SUFFERN – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand visited Ramapo on Monday to meet with religious and community leaders in the wake of Saturday night’s devastating attack on the Orthodox Jewish community.
After five people were viciously assaulted during a Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony, leaders of the Orthodox community have called for more protection of private schools and synagogues. Many have also demanded a better effort to censor and remove hate speech from online forums.
The Senator echoed their concerns.
“I think Facebook and other social media sites need to take more responsibility to shut down hateful speech,” said Gillibrand, who fears a recent uptick in anti-Semitic crimes could be the result of online radicalization.
“There has been a 21 percent increase in anti-Semitic crimes in the past year; nearly 2,000 anti-Semitic crimes were reported in New York in the year 2018,” Gillibrand said.
Rockland County has the highest Jewish population per capita of any county in the country and made headlines last month when a Hasidic man was stabbed repeatedly while walking to his local synagogue in Monsey.
Gillibrand reported she has secured $90 million in funding from the federal budget for schools and places of religious worship looking to hire not-for-profit security forces. The senator said that her office would soon be organizing workshops so that schools and synagogues can learn how to write grants requesting the funds.
State Senator David Carlucci, who was also in attendance, said that he and his partners in the legislature have begun drafting “a symbol of hate curriculum” that would better educate children to recognize and condemn racist rhetoric.
Both State Assemblywomen Ellen Jaffe and Rockland Legislator Philip Soskin agreed that educating children on the danger of hate speech is vital in the effort to curb attacks on minority communities.
