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Date: 11/27/2023
EASTHAMPTON — As a part of a packed meeting on Nov. 15, the Easthampton City Council approved a resolution against antisemitism.
Councilor At-Large Owen Zaret previously discussed the resolution at the council’s prior meeting on Nov. 1 before it was brought to a vote at the Nov. 15 meeting. At that meeting, Zaret discussed the fear the Jewish community feels, not only in the region but around the world. He also cited data that in the United States, only 2% of the population is Jewish but is targeted in 60% of religious hate crimes.
The meeting’s public comment section was centered around support of the resolution, with members of the community, members of the Jewish Federation of Massachusetts and local officials all speaking in favor of the resolution.
State Sen. John Velis (D-Westfield), who said he was not Jewish, put his full support behind the resolution.
“I think it is absolutely imperative that we, who are not Jewish, stand up and say, ‘we got you,’ and anybody and any form of hatred we condemn in the harshest terms,” he said.
Velis also spoke of some time he spent in Israel earlier this year and discussed his feelings visiting the Yad Vasham, or The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, during his time there.
“I have an almost 2-year-old son named Carson, and when I was going through, I sat there and I watched people, fellow human beings being brought, deliberately and systematically to their deaths in gas chambers. Six million fellow human beings, many of them under false pretenses were told to go into these gas chambers and killed, annihilated,” he said. “I don’t know how to explain that type of hatred to my almost 2-year-old son, I don’t know how to do it, I don’t want to do it, I hope when he’s at the age to retain this information, I don’t have to tell him about that.”
Velis added that it was important to stand up for the Jewish community against the hatred they have faced and continue to face.
“When fellow human beings are being brought down and condemned, and we have this antisemitism that is truly the longest hatred, the oldest hatred in the history of this world, it is imperative that we say no, enough is enough, never again,” he said.
Many of the speakers also spoke of the experiences with antisemitism throughout their lives. One commenter said that passing the resolution would be “affirmation of the humanity of your Jewish neighbors.”
One mother said that her daughter, who is off at college in Washington D.C., has a friend that does not feel safe at school because she “looks Jewish.”
“This is in Washington D.C., this is not 1930s Europe, this is today in Washington D.C. on a campus that is just a few blocks away, you can almost see the Holocaust Museum from her dorm. Kids are determining whether or not they look Jewish while assessing their risk for personal safety,” she said. “I just froze when she said that to me, this is how real this has become.”
She added that one of her friends no longer wears her Star of David necklace outside, out of the fear of being targeted.
Following the public comment on the topic, Zaret formally introduced the resolution by reading his foreword to it into the record, during which he detailed his experiences with antisemitism. He also explained that his grandfather, who escaped both Russia and Nazi Germany, changed his name from Zaretsky to Zaret to try to hide his Jewish heritage.
During his recollection of the treatment of Jewish people throughout history, Zaret asked throughout his introduction, “why do people hate Jews?”
“We are now 2% of the U.S. population and 0.2% of the world population, you tell me how we are responsible for the woes of the world,” he said.
Zaret also acknowledged that in many cases, holidays such as Yom Kippur, Holocaust Memorial Day and Jewish-American History Month receive little acknowledgement.
From speaking with others, Zaret said many other Jewish people feel like they have been the “recipient of irrational and blind hatred, demonization, double standards, ostracization, erasure, hyper-criticism, rumormongering, second class citizenship, being dehumanized.”
“Antisemitism is a disease like the flu that has purveyed our society for ages,” he said.
With the resolution, Zaret implored everyone to take the words of the resolution to heart.
“Even in 2023, we still have to think and behave differently around the Jews among us. When I initially wrote and submitted this, I had no idea that we would be in the midst of the worst state of antisemitism here and internationally since Nazi Europe. It sounds extreme but its true. Enough is enough, never again,” he said. “We all need to read and take into our hearts and work on the words that are written in this resolution, we need to change our perspectives, stand against Jewish hate and stand against all forms of hate.”
Nearly all of the councilors spoke in support of the resolution and to Zaret directly.
Councilor At-Large Brad Riley said Zaret had his full support.
“I know that I’ve been one of those people that have had your back, I’ve gone to your Hannukah events, I’ve been downstairs in the basement when people have tried to sabotage you, invoking Hitler when there was nobody else around. It made me sick to know that you have to go through those kinds of things,” he said. “When we have these shared adversaries, it’s easy for marginalized people to forget about doing the most to do what they can to help out other marginalized people. I’m so caught up in homophobia and transphobia, and what it means to take care of people like me, but I don’t think I’ve done the most I can do to take care of you, and for that I’m sorry. I will do better, and I will do better for all of you in this community.”
Council President Homar Gomez said it was time for people to respect everyone for who they are.
“It’s incredible that we’re talking about this in 2023, it is, and I can tell you by my experience, I’m not Jewish, but I’m Latino, I have an accent and yes, I look Latino, and I know what is discrimination. What I can’t understand is how humans cannot learn from history, we don’t. I think it’s time for everybody to start learning how to respect humans just to be humans. Respect everybody, it is that simple,” he said.
Zaret added that he was against all forms of hate and a resolution against Islamophobia was in the works as well.
“Hate of all forms has no place here, we have systematically, at least in my time on the council and before, addressed a variety of forms of hate, they all deserve their own space to be discussed. Tonight, we’re discussing antisemitism, but I do feel strongly for a variety of reasons that we also must strongly develop a plan to address Islamophobia as well,” he said.
In response to the discussion around antisemitism, Mayor Nicole LaChapelle said she had reached out to Police Chief Robert Alberti about the city’s current hate crime policy. As a result, they worked to update the policy and LaChapelle read an explanation for the updated policy, which was inspired by Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari.
“The resulting policy expands what is defined and investigated as hate, provides clear response guidance to our officers and a transparent enforcement policy for our residents. Easthampton is a place where hate should find no harbor, yet acknowledging the reality, we understand that we do not entirely prevent it from emerging within our borders and we cannot ignore it,” she said. “It is crucial for the public to know that the city’s policy toward acts of hate is unequivocal.”
LaChapelle added that the city will continue to work to protect residents from acts of hate as long as it needs to.
“I only hope that maybe, someday, our world will find a shared peace, and until then, we will always commit to making space in Easthampton,” she said.
The council unanimously approved the resolution.
The meeting is available to view at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXtJWBSWfbA&t=4797s.
The resolution is available for review here: https://www.easthamptonma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/6575/2023---Resolution-Against-Antisemitism-PDF.
During the meeting, the council also approved two CPA appropriations, one for $120,000 for Parsons Street and Lincoln Street playgrounds, and the second for $878,000 for phase two of CitySpace’s Old Town Hall restoration project. The council also approved a single tax rate of $13.57 for residential, commerical, industiral and personal property.