Community Leaders Meet With High-Ranking DOJ Officials Amid Rising Anti-Semitic Incidents

YS GOLD 

This past Wednesday, askonim and community leaders met with officials from the United States Department of Justice at their headquarters in Washington D.C. to discuss the alarming rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the United States. 

Among the matters discussed at the meeting—which was attended by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, assistant AG for civil rights Harmeet Dhillon, and Interim U.S. Attorney for Washington D.C. Ed Martin—was the rise of anti-Semitism on college campuses, discriminatory laws passed by municipalities in New York and New Jersey, and heard firsthand about anti-terrorism measures being taken by the United States Justice Department.  

Yossi Gestetner, a Rockland-based strategist active in communal affairs, attended the meeting with the high-ranking officials. “A major focus of the meeting was the bigotry and discrimination by municipalities in New Jersey and Upstate New York who abuse their power to target their Orthodox residents,” Gestetner said. 

Others attending the meeting were Rabbi Levi Shemtov (Chabad), William Daroff (Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Orgs), Nathan Diamond (Orthodox Union), Community activist Chaskel Bennett, Rabbi Yaakov Menken (Coalition of Jewish Values), Arie Dana (Republican Jewish Coalition), Arie Lipnick (Combat Antisemitism Movement).