Alliance’s annual meeting highlights accomplishments, future plans

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20 ing, vibrant Jewish community in Rhode Island.

He also looked back on programming for the year, including the Israel at 75 celebration, the microgrants initiative and the anti-hate summit, and gave a taste of the plans for the coming year, including Jewish cultural programming and a leadership initiative. You can read

Greenman’s remarks in full on page 15.

Earlier in the evening, Rabbi Alvin Kaunfer offered a D’var Torah, talking about how Caleb looked into the future and could see the possible, and equating it to the role of leadership in the Alliance and the community to look into the future and see the possibilities. He told the crowd that “working together, we can surely do anything.” ration wants to take a popular position. Diseases of the society, like diseases of the body, need to be understood and combatted on their own specific terms. Antisemitism has its own distinct history and pathology. The fight against antisemitism is not just the fight against white supremacy or misogyny or Islamophobia with a different name on the T-shirt.

Harris Chorney summed up his first year as chair of the board and talked about how inspired he is by the commitment of the Jewish community. He thanked leaders, volunteers and the community in general.

“[The] collective impact of giving allows us to be a leader in philanthropy,” he said.

Ultimately, what worries me most is that the concept of “Jew hate” lets people off too easily. Most people aren’t going to defend hatred, but having disavowed hatred, there’s still a lot to answer for. Antisemitism is real and there seems to be no end in sight. The digital age has amplified the speed and spread of anti-Jewish tropes, extremist ideologies and antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Metal detectors and armed guards are now common at major Jewish gatherings. That’s a sign of real sickness in the culture, but rebranding antisemitism to fit more neatly into the “fight hate” agenda isn’t the cure.

TODD L. PITTINSKY is professor of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA, its parent company, 70 Faces Media or Jewish Rhode Island.

Chorney outlined where some of that giving goes, locally and internationally: 11,000 clients served by local partner agencies; 870 children receive free books from PJ Library; 35 synagogues and agencies received security reviews; 1,600 kosher meals from Kosher Meals on Wheels; 60 individuals served at one of the Alliance’s partners in Afula-Gilboa, Israel;

145 families in Rosario, Argentina; and in a four-year plan to put the Alliance at the forefront of fighting antisemitism and hate in Rhode Island.

In closing, he said, “May we go from strength to strength.”

FRAN OSTENDORF (fostendorf@jewishallianceri. org) is the editor of Jewish Rhode Island.