The Growing Threat of Antisemitism and Violence Against Houses of Worship

0:00 Speaker 1 Hate, hate, crimes, a running rabbit, and mostly in the Jewish community. Well, I was a member, still am a member of Rabbi Schneier’s board for thirty years. And with us today is Karen Schneier dress Back. Who’s Rabbi Schneier’s daughter.

0:19 Rabbi is ninety six years old and his daughter is helping carry on the legacy. Well, well, Karen, give us, give us an update. How does your dad feel about all this hate going on? Because me and him were working very hard for the last thirty years to make sure hate doesn’t exist.

0:42 Speaker 2 You know, John, I don’t know how you expect a man to feel who saw his synagogue burn to the ground as a child, and now have his synagogues been attacked twice in the United States, and now to witness now almost on a daily basis, these egregious attacks, these heinous attacks on you know, houses of worship, synogogus Jewish community,

1:08 and it’s just it’s insanity. Uh, you know, to say that we vehemently denounced these attacks, that’s an understatement. And the question is when does it end, and.

1:21 Speaker 1 How does it end, and how does it affect our city, our country, and the world.

1:30 Speaker 2 Yeah, listen. Attacking the Jewish community. You know, it doesn’t end there. You and I have discussed this many times. There are houses of worship all across the country being attacked. There. These are just evil people. It’s very premeditated. You know, when somebody says, oh, the guy he ran into Central Synagogue was just a crazy person, it wasn’t so crazy, John,

1:52 because if he if he was crazy, he would have just gone out anywhere in the street and yelled. He specifically picked a synagogue premeditated. Right, So when people are attacking churches and synagogues and people of faith and people who look different because of the way they worship, those people are not crazy. That is a premeditated act. So

2:13 when you have a mayor of the City of New York who continues to spew rhetoric with his comments, this just fuels Jewish hatred in our city. And it’s an excuse, it’s an excuse in Sectober seventh to find a way to you know, sort of dismantle the Jewish community, excuse hatred in the Jewish community towards the Jewish community. And

2:39 you know, we really need to stand together. All children of God, all faiths have to stand together and combat this hatred and combat the rhetoric in this city.

2:50 Speaker 1 Understood, and a large amount of the Jewish community votes the socialist way. How the other half of the Jewish community feel about that?

3:05 Speaker 2 Well, look, I think those who vote in a socialist way, who may be members of the Jewish community, may you know, sometimes you learn the hard way. You know what, if they say from the Wizard of Oz, don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtains. I think you know, the platform that some of these socialists put out there

3:24 when they’re elected, the gift you receive is very different. And I’m sure that many of those have buyer’s remorse certainly with it with regards to their votes for Mayor Mandani. But I can tell you, look, you know this, John, at the People of Conscience Foundation, with all our religious leaders, we’re working diligently, you know, even on the federal level,

3:50 to bring about tougher laws and prosecution. They bring about change, and next week you and I can talk about what some of them really looks like. It’s it’s pretty significant. And even you know, Senator Cruz has introduced a bill, a bipartisan bill called the Sacred Act. I’m not sure if you’re aware of it, but this, uh, this bill

4:15 basically would prohibit the harassment of of persons of uh who who uh you know, sort of attack and intimidate people faith. And you know, our First Amendment rights guarantee our religious freedom. And so I think, uh, this particular bill is of interest, it’s of interests in terms of a bipartisan vote, because this country was founded on our

4:46 religious liberties and we have to take this incredibly seriously and just put an end to it. It’s it’s enough, it’s.

4:53 Speaker 1 Just enough understood, and we all have to stick together because, uh, it’s very tragic what’s going on in our country right now. And I think, my personal belief it’s just a few people that are creating the havoc.

5:11 Speaker 2 Absolutely, you know, and you’ll hear more. We’ll talk more, because it’s still only August. But you know, in October we have our big stand up Sunday, and all these houses of worship all across the country we have I think registered, We’re probably going to register a few million people across the country, people of faith, of all faiths, John,

5:32 who are going to stand up to hate of people of faith and stand up to those who attack houses of worship, and the more we stick together and the more we take this seriously, we can drowne out those haters.

5:45 And it’s not about hoping it’s going to go away or just standing on the sideline. We have to be actives and we have to be aggressive well.

5:56 Speaker 1 Keep fighting for Senate and clarity and for the rights of people in the Appeal of Conscious Foundation that your father founded many, many years ago. And God bless you, and please give your dad a big hug for me.

6:15 Speaker 2 Oh, you got it, John, And we’ll keep doing it, you know, and thank you for all that you do, because we got to keep screaming from the rooftops.