President Trump's Condemnation of Anti-Semitism Welcome and Overdue

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Contact: Max Rosenblum
202.387.2800 | news@rac.org

Press Release from the Religious Action Center

WASHINGTON – In response to President Trump speaking out today for the first time against anti-Semitism, Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement on behalf of the Union for Reform Judaism, the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the wider Reform Movement:

President Trump’s condemnation this morning of anti-Semitism is as welcome as it is overdue. Yesterday’s wave of bomb threats against JCCs nationwide, the fourth such wave in recent weeks, and the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Missouri, reflect the growing boldness of American anti-Semites.  Such incidents cannot be ignored or dismissed as aberrations; they must be loudly and unequivocally condemned from all quarters.

President Trump has been inexcusably silent as this trend of anti-Semitism has continued and arguably accelerated. The President of the United States must always be a voice against hate and for the values of religious freedom and inclusion that are the nation’s highest ideals. We urge President Trump to continue to speak out against anti-Semitism as he did today and to apply the full weight of the executive branch’s powers behind the effort to hold accountable the perpetrators of such hatred.

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The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is the Washington office of the Union for Reform Judaism, whose nearly 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, whose membership includes more than 2,000 Reform rabbis. Visit www.rac.org for more.