plan.
"Clearly, the implications there for South Florida, both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security is to focus on threats, to make sure our security institutions have the resources that they need to be safe," Deutch explained.
Back in Weston, where racist, antisemitic graffiti recently surfaced, Rabbi Adam Watstein of B'Nai Aviv Synagogue has kept safety on the forefront for his congregants.
"I don't know of many other faith institutions that have to have paid security guards outside of their buildings for every service," he explained.
At the same time shares optimism about the resiliency of the Jewish community, and its work to build bridges that unite.
"Exposing yourself to the humanity of the person who might be different than you, is the first step in mitigating and quelling this upsurge of antisemitism," he said.
As for Rabbi Stolik, he's bringing out the decor early, well as soon as he can find them in the garage.
"I think we're going to put it up this week for Hanukkah so we can project the message of Hanukkah."
That message: light always triumphs over darkness.
Hanukkah begins on the evening of December 18.
