Our Community’s Statement Against Hate Crimes and Intolerance
As leaders of the Morris Park, Pelham Parkway and Bronx communities, we are joining together to speak in one voice as we denounce the recent rash of anti-Semitic graffiti that has desecrated three of our local synagogues this past week. Anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance have no place in this neighborhood. We stand together today, as elected officials, clergy members of various faiths, and community leaders, as a living and breathing example of our community. We are a community that works together. We are a neighborhood where people of all races, religions, and ethnicities have joined together on community boards, in PTAs at our children’s schools, on block associations, in little leagues, and in countless other ways, all of them aimed at making this community, our home, a welcome place to live. We believe in mututal respect and in the dignity of every person. We love our neighborhood, and we will not allow hate crimes or base appeals to intolerance to divide us.
We thank the NYPD’s 49th Precinct for their quick action, and we pledge to hold accountable those who have committed these acts of hatred and to continue to work together to promote the true values of our community: respect and acceptance of all.
Anti Defamation League of New York
Reverend Donald M. Dwyer, Roman Catholic Vicar of The East Bronx
David Edelstein, Jewish Community Council of Pelham Parkway
Gabriel Grumer, President Temple Judea
Monsignor Leslie J. Ivers, St. Frances de Chantel
Rev. John M. Knapp, Our Lady of Solace
Rabbi Meyer Leifer, Pelham Parkway Jewish Center
Bishop Angelo Rosario, CEO, Borough President’s Bronx Clergy Task Force
Pastor Paul R. Sauer, Our Savior Lutheran Church
Reverend Al Sharpton, National Action Network
Reverend Edmund Whalen, St. Benedicts Church
Father Joseph Kelly, St. Anthony’s Church and School
Rabbi Shohama Wiener, Temple Beth-El of City Island
US Senator Charles Schumer
US Congressman Eliot Engel
US Congressman Joseph Crowley
US Congressman Jose E. Serrano
Assemblyman Jose Rivera, Chairman Bronx Democratic Party
Reverend Ruben Diaz, Sr., State Senator
Eric Schneiderman, State Senator
Jeff Klein, State Senator
Carl Heastie, New York State Assembyman
Naomi Rivera, New York State Assemblywoman
Mike Benedetto, New York State Assemblyman
Carmen E. Arroyo, New York State Assemblywoman
Luis M. Diaz, New York State Assemblyman
Maria Baez, New York City Councilwoman
G. Oliver Koppell, New York City Councilman
Annabel Palma, New York City Councilwoman
Jimmy Vacca, District Manager, Community Board 10
Elizabeth Williams-Riley, Nat’l Conference for Community & Justice
John Lemon, NAACP Bronx Chapter
Silvio Mazzella, Morris Park Community Association
