H eadlines
Community Continued from Page 1
2020. Forty-five were reported
in 2019.

“In recent years, Sikh
temples have been targeted;
African American churches
and mosques have been
attacked. Other churches from
other denominations have all
been targeted,” Holtzman said.

Following the Colleyville,
Texas, hostage crisis at
Congregation Beth Israel
synagogue on Jan. 15,
Philadelphia’s faith commu-
nity coalesced to support the
Jewish community, the most
recent victims of hate.

Jewish organizations,
including JCRC, received
letters of solidarity from
advocacy organization
Interfaith Philadelphia Board
Chair Imam Quaiser Abdullah
and Director of Religious
Community Initiatives Rev.

Edward Livingston.

However, according
to Interfaith Philadelphia
Executive Director Abby
Stamelman Hocky, the most
potent way to build solidarity
is not retroactively, but
proactively. “It takes the day-in and
day-out work at every level of
building relationships at the
12 FEBRUARY 17, 2022
Jewish Community Relationsh
Council Director Jason Holtzman
Courtesy of Jason Holtzman
academic level, at the commu-
nity leadership level, at the
religious leadership level, at the
grassroots level,” Stamelman
Hocky said.

Community events around
security are not in and of
themselves a means of commu-
nity building, Stamelman
Hocky said, but they are a
reminder of opportunities
to be “good neighbors” and
share resources that help build
solidarity in the long term.

Community building
is aspirational, Stamelman
Hocky said, something that is
ongoing. One goal of commu-
nity building, according
to Stamelman Hocky, is for
Interfaith Philadelphia Executive
Director Abby Stamelman Hocky
Courtesy of Abby Stamelman Hocky
Jewish community members to
become “trusted messengers,” a
term coined by former Surgeon
General Vivek Murphy about
those providing COVID
vaccine information to vaccine
skeptics. “Our goal is not to make
people feel judged or to look
down upon them in any way,
but everyone should make
sure they get their questions
answered,” Murphy said in a
May 2021 NPR interview.

A trusted messenger is
someone who “builds bridges”
over time, Stamelman Hocky
said. “Trusted messengers don’t
come overnight,” she said.

The aspiration of becoming
a trusted messenger has been
reflected in security train-
ings following the Colleyville
hostage crisis.

“It’s really uncommon
to confront somebody at the
door who is an actual threat,”
Congregation Rodeph Shalom
Rabbi Jill Maderer said. “It’s
really common that we are, in
that moment, at risk of making
someone feel unwelcome.”
Rodeph Shalom, in partner-
ship with the Jewish Federation
of Greater Philadelphia and
Interfaith Philadelphia, hosted
a training on Feb. 8 that not
only involved situational
awareness tips and run, hide,
fight strategies standard in
security trainings but also ways
to create “signs of welcome”
JEWISH EXPONENT
Rodeph Shalom, in partnership with Jewish Community Relations
Council and Interfaith Philadelphia, hosted a security training on Feb. 8
that emphasized “signs of welcome” in the community.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
and instill feelings of safety to
those who may feel distrust in
security systems that involve
law enforcement.

The training was open to
all faith groups, and faith
leaders in attendance brain-
stormed ways to create feelings
of security beyond the presence
of police.

“There are signs of security
that for some people, make
them feel safer, and for other
people, those very same signs
of security make them feel less
safe, especially people who
are brown or Black or trans,”
Maderer said. “So when we
have that law enforcement or
that security present, we’re all
the more responsible to make
sure there are also signs of
welcome.” Maderer told attendees
that while trusting one’s gut is
important, gut feelings of fear
could also reflect ingrained
prejudice and should be
questioned at times.

“What’s important to
remember is that we’re actually
learning that fear could just as
well be a sign of racial bias,”
Maderer said. “The very same
fear could actually lead us to
act in an unwelcoming way.”
The 2020 killings of George
Floyd in Minneapolis police
custody and Breonna Taylor,
who was shot by Louisville
police, underlie the urgency
of creating welcoming spaces
and building trust among faith
communities and racial and
ethnic groups, Holtzman said.

“The work definitely kicked
into a higher gear after the
murder of George Floyd and
the murder of Breonna Taylor,
some of the other horrible
things we saw during 2020,”
Holtzman said. “But it wasn’t
new for us.”
Before the summer of 2020,
JCRC was engaged in a series
called “Confronting Racism as
Jews” to gain tools on how to
address racism.

And just as JCRC and other
advocacy organizations have
initiated community-building
efforts in the past, JCRC is
looking toward the future
for opportunities to lead in
community building.

On Feb. 22 from 9
a.m.-4:30 p.m., the Jewish
Federation of
Greater Philadelphia, in partnership
with the Jewish Federations
of Greater Pittsburgh, Greater
Harrisburg and
Lehigh Valley;
Anti-Defamation League; Secure Community
Network; and Pennsylvania
Jewish Coalition, will host the
Pennsylvania Statewide Forum
on Hate and Extremism over
Zoom. The event is open to the
public. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM