(WesternMass News- Addie Patterson) The Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism held their fifth overall meeting Tuesday at the Springfield Jewish Community Center.
While they’ve met in the past, Tuesday marked the first community meeting of the special commission and it was the first of several meetings to be held across the state. “My concern and this commission’s concern is rooting out antisemitism wherever it rears its head within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” said State Senator John Velis.
The commission heard testimony from several Jewish individuals about the trends they’re seeing in western Massachusetts. Some of the challenges that were brought up included education and teaching. “We want to make sure that Jewish teachers, the ones that we do have feel comfortable talking about their Jewish identity, revealing themselves as a Jew. We’re hearing from Jewish teachers in our districts and around the state that, right now, not all of them feel that way,” said State Rep. Simon Cataldo.
In December, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security found that 119 incidents of anti-Jewish hate crimes were reported in 2023, which was a 70 percent spike from the previous year and an eight year high for Massachusetts. It’s something that Velis said is completely unacceptable. “We can’t say that here in Massachusetts, we’re going to push back on hate wherever it rears its head and then to have this rampant hatred toward Jewish people and not do anything about it,” he added.
Other members, like Cataldo, told us that the commission has received lots of community support and will keep working to combat antisemitism in the Bay State. “Students, parents, people from all walks of life have been rooting for this commission to do its work, so we’re going to continue to do this,” he explained.
The commission emphasized that these hearings are only the beginning of their work. “We’re going to continue to have these hearings and ultimately respond in a way we find after we take in all this testimony and hear from all these people,” Velis said.