Montclair Mayor Robert Jackson announced a meeting between Township Jewish and the African-American Communities. Jackson writes:
I am pleased to announce that Rabbis and African-American Clergy from greater Montclair will meet in the next 48 hours to address the relationship between the Jewish and African-American communities. I cannot overstate how much these leaders have committed to addressing the incendiary cloud hanging over our community at the moment.
Heinous incidents nationwide, and in Jersey City and Monsey in particular, shocked and sickened all of us. However, recent developments have made it abundantly clear that there is much work to be done, even in our beloved Montclair.
Hate, bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism, and intolerance have no place anywhere and particularly in our community and as a community we will work tirelessly to ensure that they are addressed head-on and rooted out.
Please keep these leaders, the meeting, and our community in your thoughts and prayers and let’s be ready to commit ourselves to affirming the best Montclair, the Montclair of our dreams.
Mayor Jackson’s announcement comes In response to this:
Montclair Rabbi Calls Out NJ Association of Black Educators President For Publicly Criticizing Hasidic Jews at 4th Ward Meeting
So glad this meeting is taking place! It’s very necessary and we have faith that “ as a community all will work tirelessly to ensure that hate, bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism, and intolerance are addressed head-on and rooted out.”
Wow. Interesting press release.
Where is the James Harris public apology before this meeting, rightly called for now by Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill?
Talking is nice, but healing and understanding between communities is not what’s needed to start. Instead, some should directly own up that Harris and a number of African American audience members in that meeting believed that it’s interloper Hasidic Jews and Jewish developers somehow who are responsible directly for Montclair’s gentrification. That Jews are now intentionally pushing our African American population out of town.
Instead of seeing housing issues here as normal market real estate forces at play — Jews were directly made scapegoats.
Where is the public mea culpa for this that directly owns up to the antisemitism? Antisemitism which even connected Israel somehow to local rental price increases and affordable housing as described during Harris’s talk?
Supply and demand in response to this township’s growing attractions is really what’s going on here today. And that has no racial or ethnic local home address.