Last night I attended the City of Montclair’s City Council meeting because they planned to vote on whether to direct staff to draft a resolution to denounce antisemitism and all forms of hatred. During the meeting, the council members shared thoughts and feelings that hate in any form needs to end. And while disagreement and debate are okay, the idea of hating someone for their beliefs or practices, race or gender, or any number of things is not.

As I sat, listening to this discussion following my remarks addressed to the city council members, I thought about the power of camaraderie, friendship, acceptance, and understanding. Although we may look different and have different beliefs and political ideologies, at our core, the vast majority of us are essentially the same.

What struck me the most was thinking about this idea as it pertains to the support that has flowed from our community and everywhere across the country to help those in need in Maui. It is fascinating that in these moments of great need, when you stop and think about it, many of us strive daily to do what we can to improve our community and help those in need. This ideal, a hallmark of Jewish belief and practice of tikkun olam (repairing the world), is practiced by many people daily. And so often, it is done almost as a reflex because it is an ingrained ideal in so many people. Thank you to everyone who does what they can to make the world better for those around you.

On my drive home, after Montclair became the 17th city in our community to adopt a resolution denouncing antisemitism and all forms of hate, I continued to think about the idea of hatred and the fact that another local city has decided that hate is not local enough for them to address it.

Earlier this month, a San Dimas City Council member contacted me to let me know that although he had discussed my request for a resolution with the mayor, the mayor had decided not to bring it to the city council or have the city council address it during a meeting because they only wanted to focus on San Dimas’ local issues.

If you are shocked by what you just read, you are not alone. I was floored. And it is why I sent letters to all Jewish families that are in our database informing them of this situation and asking them to reach out to San Dimas’ City Council – either by attending an upcoming city council meeting or by contacting their councilmember directly – asking them to support our effort.

How anyone can think that hatred is not a local issue is unfathomable. This is the exact reason that in my outreach to our community’s cities, while I have asked them to adopt resolutions denouncing antisemitism, I have also intentionally included “and all forms of hate” in my ask. This way, they cannot say, “there is no antisemitism in our community so we don’t need to worry about this.” Hatred exists in every corner of every city that we live in. While hate incidents may not occur in a local jurisdiction like in other parts of society, hate is a local issue, and every city needs to join our effort.

As I previously shared, your Jewish Federation will continue to do everything we can to ensure our community is safe and continue to be a strong Jewish voice and presence.