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How Jewish leaders tried — and failed — to keep a Farrakhan follower off a Florida city council
(JTA) – When Brother John Muhammad emerged this fall as the leading candidate for a vacant city council seat in St. Petersburg, Florida, local Jews were distressed.
Muhammad is well known in the city as the president of a local neighborhood association and as a frequent advocate for minority groups. But Jewish leaders learned that he was also a follower of Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who has a long history of antisemitism, and that he had made comments dismissing concerns about Farrakhan’s record.
Jewish leaders tried to stave off Muhammad’s appointment, pushing for more extensive vetting of the seven candidates and, in the case of the local Holocaust museum, actively lobbying against him. But the council confirmed him in a 4-3 vote, leaving local Jews frustrated — before they considered ways to make the situation a learning experience for their city.
“When I see a situation like this, it screams ‘opportunity’ to me,” Michael Igel, chair of the Florida Holocaust Museum, located in St. Petersburg, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The saga playing out in St. Petersburg, Florida’s fifth-largest city, unfolded during the same period that a handful of Black celebrities, including Kanye West and Kyrie Irving, first became enmeshed in controversy over their own antisemitic comments and social media posts. The coincidence meant a dicey environment for broaching a conversation about the antisemitism of the Nation of Islam, whose rhetoric disparaging Jews overlaps with that of Hebrew Israelites, the ideology that Irving promoted by sharing a link to an antisemitic film.
It also turned St. Petersburg into a window for understanding how ties forged between Jewish groups and others can be tested.
Local Jewish leaders initially sought to stop Muhammad from gaining the city council seat, which was vacated after its previous holder resigned following redistricting and accusations she no longer lived in her district. They learned about Muhammad’s city council application only a week before the council’s vote, leaving them with little time to mobilize. The information came from a political rival of Muhammad, former mayoral candidate Vince Nowicki, who shared information about Muhammad’s Nation of Islam affiliation with local Jewish groups.
Nowicki also shared a comment Muhammad had made about Jews in a 2016 video in which Muhammad interviewed local Black LGBTQ activists. In the video titled “A Conversation About Growing Up Black And LGBT,” which JTA viewed, Muhammad said, “Minister Farrakhan got accused of being antisemitic for a long time because he pointed out and made some corrections about the activity of Jews. And anybody who says anything critical of the Jewish community is labeled as being antisemitic. Good, bad, right or wrong, it doesn’t matter what you say. If you criticize them that’s what you are.”
He continued, saying, “And I’m finding that it happens when you are critical of the gay community, when you say anything critical or anything that doesn’t align with that ideology, now all of a sudden you’re homophobic.” Muhammad’s comments about gay people received some light but friendly pushback from his interview guests.
Muhammad did not reply to multiple requests for comment by JTA, including to questions emailed to him at his request. He said during a public meeting ahead of the council vote that he thought scrutiny of him by Jewish groups had been unfair.
To Jewish leaders, the comments in the video coupled with Muhammad’s Nation of Islam affiliation were clear signs that he should not be appointed to the city council.
“I would sure hope that being antisemitic would be a red line, that you could not be a candidate,” said Rabbi Philip Weintraub of Congregation B’nai Israel, a Conservative synagogue in the city.
Jewish leaders began to take action, issuing statements and launching a letter-writing campaign to the council. They felt so much urgency that some even conducted business on Simchat Torah, a Jewish holiday when Jewish organizations typically pause their activities in accordance with Jewish law.
As a nonprofit, the local federation was constrained in how it could weigh in. Since it could not endorse or oppose specific candidates, it instead pushed for every candidate to be “properly vetted” and informed council members about Muhammad’s affiliations and past comments, according to Maxine Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Florida’s Gulf Coast. She said the efforts did not have their intended effect.
“I don’t think anybody said, ‘Well, who is this Farrakhan, what does he stand for?’” Kaufman said. “I don’t think enough was done, personally.”
The entrance to the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Nov. 27, 2016. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The Florida Holocaust Museum took another approach, circulating information about Muhammad to the wider community, along with a statement opposing the candidacy of anyone who would support Farrakhan’s antisemitism. Their goal, Igel said, was to educate the community about the severity of these views.
“There’s nothing else to talk about when somebody is supporting Louis Farrakhan,” Igel told JTA. “Particularly when you are seeking a position representative of a city, particularly one like St. Petersburg that is so known for its inclusivity and its openness.”
Igel praised some members of the city council who asked Muhammad pointed questions about his views at the vote, giving him the opportunity to refute Farrakhan’s comments about Jews. One council member who voted against Muhammad, Lisset Hanewicz, said her stepfather is Jewish and read Farrakhan’s past antisemitic statements into the record, saying, “I think people need to understand why a certain part of this community is upset.”
Igel acknowledged that getting involved in a city council appointment was an unusual move for a Holocaust museum. He said museum leaders had held a meeting beforehand to determine how to proceed but made a decision fairly quickly to weigh in.
“In this case, we don’t consider this to be a matter of politics,” Igel said. “This is a matter of morality. And this is what we teach.” If the candidate had been a white supremacist, Igel said, “that person would have been disqualified out of the gate.”
The Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center, two hate watchdogs, define the Nation of Islam as a group that propagates antisemitism and other forms of bigotry, not a religion. Founded in 1930 by Wallace Fard Muhammad, the Black nationalist group is not the same as traditional Islam and is rejected by most Muslim clerics; it entered mainstream prominence in the 1960s after civil rights leader Malcolm X and boxer Muhammad Ali publicly joined the movement. (Both later left the group, with Malcolm X publicly denouncing its leadership; he was assassinated shortly after, and two Nation of Islam members who were wrongfully convicted of his murder recently received a large settlement from New York City.)
The Nation of Islam entered its current era after Farrakhan took over the group in 1977. Now 89, he has used his platform to issue a steady stream of antisemitism, including calling Jews “wicked” and the “synagogue of Satan,” saying they have “wrapped your tentacles around the U.S. government,” and calling Hitler “a very great man.” Only a few years ago, the Women’s March progressive activist collective was nearly derailed over some of its founders’ associations with Farrakhan.
It is rare, but not unheard of, for public officials to have current or former associations with the Nation of Islam. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a practicing Muslim, was dogged by accusations that he had formerly been a member of the group when he first ran for Congress in 2006; he apologized for his past associations with the group. Trayon White, a Washington, D.C. council member and onetime mayoral candidate who has spread antisemitic conspiracy theories, has donated to the group in the past. Former President George W. Bush once praised the group, and a photograph showing Barack Obama in the same room as Farrakhan was fodder for Obama’s critics during his presidential run.
Muhammad, who is referred to on the city council website as John Muhammad and whose legal name is John C. Malone, declined to condemn Farrakhan at the city council meeting.
“I am not willing to denounce the leader of my faith no more than a Catholic would be willing to denounce their pope,” he said.
Muhammad’s reaction to questions about Farrakhan particularly concerned the federation and other local Jewish groups. Kaufman told JTA she didn’t know whether Muhammad himself is antisemitic, but she said his refusal to disavow Farrakhan was alarming.
“I do have issue with his reverence of someone who is blatantly antisemitic, and he won’t disavow him, he won’t reject him,” she said, echoing the the federation’s official statement on the vote.
At the meeting, Muhammad did say that he had reached out to the Florida Holocaust Museum but had not heard back — and that he thought the museum’s criticism of him was unfair.
“What I found when we reached out to have dialogue with the Holocaust Museum director, they did not want to talk to me,” he said. “They wanted to evaluate and disqualify me based on the association that I have as an individual. I don’t think that that’s just.”
Muhammad also defended his record with Jews by claiming that they were among the “diversity of those who support me.” He added, “And if you look at those who oppose me, they’re coming from one particular group.”
Since the vote, a local Black newspaper condemned the scrutiny on Muhammad, calling it a “perusal into his faith practice.”
Igel said the museum had no record that Muhammad had reached out but encouraged him to come and learn more about the Holocaust and the nature of antisemitism. Stuart Berger, head of the local Jewish Community Relations Council, acknowledged at the city council meeting that Muhammad “has made himself available to us” at the federation, but that none of the federation staff “had been in direct contact with him.”
The federation’s involvement in Muhammad’s case became its own issue at the council vote, when the candidate referenced an email Berger had written to the county commissioner. In the email, Berger wrote that Muhammad’s vetting process had been “good enough for me!”
While Muhammad took the email as proof that the federation believed him to be fit for office, Berger and Kaufman maintain that it meant nothing of the sort. Berger had not been speaking on behalf of the federation, they say, and had not intended for his email to be shared publicly.
Now that Muhammad is on the council, attention has turned to building relationships with him. Kaufman has been meeting with individual city council members, and hopes to eventually meet with Muhammad himself. She also aims to have the federation make a presentation to the council about the dangers of antisemitism and push them to make a statement about it.
She doesn’t think it’s complicated. “I think hate’s hate,” she said. “Many different colors.”
Weintraub’s congregation is celebrating its 100th anniversary in March, and one of its congregants, Eric Lynn, is also involved in politics: he was the Democratic nominee for Florida’s 13th Congressional district in the midterms but lost his race to Republican Anna Paulina Luna, who said she was raised as a Messianic Jew and campaigned with far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Weintraub himself is a member of an interfaith ministerial dialogue group with Black churches and says he’s “a professional optimist” when it comes to managing conflict between different communities. He sent JTA an episode of the public radio podcast “Hidden Brain” about how to keep conflict from spiraling, saying it “describes what I’ve tried to do.”
Since Muhammad was appointed, Weintraub has met with him; the pair had what Weintraub described as “a pleasant conversation.” The two talked about parenting and “shared traumas,” he said. They did not discuss Muhammad’s comments supporting Farrakhan, but the rabbi couldn’t help but think about him.
“I thought I was a termite, according to Farrakhan,” Weintraub said. In contrast, Muhammad “said I was a person, so that was nice.”
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The post How Jewish leaders tried — and failed — to keep a Farrakhan follower off a Florida city council appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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New York’s Bruce Blakeman Vows to Protect Jews, Combat Anti-Israel Policies if Elected Governor
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Legislator Mazi Pilip join business and real estate leaders to invite New York City entrepreneurs, brokers, educational institutions, and residents who want to relocate to Nassau County following the election of Democratic Socialist Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani on Nov. 7, 2025, in Mineola, New York. Photo: Michael Nigro/Sipa USA Reuters Connect
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in New York, is outlining an aggressive law-and-order platform centered in part on combating antisemitism and defending Israel as he surges in the polls with the campaign season heating up.
In responses to a series of policy questions presented by The Algemeiner, Blakeman pointed to his record in Nassau County, home to a large Jewish population, as a model for how he would govern statewide. He argued that stricter enforcement and a tougher stance on protests have helped prevent unrest seen elsewhere in the region.
“In Nassau we have not permitted the lawless rioting that has threatened the safety and security of the Jewish community in New York City and on college campuses,” Blakeman said, adding that demonstrators who break the law must “face arrest” and that local policies banning face coverings during protests have helped deter violence.
“As the leader of Nassau County, home to 1.5 million people, of which almost 300,000 identify as Jewish, I have made protecting the Jewish community a priority,” Blakeman told The Algemeiner.
“These professional paid agitators know that in Nassau they face arrest if they break the law,” he said, adding that Nassau has “made it illegal for them to wear masks for them to hide their identities.”
Concealing one’s identity with face masks became a common feature of the pro-Hamas, anti-Israel demonstrations that erupted on college campuses across the US, as well as in the streets of New York, during the Gaza war.
Blakeman’s comments come amid heightened concern over antisemitic incidents in New York and nationally, an issue that has become increasingly central in state and local political debates.
Blakeman, who was first elected Nassau County executive in 2021 and won reelection last year, has repeatedly taken aim at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, accusing him of promoting anti-Israel positions and rhetoric he described as dangerous to Jewish communities.
When asked whether he would use the governor’s office to counter potential anti-Israel actions by New York City leadership, Blakeman pointed to his past support for anti-boycott measures targeting the Jewish state. As a former Hempstead councilman, he sponsored what he described as the nation’s first anti-BDS law in 2016, using the acronym for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against the Jewish state.
“As governor, I will push for the New York State Legislature to pass similar legislation statewide,” Blakeman said, criticizing Democrats — including incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, who he is vying to unseat — for not advancing such measures into law.
“Currently, it is only an executive order because the left wing of the Democrat party will not allow a vote,” Blakeman added. “Kathy Hochul lacks the political courage to push for the law. That will change with me as governor.”
The BDS movement seeks to isolate Israel on the international stage as the first step toward its elimination. Leaders of the movement have repeatedly stated their goal is to destroy the world’s only Jewish state.
Blakeman dismissed the possibility that Mamdani, who has described Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal and vowed to arrest him if he visits New York, could take legal action against Israeli officials, stating unequivocally that the mayor “will not arrest” Netanyahu.
Blakeman also weighed in on controversies involving academic and extensive business ties to Israel. He rejected calls by some activists to sever ties between New York City and the Cornell Tech campus, which was developed in partnership with Israel’s Technion.
“I believe that act would be illegal and it will not happen when I am governor,” the candidate said.
Blakeman, who previously worked as a lawyer, argued that any attempt to remove or isolate the campus would be unlawful and contrary to principles of academic freedom. “Israeli technology is good for business and good for New York,” Blakeman said, adding that the state should embrace innovation from Israel’s tech sector.
Similarly, Blakeman criticized efforts that, he said, push out companies with Israeli ties, referencing a drone manufacturer that recently departed the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He echoed comments from Democratic Assemblyman Kalman Yeger, who called such moves economically harmful.
“Boycotting Israel or companies that do business with Israel is illegal in New York,” Blakeman said, suggesting he would enforce those laws more aggressively as governor.
On the question of whether New York City could divest from Israel bonds, Blakeman argued that such authority does not rest with city leadership. He did not outline specific steps he would take but indicated opposition to any such move.
Blakeman drew a direct line between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, saying that denying Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state constitutes a “fundamentally antisemitic position.” He said that Mamdani, an avowed anti-Zionist who has accused the Jewish state of enacting “apartheid” and committing “genocide” against the Palestinians, of holding such views and said that rhetoric targeting Israel can endanger Jewish communities more broadly.
“Mamdani denies Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State. What he is saying is that other peoples have a right to a homeland but the Jewish people do not. That is a fundamentally antisemitic position,” he said.
“Mamdani’s continued hateful rhetoric against Israel endangers the Jewish community,” Blakeman continued.
He also criticized Democrats for what he described as support for Mamdani, a democratic socialist, framing the issue as a broader divide within the party over policy toward Israel.
“It is shocking to me that Democrats like the governor support an antisemitic figure like Mamdani,” he said, referring to Hochul’s endorsement of Mamdani during last year’s mayoral election.
Jewish New Yorkers and supporters of Israel more broadly have worried that Mamdani will weaponize his power as mayor to enact anti-Israel and antisemitic policies. Spectators argue that the election of a pro-Israel governor could serve as a useful bulwark against a city government with an increasingly hostile posture against Israel.
Blakeman’s comments to The Algemeiner highlight a growing fault line in New York politics, where debates over Israel, antisemitism, and public safety are increasingly intersecting with partisan divides. As tensions continue to rise, candidates across the political spectrum are staking out positions that could shape the state’s political landscape heading into the next election cycle.
Blakeman’s comments also come at a time when he has been surging in the polls just over seventh months out from the Nov. 3 election.
In just the past month, Hochul’s lead over Blakeman dropped 7 points, according to new Siena University poll released on Tuesday. The data showed Hochul holding a 13-point lead over Blakeman, 47 percent to 34 percent, but in February the margin was much wider, 51 to 31 percent.
According to Siena pollster Steven Greenberg, independents are mainly responsible for the narrowing gap.
“Interestingly, Hochul’s standing with New Yorkers is essentially the same as last month – a small plurality views her favorably, and a small majority approves of the job she’s doing as governor – as is Blakeman’s, yet the race between the two has tightened a little,” Greenberg said in a statement. “Three-quarters of Democrats continue to support Hochul, and more than three-quarters of Republicans continue to support Blakeman, but now independents favor Blakeman by seven points, after siding with Hochul by five points.”
Interestingly, New York City is one place where Blakeman made up ground.
“While Hochul maintains very narrow leads upstate and in the downstate suburbs, her lead in New York City fell from 46 points, 63 percent to 17 percent, last month to 29 points, 54 percent to 25 percent, today,” Greenberg added. “Is that movement or merely noise? Let’s see what happens next month after the budget and as the campaign unfolds.”
Days earlier, new internal polling released by Blakeman showed him within single digits of Hochul, trailing 52 percent to 43 percent in New York, a staunchly Democratic state.
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‘Jewish Blood Is Not Cheap’: Israel Passes Controversial Death Penalty Law for Palestinian Terrorists
Israeli National Security Minister and head of Jewish Power party Itamar Ben-Gvir gives a statement to members of the press, ahead of a possible ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Jan. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon
Israeli lawmakers on Monday passed a contentious law allowing the death penalty for Palestinian terrorists from the West Bank, a move supporters said was needed to strengthen deterrence and deliver justice, but which critics condemned as immoral and at odds with Judaism.
The legislation, pushed by firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech — whose husband was killed in a terror attack in 2003 — would make capital punishment mandatory in certain terrorism cases. The bill eliminates the need for a unanimous verdict from the judicial panel and requires that any sentence be carried out by hanging within 90 days, marking one of the most far-reaching changes to Israel’s penal framework in decades.
Ben-Gvir hailed the measure as a “historic victory” for Israel, calling it a “moral and just” law that would end the cycle in which terrorists kill, are jailed, and later released through hostage and prisoner exchange deals or political pressure.
“Whoever takes a life, the state will take his life,” he said. “This law restores deterrence, restores justice, and sends a clear and bold message to our enemies: Jewish blood is not cheap.”
Son Har-Melech also said the law would mean “no more cycle of murder, imprisonment, and release in deals, but a clear eye. Whoever chooses to murder Jews because they are Jews forfeits their right to live.”
“This is a message of justice, deterrence, and national responsibility,” she added. “This is also true Jewish morality. One that does not settle for temporary salvation ensures that evil will not strike again.”
She added that she had vowed to make sure the grief she suffered as a result of her husband’s murder would not happen to others.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had previously expressed reservations about the bill, entered the chamber to back it during Monday evening’s final vote.
Some opposition lawmakers warned the law crossed both a moral and strategic red line, arguing it would do little to deter terrorism while further eroding Israel’s legal and ethical standing. Labor MK Gilad Kariv said the legislation violated international law and could leave Israeli soldiers and prison guards exposed to war crimes accusations against their will.
“How can you call it justice if someone can be sentenced to death without a unanimous ruling?” Kariv added. “Is that the reverence for life that Jewish tradition teaches us?”
Kariv’s party, together with several other opposition factions and human rights groups, said it would petition the High Court of Justice to strike down the law.
One of those groups, Rabbis for Human Rights, said, “A death penalty policy runs contrary to the spirit of Jewish law and to the principle of the sanctity of life at its core. It ignores warnings from senior security officials who cautioned that the law would not deter but rather escalate violence, and it harms the Jewish and democratic character of the state.”
Some of the harshest objections focused less on sympathy for terrorists than on whether the law was morally coherent, legally defensible, or even likely to work.
Avishai Greenzeig, a rightwing legal commentator, blasted the legislation as “one of the dumbest laws” he had seen, according to a report in the Hebrew-language Arutz 7 site, arguing its vague drafting was so poor that courts would likely avoid using it in practice.
“Anyone who applauds this law is selling hot air to the public,” he said.
Supporters of the law have pointed to the US, where the death penalty is still practiced in a number of states, but critics say the Israeli legislation departs from the legal norms that make it defensible abroad.
“It’s easy to defend the law in the United States where many states still uphold the death penalty,” former Israeli Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren told The Algemeiner.
“But by denying those convicted of the right to appeal and by distinguishing between Arab and Jewish terrorists, the Israeli law cannot be defended in America’s court of public opinion,” he added.
Former MK Einat Wilf, founder of the new Oz political party, who has long argued that Israel must respond to Palestinian violence and rejectionism with strategic clarity rather than symbolic gestures, said the law would leave Israel paying a price abroad without gaining anything meaningful in return.
“As with so many things this government does – it is all empty words where we gain nothing and only pay,” she told The Algemeiner.
The law would only bring Israel “international condemnations, confused allies, frustrated friends,” she added.
The law’s passage prompted several protests, including by the Reform Movement in Israel, which held a demonstration on Tuesday outside of the Knesset.
“We recognize, unequivocally, Israel’s right and obligation to defend its citizens from terror and violence. We mourn all those who have suffered devastating loss through the many terrorist attacks Israelis have suffered,” the movement said in a statement, describing the law as “dangerous.”
It “contradicts the Jewish tradition’s teachings about capital punishment that emphasize the rarity with which it should be applied,” the group said.
Palestinians in the West Bank also gathered to protest in several cities, including Ramallah, Tubas, Nablus, and Jenin in the north, as well as Hebron.
The Palestinian Authority called it a “dangerous escalation.”
“Israel has no sovereignty over Palestinian land,” the PA foreign ministry said on X. “This law once again reveals the nature of the Israeli colonial system, which seeks to legitimize extrajudicial killing under legislative cover.”
The law also drew swift international condemnation. The United Nations urged Israel to repeal what it called a “discriminatory” measure that “violated international law,” while the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom also criticized the bill.
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Jewish communities can help save trans lives — here’s how
In the 16 months since the 2024 election, the lives of hundreds of thousands of transgender, nonbinary and intersex people in the United States have been upended. A new survey shows that, during that time period, 9% of the country’s transgender population moved from one U.S. state to another over concerns for their personal safety. Andjust today, as we celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility, the Supreme Court released a decision that harms transgender people, as well as the entire LGBTQ+ community, by striking down a state law that protected LGBTQ+ youth and their families from so-called conversion therapy, a dangerous, disproven practice.
Jews have a religious obligation to protect transgender lives; a key tenet of our faith is the belief that to save a life is to save the whole world. Research shows that religious groups can play a particularly significant role in the lives of transgender youth. With the support of such groups, trans kids experience dramatically lower rates of depression and suicide. Conversely, when social support is stripped away, the risks rise.
That’s why more than 1,000 rabbis, cantors, and other spiritual leaders representing all major Jewish denominations — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Renewal — from 48 U.S. states and the District of Columbia recently signed an open letter publicly declaring that Jewish tradition compels us to support the full equality of transgender, nonbinary and intersex people.
The letter was spearheaded by Keshet, the leading national Jewish organization dedicated to LGBTQ+ equality, and the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism — the organizations for which we respectively work. For us, the need for Jews to make a strong statement of support for the trans community was urgent.
In recent years, almost every state in the U.S. has proposed or passed legislation to take away the rights of transgender, nonbinary and intersex people. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, politicians in 42 state legislatures have introduced a staggering 740 laws targeting transgender people. At this horrifying rate, they’re on track to surpass last year’s 1,022 anti-trans bills, proposed in 49 states.
Only some of these bills will become law. But all of them aim to take away rights and erase transgender people from public spaces — by ending gender-affirming healthcare, restricting restroom use, forcibly outing students at school, banning books, and more. Kansas passed a particularly terrifying example of this sort of legislation in February, with a law that revoked the IDs of transgender people — passed in the dead of night, and put into effect the very next day.
Jewish communities are painfully aware of the dangers of policies and laws that try to legislate minority groups out of the public square. That clarity gives us a particular mandate to combat such efforts.
So many American Jews have ancestors whose lives were shaped by exclusionary laws, scapegoating, censorship and attempts to erase us from public life. So many of us who immigrated to this country have firsthand experience of that same torment. This strategy of disenfranchisement and persecution has appeared repeatedly throughout Jewish history, often preceding profound tragedy.
As Jewish leaders, we see echoes of those dangerous patterns today in rhetoric that portrays LGBTQ+ people as a threat to society. We know, from our own history, that these are not the actions of a functioning democracy.
Our congregants and community members have been asking us what they can do to support our trans youth in their circles. And LGBTQ+ Jews want to know how Jewish organizations are working to stand up for their existence, dignity and safety. We must answer both questions more vigorously and decisively.
Even as we work to protect and advance LGBTQ+ rights in the public square, we have the power — and the responsibility — to make our Jewish communities safe havens. We have a unique role to play.
There are things all of us can do to create Jewish communities of belonging and affirmation for our transgender, nonbinary and intersex community members:
- Commit to using the names and pronouns that LGBTQ+ members use for themselves.
- Push your Jewish community leaders to take proactive steps to turn your community into a safe and affirming space for all transgender and LGBTQ+ people.
- Establish gender-neutral restrooms. Then, create and post a policy that encourages people to use the restroom, locker room or other gendered facilities that align with their gender.
- Implement anti-harassment, anti-bullying and non-discrimination policies that affirm the dignity and safety of all community members.
The rights and lives of our neighbors are in our hands. As many of our political leaders fail to protect members of our community, we must lead by example to build a world of affirmation and belonging for all.
The post Jewish communities can help save trans lives — here’s how appeared first on The Forward.