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Igud HaRabbonim to CUNY: “No Commencement Addresses by Sympathizers of Terror”

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Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour (left) and Rasmea Odeh, convicted terrorist from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine movement.

On Thursday evening, April 27th, the presidium of the Rabbinical Alliance of America (RAA) – Igud HaRabbonim convened for their rosh chodesh (Iyar) meeting and seudah at the Sephardic Nursing Home in Brooklyn.  This monthly gathering however, took on an air of palpable urgency as the prominent rabbonim, guest speaker and attendees confronted an endemic issue for the Jewish nation; most notably, the scourge of anti-Semitism.

Thanks to the assiduous work of exposing the facts done by longtime Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind, the august gathering focused its statements on condemning Brooklyn born Linda Sarsour. As a purported Palestinian activist, Sarsour has garnered headlines as of late for her close ties to anti-Israel terrorists and her unflagging support of  violence against Jewish citizens in Israel. Recently, Sarsour was extended an invitation by the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School of Public Health to deliver an address at their upcoming commencement in June. Her nefarious track record in terms of promulgating a vehemently anti-Israel and pro-terrorist agenda had not escaped notice of the Igud HaRabbonim and as such, this rabbinical body convened to mobilize against her dangerous influence.

Referring to Sarsour as “an anti-Semite par excellance”  Rabbi Mendy Mirocznik, the Executive Vice-President of the RAA expressed his concerns about the taxpayer funded platform provided to her. Extending plaudits to Assemblyman Hikind for single handedly bringing this issue to the fore, Rabbi Mirocznik said Assemblyman Hikind is the “most influential leader in the Jewish community in 2017” and added that Hikind is unique in that he represents “an age of activism” that, for the majority of us, has ruefully ceased to exist.

Also acknowledging the courage to defy the superficial trend of political correctness and to raise his voice in objection to abject evil on a consistent basis throughout his life, Rabbi Mirocznik said of Rabbi Yehoshua Hecht, RAA presidium chairman, “Places that you are afraid to enter, places where you would quake in your boots, Rabbi Hecht goes as well as Assemblyman Hikind.”

Addressing the gathering, Rabbi Hecht expressed his thanks to Assemblyman Hikind for “speaking forcefully and clearly” in the face of a plethora of adversaries. In a voice reverberating with resoluteness, Rabbi Hecht said, “The world press is beginning to understand the message of why Linda Sarsour does not belong in any university in the United States of America. She should receive no platform whatsoever because of her long history of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish diatribes. The RAA calls on New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the administration of CUNY to immediately disinvite Linda Sarsour from delivering a commencement address.”

Rabbi Hecht then read the official proclamation of the RAA/Igud HaRabbonim on the Sarsour matter.

By a vote of acclamation – and in the presence of the more than 100 prominent Rabbis from the NY metro area, the Rabbinical Alliance – IGUD called upon the Honorable Andrew Cuomo; Governor of New York State and the Administration of CUNY City University New York – to cancel the invitation to Linda Sarsour scheduled to address the graduating class of CUNY’s School of Health.  

The RAA presidium noted that the decision for Ms. Sarsour to address the graduating students of the publicly funded CUNY’s School of Health as being a most misinformed and unfortunate choice both for CUNY’s students and for the values of human rights.  

Based on Ms. Sarsour’s record of anti-Israel rhetoric and support of the Boycott Sanction & Divestment movement aimed solely against the Jewish State; her speaking at CUNY actually makes a mockery of our first amendment rights and sends an unhealthy message of discord and intolerance that breaks the multicultural fabric of the NYC community.

The Rabbinical Alliance of America fully supports Assemblyman Dov Hikind position in opposing and protesting Linda Sarsour’s appearance at CUNY and reiterates its call to Governor Cuomo to utilize his position and influence to rectify this insensitive choice of Linda Sarsour’s appearance as commencement speaker at CUNY.  

Reflecting on the previous week Holocaust remembrance events, Rabbi Hecht noted that the “litany of Jewish organizations have remained silent on the Sarsour matter. I humbly suggest that had this not been brought up by Dov Hikind it would have gone under the radar.” He called upon the American Jewish community especially in the New York area to “stand up for its right; to stand up for its values” and to unflinchingly assume leadership roles in “speaking up and roundly condemning anyone who supports boycott, divestment and sanctions of Eretz Yisroel.” He added that “we have to be man enough, and as a rabbinical organization, to be rabbis enough to speak without any scintilla of doubt about what side we’re coming down on.”

Ascending the rostrum, guest speaker Dov Hikind told the attendees that the tacit acceptance of Sarsour’s hate filled verbiage is “even worse than the propaganda disseminated by the BDS movement. This is a clear cut situation of hatred and that everyone should be united in speaking out against it.”

Offering several cogent examples of Sarsour’s blatant promotion of deadly terrorist acts, Hikind said that she had posted on a picture on Twitter of a four-year old Palestinian boy throwing a rock at Israeli soldiers and civilians. She then added the caption that essentially summed up her beliefs in such acts. This, she said, is the “definition of courage.” 

Commenting on this moral outrage, Hikind said, “if we tell children that they can throw rocks, then we are giving them permission to take it a step further and to stab Jews. But rocks alone can kill Jews, and they have in the past and continue to, to this very day.”

To illustrate this point, Hikind told the gathering that a four-year old Israeli girl was riding in a car with her mother and siblings when rocks were thrown at their vehicle. The mother lost control of the car and that child is now dead because of rocks.

Hikind said that on April 2nd of this year, Sarsour appeared on the same Chicago stage with a woman named Rasmea Yousef Odeh. A bloodthirsty terrorist representing the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Odeh was sentenced to life in prison for her role in the bombing of a Jerusalem supermarket in 1969 in which two young people, ages 20 and 21 were killed and scores were seriously wounded. Hikind noted that Odeh was released from prison after ten years in one of the ill advised Israeli prisoner exchanges.  Seeking entry to the United States, Odeh falsified  information on her immigration application and did not reveal to authorities that she was a convicted murderer.  

“You have this woman, Linda Sarsour, on a stage with Odeh, proudly proclaiming that she is her hero. Do you get the picture? Do you get what we’re dealing with here?” queried Hikind.

Hikind also spoke of the craven legitimacy that has been bestowed upon Sarsour by the highest eschelon of government. Sharing a revolting fact, Hikind said that “during the Obama administration, Sarsour was invited to the White House ten times. Ten times!!! Do you know what that does to legitimize somebody; to make them kosher?”      

Citing a disturbing editorial that appeared in the New York Daily News, Hikind said that the paper wrote that they “feel for us” but insisted that “you’ve got to let people speak their minds.”  In response to the paper’s position on the Sarsour issue, Hikind penned his own op-ed piece that appeared in the April 28th issue of the paper. 

In it he wrote:  “Freedom of speech, some say. I applaud freedom of speech. But giving this type of platform — the honor of a commencement address, which every graduating student must attend — to someone who’s an apologist for terrorism is a far cry from freedom of speech. It’s incitement.” He added, “One doesn’t have to assemble a bomb to be part of a bombing. One doesn’t have to leave the bomb in a supermarket. Calling up the media afterwards and claiming responsibility is sufficient. Or holding up the bomber and glorifying their actions to impressionable young people. Charles Manson never stuck the physical knives in backs of his victims.”

By: Fern Sidman

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