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FREEPORT
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HERALD
DEADLINE MARCH 1ST
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Vol. 87 No. 6
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Catching up with legislator Mulé
Blakeman signs anti-Semitism Task Force bill By REiNE BEthANY rbethany@liherald.com
Courtesy Office of the Nassau County Executive
CoUNtY lEGiSlAtoRS AND Jewish community leaders watched County Executive Bruce Blakeman sign an amended resolution for the Special Legislative Task Force to Combat Antisemitism. To Blakeman’s right was Legislator Arnold Drucker, and to his left, Legislator Mazi Pilip.
Two events of particular relevance to Nassau County’s Jewish population occurred at the Theodore Roosevelt Legislative and Executive Building in Mineola on Jan. 27: County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is Jewish, signed an amended bill creating the Nassau County Special Legislative Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, and he led a commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the stately Ceremonial Room, Blakeman signed the
amended version of the bill that was approved by the County Legislature last Aug. 1. The bill was spearheaded by Legislator Arnold Drucker, a Democrat from Plainview. The task force did not convene in 2021, but now has a full roster of appointees and will pursue its original plan of action. Just before signing the bill, Blakeman said he thought it was “a great start,” but he wanted to broaden the task force to make it more inclusive. “In the Jewish community,” he said, “we have on a religious Continued on page 14
Members of local Jewish congregation welcome task force By REiNE BEthANY rbethany@liherald.com
Four members of Congregation B’Nai Israel in Freeport articulated their reactions to the formation of the Special Legislative Task Force to Combat Antisemitism in Nassau County. Marilyn Gales, Sharon Levy, Lois Howes, and Mireille Taub showed their rising concern over recent anti-Semitic attacks. All four welcomed the task force, specially its education component.
Marilyn Gales
“Historically, anti-Semitism rears its ugly head when there
are difficult times,” said Marilyn Gales, president of Congretion B’Nai Israel, “though there’s always an undercurrent of antiSemitism. I congratulate [Nassau County Legislator Arnold Drucker] on having the courage to bring the topic to the forefront, to expose the fact that it does exist, and how destructive it is.” Gales seemed to feel that an undercurrent of anti-Semitism existed owing to engrained religious and cultural ideas, which can be addressed by education. “We need to bring to the surface all kinds of crimes, all discrimination of any kind,” Gales continued. ”Sometimes it’s very covered, but it exists, and the
most important part will be the education of the young people.” Anti-Semitic outbreaks, Gales said, tended to surface for reasons other than religion. “It can be cultural, it can be economic,” she said. “There seems to be a need to blame, which happened in Germany after World War I. The country was economically destroyed, and they had to basically blame it on somebody. . . . We have a lot of hatred in the country right now. It’s awful.”
Sharon levy
Recently retired from a 36-year career in law enforcement, Sharon Levy teaches
Hebrew school and serves on both the board of trustees and the executive board of Congregation B’Nai Israel. She said that she feels the task force is important because fewer people than in the past seem aware of antiSemitism. Many apparently have not been taught about the Holocaust. Levy has lived in Freeport
since grade school, but lived in several other Long Island communities during her primaryschool years, where she was occasionally a victim of religious bias. “When I was 8 years old,” she said, “I was at a school bus stop. Some other kids threw my lunch bag down, and I got called a Continued on page 11