Jewish Press of Tampa

WEDU-produced special examines antisemitism




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(L-R) “Can We Talk?” host Ray Suarez, discussing antisemitism with Erin Blankenship, interim director of the Florida Holocaust Museum, Sarah Emmons, Florida Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League, and Joe Probasco, former president of the Tampa JCCs and Federation. The segment of the WEDU program was filmed at the museum.

Antisemitism is thousands of years old and yet, like a virus with variants, new forms of expressing hatred for Jews are springing up in modern-day America. It is still expressed in ancient, time-tested and wearying tropes, but is also found in ubiquitous and intimidating posts on social media.

It is subtle and it is blatant. And while for years it came from the political right, it is now coming from the political left as well. At times, especially for college students, it fosters an atmosphere where young Jews cannot feel comfortable in their own skin, where they hide their Judaism for fear of consequences.

Those points and more were made during the premiere airing of the “Can We Talk?: A Conversation about Antisemitism” on Thursday evening, Sept. 23. The program, hosted by award-winning PBS journalist Ray Suarez, was produced by the staff of Tampa Bay’s WEDU. The onehour special airs again on Friday, Oct. 8 at 1:30 p.m. and can be accessed online at www.wedu.org/shows/can-we-talk/

The program features prominent members of the Tampa Bay Jewish community. Some made another important point – antisemitism is not likely to go away anytime soon, and, in fact, antisemitic incidents are spiking.

Several addressed how to combat antisemitism, making another key point – Jews alone cannot eradicate the problem – it can only be defeated with the help of non-Jews calling it out when they see it and standing up for their Jewish brothers and sisters.

The program features some filmed segments interlaced with interviews conducted by Suarez, closing with poignant video comments from Holocaust survivor Sigmund

Tobias of Sarasota.

The show begins at Temple Sinai in Sarasota in the summer of 2020, when someone painted swastikas, the phrase “Jews Rape Kids” and a message about Jews and immigration on synagogue walls. “This was meant to instill fear and make us feel uncomfortable,” says preschool director Laura Freedman. Now there are lockdown drills, made to seem like a game for the children.

Rabbi Samantha Kahn, spiritual leader at Temple Sinai, speaks of how having security guards at entrances to the temple is “not a welcoming message,” but after debate, it was deemed necessary.

The program shifts to the Florida Holocaust Museum, which had its own graffiti attack in late May when someone scrawled swastikas and “Jews are guilty” on an exterior wall.

Suarez interviews Erin Blankenship, interim director of the museum; Sarah Emmons, Florida Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and Joe Probasco, past president of the Tampa JCCs and Federation. Blankenship says the museum staff took the attack personally and redoubled their commitment to educating everyone about the Holocaust.

Emmons says incidents of antisemitism are spiking, social media is awash in antisemitic comments and the ADL now issues a report card on how various social media platforms police antisemitic comments.

Probasco argues that hateful comments are where antisemitism germinates and takes root. As those comments flourish, he says, people are emboldened to take action. If people think, “we can get away with saying this about the Jews, let’s say it about the Asians, let’s say it about the Blacks,” Probasco says.

Jews alone can’t end antisemitism, he says, asking,“When will the silent majority, the moderates stand up and say ‘This is not my community. My community is one where we welcome the other.’”

Rabbi Mendy Dubrowski of Chabad Chai of South Tampa, local FBI agent Susana Mapu and Jonathan Ellis, head of the Jewish Community Relations Council for the Tampa federation, speak on security issues. The consensus is incidents of hate need to be reported to authorities and addressed, not ignored.

The incidents are often most pronounced on college campuses. Sylvie Feinsmith, program director of USF Hillel, says Jewish students there “have had coffee thrown at them for wearing a USF Hillel shirt, been followed and been called murderers.”

Sam Friedman, a junior and religious chair at USF Hillel, says after recent Israeli Palestinian hostilities he felt more uncomfortable being Jewish than since he was bullied in seventh grade.

When Friedman told Suarez that he “felt more comfortable in his own skin” when the pandemic forced him to study alone and not be in classes at USF, Michael Igel, board chair at the Holocaust Museum, says “I find that very disconcerting,” pointing out this is a much more prevalent fear than more publicized acts of violence.

A lot of rhetoric on campus and online focuses on conflict between Israel and Palestinians. Laureen Jaffe, “Third Opinion” podcast host, says Jews were historically aligned with liberals and progressives, but now, comments defending Israel bring “tremendous backlash online … We are being ostracized.”

Rabbi Ed Rosenthal, head of Hillels of the Florida Suncoast, says he tells students not to dwell on antisemitism. “I say do not be bitter. Be better.”

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