_________ Oceanside/island park ________
HERALD Equinor project takes step forward
New resources for mental health
New location for jewelry shop
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Vol. 58 No. 28
JUlY 6 - 12, 2023
$1.00
Synagogues join to combat antisemitism By MallorY WilsoN mwilson@liherald.com
Courtesy Alex Ducorsky
ZacharY allEN’s friENds and his brother, Jeremy, at a Mets game in his honor. They all wore the same T-shirt, designed by Alex Ducorsky. Clockwise from top left were Sean Regan, Anthony Difede, Thomas Goetz, Justin Fitzsimmons, Jeremy Allen, Zachary Camileri, Joseph Foster, Johnny Fitzsimmons, Alex Ducorsky and Jake Manyin.
Softball tourney planned to memorialize a friend By KEPhErd daNiEl kdaniel@liherald.com
O
ceanside resident Zachary Allen was 23 when he died in a car crash on June 15, 2022. A year after his death, his friends plan to honor him at the Zachary Allen Classic Memorial Softball Tournament on Saturday, at 10 a.m., in Oceanside Park. Alex Ducorsky and Jake Manyin, who were two of Allen’s best friends on the Oceanside Mariners travel softball team, decided to create an event that would pay tribute to him. They eventually decided on a softball tournament, to honor Allen by play-
ing the game he and his friends loved the most. “We were all friends on that Mariners team, but one thing about Zach that brought the three of us closest is that we always wanted to hang out,” Manyin said. “It didn’t matter what we were doing, because we all had enough in common.” Manyin and Ducorsky attended elementary school together, and the trio grew up three blocks from one another and played for the Mariners. They and other players have remained friends for the past 20 years. “I don’t even think he could have imagined he had that much of an impact on people,” Continued on page 16
Eleven people were murdered on Oct. 27, 2018, in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh just for being Jewish. This one event changed synagogue life forever, Ian Brecher, executive vice president of the Oceanside Jewish Center, said. With Jewish communities on the South Shore and beyond seeing an uptick in antisemitism, seven local synagogues came together to host a seminar on how to properly handle and address any antisemitic acts and comments that people may be experiencing and to hopefully stop any more tragedies like the one at Tree of Life from happening again. East Meadow Beth-El Jewish Center, Oceanside Jewish Center, Merrick Jewish Centre, South Baldwin Jewish Center, Congregation Beth Tikvah in Wantagh, Congregation B’Nai Sholom-Beth David in Rockville Centre, and Congregation Beth Ohr in Bellmore have always worked together when it came to the issues that each congregation was facing — and antisemitism is no different, Howard Tiegel, president of the Merrick Jewish Centre, said. “Jews are a group of people
that have always dared to be different,” Scott Richman, the regional director for the New York/New Jersey Anti-Defamation League, said. “A series of conspiracy theories or tropes began to develop around us, and those conspiracy theories are what we still live with today. “When you talk about why there is antisemitism, antisemitism is essentially just those conspiracy theories.” Anybody can report incidents of antisemitism to the Anti-Defamation League, and someone from the office will respond and record the event. Richman said that 2022, after 43 years of doing audits on antisemitic acts, was the worst year recorded, and each year appears to be getting worse. New York has the most recorded antisemitic acts, and 73 of 111 assaults across the nation in 2022 occurred in New York. Attendees were invited to listen in and ask questions at three breakout sessions — rabbinic responses to antisemitism, preparing for antisemitism on the college campus, and antisemitism in public schools. Sofie Glassman, an incoming junior at East Meadow High School, shared her in-school experiences with antisemitism. Continued on page 16