Agudath Israel hosted an event on the sidelines of the DNC in Chicago bringing together elected officials and stakeholders from federal, state, and local government including, Senator Debby Stabenow (D- Michigan), NJ Governor Phil Murphy, NJ Congressman Josh Gottheimer, NY Congressman Pat Ryan, Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiss, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, and numerous state and local officials from across the country to highlight the alarming rise of antisemitism and the growing electoral strength of Orthodox Jewish community.
Agudah Chairman Shloime Werdiger opened the packed event with a straightforward explanation:
“The Jewish people are living through very trying times. As the banners around the room sadly show, the rise of antisemitism is extremely alarming. The identifiable Orthodox Jewish communities we represent have been subjected to an unprecedented level of antisemitic incidents over the past few years.
“You may have noticed that outside of this convention, not too far away from here, there are thousands of anti-Israel protesters. Perhaps they thought they could intimidate us so that we would not be here so that our voices would be silenced. And that’s exactly why we are here. We are the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, and we will never cower or be silenced. On the contrary, we intend to stand up for our rights and for our freedoms, and we need you to stand with us now against this hate and antisemitism.”
Despite the event not being advertised and tightly controlled by invitation only, anti-Israel protestors nearly crashed the gathering before being repelled by the heavy security, ironically adding an exclamation point to the event meant to highlight antisemitism.
The most emotional moment of the afternoon came from the parents of hostage Omer Neutra, who made an emotional bipartisan plea to bring their son, held hostage by Hamas for over 10 months, home. Tehillim was led by Mr. Neutra.
Sol Werdiger has done some good things over the years, like giving charity, but he does not represent us personally. Agudath Israel is supposed to represent daas Torah, being guided by Torah sages, not gevirim like Sol. Sol's speech is secular type bravado and swagger, and is therefore inappropriate. Sol, step aside, and follow the way of Torah, not the way of modern American special interest pressure group politics. We have a higher way, we are different, and are supposed to act differently.
ReplyDeleteNot to disagree with your point, but how do you know that this particular speech was not sourced by the Agudah moetzes?
ReplyDeleteAgudah's bureaucracy doesn't run everything by the Moetzes. You suggesting they had a special meeting of the ten or so members for Sol's speech?
ReplyDelete"We are the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, and we will never cower or be silenced."
ReplyDeleteEnough with the survivor rhetoric. Most American Jews are not from "survivors", by the way.
The obese katchka probably showed up because she heard that the Agudah Fressers are notorious for going all out with essen at all their events. Oh well, at least she burned some calories while screaming.
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